It doesn't seem like it's been that long ago does it? A decade ago late last month The Blair Witch Project hit the silver screen forever altering independent film making and the use of the clever internet marketing campaigns for films. In a day when the internet was still deemed "new" The Blair Witch Project did something that was sheer genius....they made us believe it was real!

Follow up:

It's funny because I have mixed emotions about this film. Part of me loved the fact that Hollywood was able to "get one over" on the majority of movie goers leading them to believe that the film was a lost tape, found, and the 3 documentary filmmakers were missing and presumed dead. This day in age that seems absurd. We have thousands if not millions of fan sites, blogs, internet rumor busters and news sites that simply wouldn't let something like this slip by. Someone would have leaked the information and the news would have spread like wildfire. But just 10 years ago that's exactly what happened. Their marketing strategy was as gritty as the film was and done at the exact right moment in the exact right time. Rarely does that happen. But it did for this film and proved that low budget indie films could be HUGE money makers.

Many rumored budgets for the film have circulated over the years. Some as low as $50,000 and that number isn't exactly wrong but it isn't exactly the truth either. The filmmakers did only invest around $50k or so but once Artisan Entertainment bought the licensing rights they spent an additional "half-million dollars" crafting a new sound mix and reshoots for scenes they wanted changed. So after that we are talking around $500,000 and $750,000. Still a virtual drop in the bucket compared to other horror films and Hollywood movies.

The film ended up grossing $248,639,099 worldwide. Not a bad sum for the three filmmakers (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams) and Artisan Entertainment. I think it's safe to say they had a nice Christmas that year.

The film tends to get scoffed at when mentioned these days and part of me understands why. If you knew the wool was being pulled over your eyes going in the film didn't hold up nearly as well as if you believed it was a true story. Many people were angry when they watched the film at the theaters because of the lack of a steady cam and frequent shots of darkness that lasted sometimes 4 to 5 minutes long. Regardless of your feeling on the movie today you can't argue the fact that The Blair Witch Project changed the face of horror and film making. Sure it's sad on one hand. Movies like this or The Sixth Sense probably wouldn't work today do to the non stop coverage of films. The "surprises" would be ruined before the film even hit the theatre. But if you remember The Blair Witch website and the trailers. If you remember thinking, wow, these people really went missing. This video I'm watching is the last remaining hours of the horror's these three documentary filmmakers went through. Then you probably have a smile on your face just thinking about the film.

Plus we never saw the Blair Witch, just the guy standing in the corner! Again pure genius on their part. Your imagination can create things much more frighting then even the greatest artist could produce.



Below are some promotional materiel's along with 3 trailers that ran on The Blair Witch website back in 1999.

http://www.blairwitch.com

So what are your thoughts on The Blair Witch Project?
Good or bad we'd love to hear from you!