‘Blair Witch Project’: A look at the film shot in Maryland on its 25th anniversary

At this time of year, calls and text messages are pouring in for Michael C. Williams, one of the main players in “The Blair Witch Project.”

“People, at the very least, still enjoy the film, and it’s clear that there are still people who are very passionate about this film,” Williams tells me.

Filmed partly in Burkittsville, about 25 minutes west by Frederick, the horror film became an instant pop culture phenomenon when it hit theaters in 1999, ultimately grossing nearly $250 million worldwide on a budget of around $35,000.

A quarter of a century later, the film has become much more than an improbable Hollywood success story: it is one of the most influential horror films of all time, a prescient document that predicted how the masses would one day consume content created by ordinary people. trying to tell their own story.

It also remains particularly terrifying.

“It’s a film that exploits our primal fears with horror,” said Dan Myrick, the film’s co-director and co-writer. “He does it in a very authentic and simple way.”

Excessive fervor

John Waters remembers the lines around the block outside the Charles Theater in July 1999.

“Everyone was screaming and shouting,” the director recalls. “It was just the kind of thing you almost never feel today with an audience in a movie theater, that kind of excitement.”

It’s easy to forget how different 1999 was. “Genie in a Bottle” was the #1 song in the country, Richard Gere was the Sexiest Man Alive, and the creation of YouTube was still more than five years away.

The outsized fervor for “Blair Witch” contrasted with a simple story: Three aspiring film students head into the woods to make a documentary about a local myth. The trio gets lost and the blame circulates like a vial. It’s a horror movie, so you know what happens next.

But it’s the format — found footage of a shaky, first-person search for an urban legend — that will endure long after “Blair Witch” hits theaters. Myrick said the original plan was for the film to be presented as a typical documentary, with about 20 minutes of found footage, but they made a last-minute creative decision to devote it entirely, viewers’ nausea be damned.

“When we saw (a rough cut) projected on a big screen, we kind of knew we had a problem,” he said with a laugh.

Many critics knew early on that Myrick and co-director/writer Eduardo Sánchez had something special (“a highly inventive departure from standard horror fare,” read a New York Times review).

It also made stars — Williams, Heather Donahue and Joshua Leonard, who used their real names in the film — overnight darlings. However, the film’s unorthodox marketing was so involved (they’re not actors and wait, are they still alive?) that it was difficult for the actors to capitalize on the moment, Williams said.

“There was nowhere to put us,” he said. “We were reality TV stars. We were unidentifiable talents, and they all thought we were actually scared in the woods.

They weren’t the only unexpected stars. Burkittsville (population: 150) has become its own draw, with enthusiastic fans descending on the village in search of clues to the reality of the Blair Witch.

Horror-obsessed visitors have slowed down over the years, but some still show up around Halloween to look for filming locations like the cemetery, according to Mayor Michael J. Robinson.

“Most people who live here don’t really care, or some might get a little upset if you talk about it, but I think it’s more of a curiosity at this point,” Robinson said.

Most of the forest scenes were filmed in Gaithersburg’s Seneca Creek State Park, which offers its own “Blair Witch”-themed hikes.

Inspire a new genre

The real bogeyman of the film is not a witch, but rather the woods.

Scenic views of trees, leaves, and endless streams are especially terrifying when all you want is to get out. As a former child who played manhunt in the pines of southern New Jersey, the kind of nauseating terror that “Blair Witch” effortlessly taps into is still easy to imagine.

“We walked 15 hours today! We ended up in the same place! Josh yells at Heather as his delirium turns to despair. What’s worse than walking towards death? Walk in circles towards him.

A recent review has reaffirmed the horrors of the film. The actors’ manic performances are always convincing, and the growing tension between them always jumps off the screen.

It was also a reminder that this movie doesn’t look or sound particularly good. Much of the dialogue consists of yelling, screaming, and crying. The filming is deliberately fast and unstable. It’s not always on point. (Many movies are better for getting high. “The Blair Witch Project” is not one of them.)

In fact, it wasn’t even intended to be seen in theaters, Myrick said. They initially envisioned “Blair Witch” being released on television or home video, formats that make the film’s approach much more digestible.

“I think our dream was to get into a decent festival and get a TV deal,” he said.

And yet, therein lies his ingenuity. The unvarnished display of humans falling apart – mentally, physically, spiritually – becomes increasingly disturbing as the characters march towards their inevitable ends. The actors’ commitment to realism, from reactions to dialogue, is one of the main reasons why the film is still so effective. To reach their respective boiling points, they had code words for stopping filming and taking a break, Williams said.

“You can only feel that real, raw emotion if you have trust with the other actors,” he said.

Williams said he’s heard through the industry that many directors (“legends,” he added) love the film, including the performances. They wonder what happened to him, he said.

“What happened to me?” You didn’t hire me! That’s what happened,” Williams said. “Where are all you filmmakers who think it’s so good?

I tell him that Waters is also a fan, which delights him.

“Blair Witch’s” influence on the genre seems as vast as the film’s woods. Franchises like “Paranormal Activity” and “Cloverfield” have seen major success with clear nods to “Blair Witch’s” use of found footage. Countless others have tried and continue to do it on the big screen, television, YouTube and more.

“It inspired a genre,” Waters said. “There are still thousands of found footage films today.”

Although not the first to do so, “Blair Witch” expertly tackles a different kind of scare – implicit, not visible. The result seems more sinister than a film based on traditional jump scares.

The movie the power is not in the CGI or gore, but rather in the fear and isolation. It showed horror fans that they could also create real scares, without a budget.

“Everyone decided they needed to go home and start a band, supposedly while the Sex Pistols were playing,” said Eric Allen Hatch, co-founder of the New/Next Film Festival. “And everyone decided they had to make a movie when they saw ‘Blair Witch Project.’ »

Continued fight for fair treatment

Like most horror stories, this one doesn’t have a happy ending – or at least not yet.

In April, the cast released a public letter asking Lionsgate for retroactive residuals and consultations on future “Blair Witch” projects. The original film was a non-union production.

For the stars of a movie that grossed nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, they don’t have the fame you might expect. Williams, a New York college counselor who is taking action this summer, said the actors spoke out to warn the next generation of artists who strike gold before joining a union or being properly represented.

“If people find value in your work, you should be compensated accordingly because you created value,” the 51-year-old said. “It’s important for us to go, no matter what.”

Williams said the actors have had a phone call with Lionsgate since the letter. It’s unclear what happens next, but Williams said the entertainment company acknowledged that all three actors “probably should have done better.”

“Before you started saying this was unfair treatment, we wouldn’t have gotten a phone call. So they at least listened to our concerns, and I thought that was a good way to move forward,” he said. “I am a hopeful person.”

Lionsgate did not respond to request for comment.

Myrick said the directors supported the actors’ fight. Regardless of the commercial issues, both are incredibly proud of the place they hold in American cinema history. For Myrick, they “won the lottery,” and he’s not talking financially.

It sounds cheesy, Myrick said, but he takes great pride in the moments when aspiring filmmakers tell him that “Blair Witch” convinced them to pick up a camera.

“To think there might be a young Scorsese or Spielberg who’s going to make a great movie later,” he said, “and they got into filmmaking because of ‘Blair,’ it doesn’t matter. There’s simply nothing better than that.”

“The Blair Witch Project” is streaming on Peacock.