♥♥♥♥
+ Best Dollar Return of the Year: 4,1433.33 Times Its Cost + Best Found Footage Movie of the Year + Best Horror Movie of the Year + Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year: 60k $ + Best Mockumentary of the Year
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| Horrific secrets in a dark forest may make you freeze with this bright poster for David Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez's The Blair Witch Project |
Three cocky students seek out an old witch legend in a forest in Maryland to document their findings on video.
The Blair Witch Project is written, directed and edited by debuting filmmakers Daniel Myrick (The Objective (2008)) and Eduardo Sánchez (Seventh Moon (2008)). It is a scary found footage mockumentary horror film that at its time of release was hailed by many as totally fresh and revolutionary, although its found footage form dates back to at least 20 years before with Ruggero Deodato's Italian cannibal exploitation masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust (1980) that also utilized the found footage story format to eerie effect.
The uncompromising use of amateurish handheld camera is, however, fresh and new, (if the Dogme movies are ignored, since they are not horror films.)
It is also with the absolute minimum of effects that The Blair Witch Project still manages to scare the bejesus out of its audience: Sounds, sticks, slime, impressions of children's hands on walls etc. are among its 'special effects'. The supernatural has brought us fear at all times, but The Blair Witch Project is probably the best, last instance of this on the silver screen from the second millennia.
The consistently shaky camera and the three constantly bickering student characters are also the film's Achilles' heel. - After the film's just 81 minutes, most will be ready for it to end.
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1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Likely around 200k $
Box office: 248.6 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 1,243 times its cost)
[The Blair Witch Project premiered 245 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 81 minutes. Development began in 1993, and the film was made on the basis of a 35-page script. Shooting took place over the course of 8 days in October 1997 in Maryland for approximately 35k $. The actors reportedly were paid 1k $ a day, with the filmmakers mostly communicating with them through notes at various checkpoints and otherwise harassing them to illicit realistic performances through the period. A larger amount was spent in post production. Campus screenings, an online campaign that listed the three students as deceased or missing, and missing person's posters were part of the viral marketing that the film succeeded with. Artisan Entertainment bought the North-American release rights for 1.1 mil. $. The film opened #16 to a 1.5 mil. $ first weekend in 27 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #2, behind new release Runaway Bride, spending a total of 4 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#2-#3-#5), grossing 140.5 mil. $ (56.5 % of the total gross). The cost-to-gross ratio likely makes the film the one with the highest return in the history of cinema. It was nominated for an Independent Spirit award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. The film spun sequels Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) by Joe Berlinger and Blair Witch (2016) by Adam Wingard. Myrick returned with a TV movie and 3 video titles prior to his theatrical return with Solstice (2008); Sánchez with Curse of the Blair Witch (1999, TV movie), An Exploration of the Blair Witch Legend (1999, video) and theatrically with Altered (2006). The Blair Witch Project is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Blair Witch Project?
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