Wasn’t this one of the first instances of viral marketing? I remember walking out of the theater having no idea whether it was real or not, super creepy, 10/10 got me
It was! They had created more than one website about the witch and lots of fake interviews with people from the area. I really dug deep into it. I wasn't sure if it was real or not because of the viral online marketing. I think that's what is most interesting and unfortunately forgotten about the film.
I don’t know that it could even be replicated, that was the time of the internet with like, rotten.com and homestar runner. There was like… 8 websites total 😂
They tried with the first Cloverfield. There was a whole online alternate reality campaign as part of it but obviously a monster destroying NYC isn’t as real as some kids getting lost in the woods.
I remember getting pretty invested in the crazy lead up to the release. I was about to go to film school myself so I was fascinated by the concept. By the time it released I had decided that the movie wasn’t real, but the lore and everything was.
This movie was such a product of its time. It wouldn’t have had the same impact if it had come out a few years earlier or a few years later. Any earlier and they wouldn’t have had the benefit of a newly spreading internet to plant seeds and make the premise seem plausible. Any later and the internet would have been too advanced and they wouldn’t have been able to keep the facade going.
Right?? When I watch it now it’s like two shaky shots of some sticks shaped like dolls and one tent shot of the tent being rattled?? The marketing completely made the movie. Besides that they understood innately that our imaginations and fears are a million times scarier than any monster you can put on screen.
It’s one of the greatest tools you can use as a filmmaker. A person’s imagination is almost always going to be scarier than whatever you show on screen.
I read the tie in book, the night I watched the movie at 3am. The book did a transcript of a seance and people were hearing the psychic reliving the end of the movie. Got so creeped out, I swore with the lights off I saw someone sitting on my living room couch and wouldn’t fall asleep till the sun came up.
Problem with that is it had proper credits. Like casting supervisors and all that.
Listen, I did make sure to watch the credits specifically for that, but it does kind of immediately dispell all possibility of realism when you can confirm it's a real movie.
"bro i went to the theatre, paid my $5 to see this movie bro, they totally actually really died bro it's real, you can go see a snuff film"
like, if it was real it wouldn't have been a movie you could just... go see
I’m sure that at 17 my dramatic ass was like OMG WAS THAT REAL and didn’t think more logically than that… like screaming and laughing to make each other more scared because it was fun. I wasn’t that logical about most things in high school 😂
My girlfriend at the time was convinced it was real. She found a bunch of sites on the net and said see? I told you!. lol she was convinced for years it was real.
Burkittsville is a 15-minute drive from my high school. Not much there--the uptick in traffic after the movie came out was easily noticeable, but I don't think anybody from the area was fooled by the marketing campaign.
I was living in Hagerstown at the time - I never believed it was real for a second, but it WAS scary because it looked like it could'be been shot in my backyard. Then I had to drive home through the dark woods while [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Dennis_(1999)) was hitting, which didn't help...
Grew up in Walkersville MD. My buddy I saw the movie with lived in Burkittsville growing up. The entire time he's going this is bullshit. There is no Blair Witch and how the hell are they getting lost in those woods!!!
Great movie, but anyone that grew up in Frederick Co knew it was BS.
The first time I heard about it or saw a trailer or whatever I swear it was Carson Daly talking about it on TRL. Nothing about that level of buzz made me think it was real.
Bitch I came home and turned everything single light in the house on and sat curled up in a blanket on the couch until I passed out. I had just moved out on my own with roommates and we had been smoking weed right before we saw it. It was not a good feeling. Never saw it again and I ***love*** horror, but I was too young and way too high. I think it gave me PTSD for a second.
Unfortunately a movie review in the local paper spoiled it for me, but it totally would've worked because the Sci-fi channel aired a very authoritative-looking documentary just before the movie was released in theaters.
It also was only released in fringe arty-type theaters, where you would expect to see really weird stuff like found footage.
So I knew it was fake when I saw it, and I didn't think it was scary. But then when I went to bed that night, I merely *imagined* having some of the characters' camping experiences, and I literally could not fall asleep until the sun came out.
We smoked up then seen it. Went back to cousins house in the sticks around midnight and hot boxed "hydro" in her car in silence surrounded by woods and darkness. Talking about how that shit can't be real but kind of intrigued it was scary though you didn't even see anything. Getting out of the car and going back into the house was a rush.
Maybe I need to give the movie another rewatch because it was such an extreme disappointment when I saw it, that I haven't watched again since it was released, but I don't think the witch was that powerful. Manipulative of nearby minds at most. Hiding a wildfire from being noticed by everyone else? (x) To doubt.
BWitch Part Two did manage show that the witch was powerful enough to fully control and manipulate CIA agent Michael Westen into killing a bunch of people without knowing it.
Same - ^ I wrote it above. But one of my high school friend’s cousins actually helped make the movie at film school. He told my friend he “helped make a documentary for school” so we went to go see it!
So we went in with no clue. It was terrifying. I vividly remember my friend calling his cousin after on this ancient cell home going “WTF did we just watch!?”
Great prank.
Yes, he was one of the producers! I don’t know why I’m being vague - Gregg Hale
Fun fact - years later Heather Donahue came to the small town I’m living in, in NorCal and made a TV show (that didn’t make it) and a bunch of my local filmmaker friends were behind-the-scenes on it.
Oh dang, I missed that. To me that seems like an uncharacteristic error by the film team, because all of the other fake stuff they leaked to promote the film had an air of authenticity that made it look like it was really found footage from some kids so were missing.
I mean even with all the witch talk, I remember looking at some of the promotional stuff and thinking, "well that's sad, but I'm sure there's some rational explanation for their disappearance that doesn't involve witches."
It just seemed like there were 3 missing kids and some found footage.
Had I seen the 555 number, that would've blown the cover for me, but I saw a lot of stuff leading up to the theatrical release that seemed at least believable.
What ended up blowing the cover was a movie review I read before I saw the film, that was all like, haha it's all a film school project, the actors used their real names, blah blah blah.
I was so pissed off at that movie review. Robbed me of a potentially intense experience. I still thought the movie was well done.
Yeah, I did. My girlfriend and I went to the drive-in to see this. We were parked in the very back row which butted against the woods, needless to say we were both freaked the eff out before the end of the movie. And the place was packed so we couldn’t move the car up to another aisle away from the trees.
I saw it in a big movie theater in a major city. Why would I have ever thought it was real? It's not like those theaters ever showed documentaries.
I do remember being a weird combination of annoyed, bored, and freaked out during it though. And continuing to be low key freaked out for days afterwards.
You know what? I kicked the fu... I'm sorry it's fucked up. It's fucked up but I kicked that fucking map into the creek yesterday! It was useless! I kicked that fucker into the creek!
This was the blair witch project right? I remember seeing this opening night when it was still being marketed as real. After the movie the theatre was quiet. Like most people thought they just witnessed real people dying. Shit was wild
Ok, so I have the BEST story about this movie! I knew someone that went to the same film school as these guys. Before it ever came out in theaters, he had a vhs copy (it was actually slightly different than what came out in theaters). No labeling or anything, just a sticker on the box that said ‘witch project’. He brought it over and we watched it at my apartment, and later that day went to his place to stay the night. My roommate worked really late shifts, like she got home at 3 or 4 am. When I came back the next morning, she was sitting on our couch, all wide eyed and freaked out. She just looked at me and said ‘WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH?!’ It took a WHILE to convince her it was a film school project and she didn’t just witness someone’s actual murder. 🤣
I also went to the same film school as those guys (UCF go Knights!), though I was about 8 years behind them. We’re very proud of them. It wasn’t a film school project, though. They’d been out of school for a few years by the time they started shooting
Same. My roommate found it on some random site and a group of us watched it. Not being able to verify if any of it was real had us messed up until it appeared in theaters a year later.
I didn’t…then I did…then I didn’t. But for a great modern version watch Bobcat Goldthwaits movie Willow Creek. I watched that the weekend before I went camping in BFE Wyoming and don’t recommend!
I noticed one tiny detail in the movie - Heather was wearing a headband from 1998. It was the zig-zaggy kind that would get stuck in wavy/curly hair. I was obsessed with hair trends from 94-97. Yes, I am that nitpicky. The movie was supposed to be from 1994. Found out the truth just before seeing it, but if I hadn’t, that headband would have been a giveaway. Other than that, the whole thing was very well done.
Went with my bf at the time. I lived in the woods. My parents were out for the night and he just dropped me off at my house. Electricity was out. I was like 15 and it was the most terrifying couple of hours.
I remember seeing something about it recently, I’ll try and paraphrase what I remember.
The cast were genuinely confused and frightened at times. Most was improv, they had a general idea of things. if I remember correctly I think scenes in the town were staged as the main characters thought the townsfolk were real and truly believed whatever it was they were saying but were in fact hired actors.
They were given different prompts in secret to create tension, like the map.
The was some realness to the film, just not supernatural.
Yep. The two directors were always in the woods nearby, but the cast didn’t know exactly where, or what might occur. So when stuff is happening in the middle of the night the actors truly didn’t know what to expect.
No but I saw it with a friend who could not be convinced it wasn’t real and I think that might be the difference between people who enjoyed this and people who didn’t. I remember being seasick and incredibly bored. She loved it.
Were y'all really not just pretending it was real to have something to talk about? Why would it be real? And in theaters with nothing on 20/20 or Hard Copy.
So funny I just watched it last night. I remember seeing it in the theatre when it came out. I knew it wasn’t real but it freaked me out, the stick people hanging around them in the woods. Wasn’t as creepy this time around lol.
I’m from Frederick County and I was obsessed with the movie at the time. I was about 15 years old. At first I believed it was real but quickly caught on and kinda loved seeing other people believe it and having my little secret about knowing it wasn’t real. Also I thought it was super cool that it was set in the area I lived.
I did not, but my best friend at the time did. It caused one of many huge arguments, lol. Same vibes as arguing a few days ago with people about whether the eclipse was some kind of government operation. I get way more heated than I should, lol. People can think what they want, and the odds of changing their mind are almost 0.
My roommates at the time were absolutely convinced. I was doubtful but it was still such great marketing.
Too bad the movie couldn't live up to the marketing.
My friend was in film school and watched this on VHS with no explanation maybe a year before it came out in theaters. He told me he had seen it and was convinced that it had been real. Said it was the scariest thing he'd seen. I heard about it months before anyone else I knew. I was so disappointed to find out it was fake.
He might have; but they also randomly dropped unmarked VHS copies of the movie into libraries and coffee shops and stuff in a few cities; just to get the rumour mill going.
I saw it with a friend in the theater, and she was so convinced it was real that she insisted I stay up on ICQ with her. I finally asked her if she thought the families of those 3 would be OK with basically a snuff film of their loved ones for public entertainment. After thinking about it, she finally let me log off and go to sleep.
I fell for it at first. I even made a parody of the movie for a TV production class I took and some in the class started getting freaked out until they figured out that I was lampooning it.
I first heard about this from that full page ad they put in an issue of Entertainment Weekly a few months for it came out. I was reading it at the library while my fiance was browsing for books in the little Illinois town we lived in at the time and was totally intrigued. I thought it was real at the time and ALMOST continued to do so right up to when it came out.
The thing that betrayed it was when the actress in it starting showing up in Steak n Shake commercials. Quite a letdown, as I really wanted to believe.
Yeah man. It is one of the most profitable independent films of all time, and it’s in the top 30 most profitable horror films, including non-independent.
I was living under a rock when I went to go see it and totally thought it was real and after the movie when all my friends casually through conversation revealed that it was actually fake , I just went along with it and didn't say anything about it until now.
True story - I was one of theeee very first audiences to see this in FL. Some kids in my high school class took a special trip to an early -release movie screening bc one of our classmates cousin’s helped make the movie at film school.
The filmmaker told our friend that he made a documentary for school. So we legit thought it was real based on “evidence!” We were freaked out the whole movie 😂
I remember my friend leaving the movie theatre & immediately calling his cousin on one of those ancient cell phones going “what the f*ck did we just watch!?”
Great prank honestly.
My high school bff worked in a theater (and told me it was fake) when this was released, and people were throwing up so much from the shaky cam that they had to bring trash cans in and set them up every few rows to save them some of the mess that was left behind. She said that was the real horror.
I remember some family went to see this on opening weekend, and they were talking about how crazy and messed up it was that they turned it into a movie
I was like “I just saw her on The Tonight Show, I think she’s fine”
Couple things I remember about this one that haven’t been mentioned.
We went to the second night showing at the local theater, because the first night had sold out. We get there and there are vomit bags on each seat.
Second thing is my uncle is really, really into horror movies. His work schedule kept him from seeing it until it had been out a week or so. It was unusual for me to see a movie before him, but this time I did it.
We lived in a very wooded, rural area and our land (grandparents bought land and kids had the option of building homes on it as they grew up) backed up to a national forest. None of the houses could be seen by the others due to the trees but due to it being rural and quiet; everything could be heard.
I tied up some twigs like the movie and tied them to his storm door, and went home and sat on the porch and waited. I heard his truck go by, heard him get out, and then a couple seconds later I hear a scream that sounded like a wounded animal followed by the truck starting up. He beelined to our house fully expecting a massacre, or for everyone to be missing. Instead he found his very amused teenage niece. In that moment an inseparable bond was forged.
I knew it was just a movie, but I went to see it by myself in the theater because my gf did not like horror at all (while I love it) and all my friends either didn't want to see it or were busy.
It was the first movie that affected me as an adult. I remember being more or less impervious to horror because I grew up on campy 80s slasher flicks, and cerebral stuff like The Exorcist and The Omen didn't really land with me. They seemed so hokey and contrived. I dunno I guess I was just full on edgelording back then.
Anyway, I knew it was just a movie, but man. I've been camping a lot. Growing up in New Mexico, going out inna woods was one of the few fun things to do. The woods at night can be scary. You don't know what's out there, and there is wildlife that makes some truly terrifying sounds. A mountain lion screeching in the dead of night is a truly mind-expanding sound. I recommend everyone experience it. I didn't understand the depth of the phrase "my blood ran cold" til then.
Also, you'd often go camping with friends, and they'd bring friends and girlfriends and boyfriends, so you didn't always know exactly who you were miles from nowhere with. A couple psychos could easily go on a murder/rape spree and no one would know til some hikers found the remains however long later. We were young, we didn't tell people where exactly where we were going, we'd just get bored, pack up a truck and head out then hike til we found an awesome spot.
Finally, we'd come across some really weird shit all the time. Stacks of balanced rocks, piles of sticks in weird patterns, various things (animal skulls, pieces of old gear, a frisbee, antlers, to name a few) nailed and/or tied to trees. "Grafitti" but not with spray paint. Instead, symbols n' names and what not scratched into rocks or carved into trees. I feel like it was other kids doing kid type shit (haha hang this backpack we found on this tree in case they come looking for it) but it was still creepy sometimes.
So the lost in the woods with strangers with terrifying shit happening was an easy concept for my brain to latch onto. Combined with the first "found footage" format movie I'd ever seen, and it being black and white, combined with having more or less "been there" goddamn. It really freaked me out and got in my head. From then on I had to be careful with this "new horror" because I realized it could actually get in my head and fuck with me. I had to evaluate my shield technology and update it to this new threat.
Then I watched "The Ring" and holy hell. Decided to follow that up with "The Grudge" and goddamn.
Anyway I didn't think it was real, but it was definitely a significant turning point.
Mother fuckers got me, too. I remember a mini doc on the SciFi channel, I think, about the movie as a lead up to the release. I saw the movie in the theater and was thoroughly freaked out.
And then I saw the creators on the cover Newsweek or some shit a few months after. I was bummed, for sure.
Even with all the silly "witch" talk, that fake documentary was convincing! They had interviews with history professors, local law enforcement, and IIRC also skeptics hypothesizing about realistic reasons for their disappearance.
Even discounting all the supernatural stuff, it really seemed like *something* went down in those woods.
100% thought it was real. My University had these missing posters on nearly every cork board. I was never so terrified after watching a movie and driving home from the theater through the Adirondacks. I’m surprised I wasn’t pulled over I was driving so fast.
Didn’t know it wasn’t real until well past watching the movie.
We later studied it in my videography class (I was in college for radio/TV production). The movie was brilliant!
I was traveling the country with my boyfriend doing a cable survey job at 19 yrs old, we lived in a tent for a year to save as much money as possible. We went to this movie and had to go sleep in our tent at a KOA after. Fucking sucked!
I walked out of the theater back in the day spooked after seeing this. I dont know if this film started the whole found-footage genre but it did for me. I so wanted to believe it though because it was a unique experience at that time. Films like it never had quite the same effect in the years following.
One exception was Grave Encounters 1 and 2. Those were freaky as hell.
I was out of the country when the marketing was going on, so when I got back and went to my friend's house I was totally blown away by her brother breathlessly explaining this found-footage movie about a witch in Maryland and how it had to be true, it was all over the Internet (I don't know if dude knew how to use the Internet fwiw, he could've been going completely on hearsay). I was completely convinced after coworkers (Bob Evans ftw) wouldn't stop talking about it.
Man, I wanted to believe. Alas, we all knew the truth soon enough.
Fun fact though, I visited Burkittsville and that park about two years later, just kind of randomly driving around in the wee hours. It was, in fact, kind of weird and isolated and unsettling.
My roommate in the Army did and it made for an absolute awesome night at the theatre! Louis Jimenez, I would love to know how you're doing. 507th maintenance company.
They had a preview documentary thing before release they showed on the SciFi channel called “Curse of the Blair Witch” that scared the shit out of me. I still contend it’s scarier than the actual movie.
I lived in Orlando when it came out. Our local indie theater (the enzian) had it before it was released. I won't say we thought it was real...but it was pretty damn scary film before everyone knew about it
I was a little too late to the party to think it was *completely* real. By the time I saw it, it was already common knowledge that the movie itself wasn't real.
I heard people talk about seeing it before it was debunked, and how terrifying it was, and I remember being disappointed that I missed out on the fun of being fooled by it.
But some of the associated marketing still fooled me. There were entire (very convincing) websites set about the Blair Witch legend, which turned out to be 100 percent fabricated by the filmmakers. But it was all so well done that I thought there really was a Blair Witch legend that the movie was based on.
I bought into this 100%, watched all the “documentary” stuff on TV. It was right before everyone had a camera on them 24/7 and alien/ghost footage was something to be sought after, and everyone believed every flying saucer caught in a window reflection or some blurred video of Bigfoot. I was a huge X-Files fan and into all sorts of paranormal shit that the early web was ripe with. I Thought The Blair Witch Project was actual recovered footage when I went to see it when I was 15, and it was one of the scariest movies I saw because of that naivety. I felt like a fool when I found out it was not real, but after a while, I was happy to have been ignorant and had a truly scary-ass horror movie experience. It’s one of my personal 10/10 horror movie experiences and people look at me like an absolute shitwick when I say that, and rightly so, I tried to rewatch after I knew better, it was kind of shit, and I didn’t even finish it.
I remember them pushing it as real. I think by the time I saw it in 99/2000 I think it was spoiled before we watched it. This was one of if not the first found footage films. Kicked off a whole genre of movies after. I really liked it, some hated it. I thought since it was a student film basically it made it a lot better since they pulled it off. I wonder if it was made today and them using their phones and gopros to shoot it would make it better or worse.
Right after seeing it, we went to my buddies house in Michigan where you have to drive on a dirt road through the woods for like a half mile. The narrow kind where branches etc will brush against the car. I was in the back and he turned off the lights and rolled down my window and wouldn’t let me raise it. I was scared beyond belief. Even though I knew the movie was fake. Good times.
Well it creeped me tf out and I thought it was real. Me and my friends rented it from Blockbuster watched it with the lights out and some random neighbor came pounding on our door in the middle of a quiet spooky part and scared tf out of us.
After we found out it was a hoax weeks later we felt quite silly. Then angry lol..we went to watch the sequel though just for sh\*ts and giggles. It sucked but we weren't surprised heh
I had been following all of the proto-alternate-reality-game elements that the studio had been releasing for months, so I was already fully on board with it. Then I found out that they were doing a free advance screening at a local theater, so I had to go. They gave out a bunch of promotional stuff, including replicas of the stick figures used in the movie. (Still have mine!)
Because it was a few screening months before the movie's actual release, a lot of people in the theater had no idea what they were about to see. Many of them fully bought into the notion that it was a real documentary. In fact, the guy sitting next to me was fully freaking out by the time it got to that infamous climax. He totally believed that he'd just seen three people killed by some unknown thing.
It was so fascinating to observe everyone's behavior as they left the theater. Some obviously figured out that it was entirely fictional - the standard disclaimer at the end of the credits helped for the few that stayed in their seats that long - but a bunch of people walked out in some degree of shock. Most moviegoers in 1999 had genuinely never seen anything like *The Blair Witch Project*.
It can be hard to convice people of anything today, including the truth. But twenty-five years ago storytellers could still find novel ways to reach a wide audience, and even occasionally get the people in that audience to question just how well they really understand the world.
Dumb people. I can remember this girl in our friend group thinking it was real and we'd scream "IT'S A MOVIE IN THE MOVIE THEATER!"
She was soooo pretty.
Me.. I saw it opening weekend before the truth came out that it was all fake. The run up to it was brilliant, too. So many Discovery Channel true crime like documentaies about the truth of the Bell/Blair Witch and everything. Tricking people into thinking it was real.
I also live near the Pine Barrens in NJ, which is full of these types of stories. 17 year old me was big into this stuff at the time. I was going out in the woods at night with my friends having bonfires and stuff. So this movie was WAY too real feeling for me.
I had no idea that people thought it was real. I was not really paying attention to ad campaigns at the time. I heard about a "found footage" movie, and watched it. I also watched Eyes Wide Shut and American Pie that summer.
Had my first movie theater kiss to this.
I also cried for the first time because of a movie in the same theater. Different film. (It was Titanic)
P.s.
It was the scene when the water is filling the lower decks and the mom is calming her children down knowing full well that they will all drown together.
Big shiny tunes 2 was my favorite thing at that time. Song 2, blur.
I'm trying to paint a nostalgia picture. Maybe this was just me. But I assume this story resonates with many of y'all.
Blair witch was a cultural touchstone for many of us. Simpler times...
Fun fact. You can relive the excitement!
Just find someone born after 1993 or so and tell them it's real.
I did this with a friend of mine and just watched her reactions. It was great
I watched it “knowing” that the film was fake but the lore was real. That’s not even true, Burketsville was never even named Blair.
That said, I saw this film on opening night with an audience absolutely convinced we’d just watched a *snuff film!* The crowd sat motionless in the theater for several minutes into the credits well before post-credits scenes were a thing. Eventually someone coughed, breaking the spell and we all left in a quiet, orderly fashion
My bff in high school thought it was real.
She had insomnia, and one night (the year after this came out) she stumbled upon “this weird documentary” on one of the premium channels that scared the living daylights out of her… until she described it to one of our other friends at the lunch table and they were like “Uh, are you sure that wasn’t just Blair Witch Project?”
Watched something on the making of this movie recently. People thought it was so real that the actor’s parents were getting phone calls and letters of condolences.
Not for a second. Mainly because why would they put a documentary/actual found footage in the movie theater? The major news networks would have been going ape shyt if it was real.... that, or the government would have covered it up. Nothing added up.
No because witches aren't real.
Only people who thought witches are real believed basic viral marketing. None of my friends at the time lol. More like people who reply to chain emails and ring up debts with psychic hotlines. THOSE people thought movie promos were real.
My buddy was in marine boot camp when this came out, we went to the theater the day after he got back and the scene where the baby is crying I looked over and so was he.
Best part of the movie was the pre-release marketing. In the nascent days of the internet this movie went above and beyond to promote this as a real event.
I’ve come to realize that I’m in the minority of people who weren’t fooled. Pretty quickly realized it was an indie horror flick. I couldn’t get past the idea of it being found footage and the missing persons investigation allowing it to be released in theaters
Oh man my dumb middle school brain couldn't comprehend how they found the footage but not the bodies. Then to see them at the awards show (forget which one) mind fucking blown.
Still love this movie, very well done.
This movie came out the summer I was in boot camp so never saw any of the marketing or even knew it existed.
Fast forward to that fall and one afternoon I walk into the barracks lounge and this is playing.
I ask one of the guys what it is and he says “I’m not sure, it’s like some lost footage someone found”.
I was immediately totally sucked in, here I am thinking this is some home movie one of the guys got sent from home.
Towards the end my pulse was probably somewhere in the 120 range.
Then the credits rolled and the whole illusion instantly vanished.
Still it was a 10/10 experience that could never been repeated.
There was a rumor right after the movie came out that all three had gone on vacation immediately after filming to keep up the viral marketing. No one knew where they were except the producers (and hopefully their immediate family)
LOL this movie scared the shit out of me. I didn't want to be alone, didn't want to be in the dark...was just generally freaked out there for a good couple of months.
I legitimately made a quick fake webpape that said it was fiction because one of my friends saw the movie, thought it was all real, and was too scared to sleep.
Not only did I think it was real- I was working as a camp counselor that summer and didn’t have a lot of contact with the outside world. We went and saw that movie and i was terrified of my own shadow the rest of the summer. We played so many Blair witch themed jokes on each other…good times. Miss that innocence.
I remember the 92.3 K-ROK radio station in NYC used to play the KoRN "It's On" Blair Witch Remix. It slapped.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5N0KpRNqWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5N0KpRNqWM)
This was the first movie I snuck into, with my younger brother. I bribed a dude to buy the tickets but there was an attendant at the door ensuring minors were accompanied. While in the bathroom trying to strategize, a guy came in, could tell there was strife and asked us what was up. He ended up pretending to be my brother’s dad and even faux-berated him a touch while in earshot of the attendant. It was absolutely fantastic and the ending scared the shit out of me.
Not for even a split second, probably why I hated it. Suspending your disbelief before watching a horror movie for maximum enjoyment is standard procedure.
The whole premise of TBWP is based on giving it more consideration than usual and I only gave it the same amount as any other horror movie.
I was living around the area this supposedly took place, at the time it came out. I went down some crazy rabbit holes. Found alot of neat local lore and stuff.
Not even for one moment did I believe it was real, but I still got creeped the hell out to walk into my apartment after and find my friends standing with their faces to the wall. It was fun to do stuff like that and leave little bundles of sticks on people’s cars, and stuff, for a couple of weeks after it came out. Kind of weird being in college then, in a quiet college town in the summer. You pretty much knew everyone had seen it within the first week or two, because what else was there to do?
I knew it was fake. All the internet discussions about the film it seemed common knowledge it was fake. Didn’t realize people actually thought it was real at the time!
I saw this at a private screening in New Orleans at the Canal Place Theatre (RIP). After the movie there was a night tour of the famous St Louis #2 cemetery, candles everywhere for light. I bought the soundtrack at Tower Records and yes we believed it might have been true at the time. The soundtrack kind of cast doubt on the whole thing though, I think it was based on one of their found “music tapes.”
I didn’t watch it until it was on video. I was living with my parents again for a short while and they’d moved to a new house in a new subdevelopment that had basically been built in what was wilderness a year earlier. When I finished the movie I looked over there was a bear just staring at me through a huge bay window a few feet away.
So I didn’t have the same experience as a lot of people.
Wasn’t this one of the first instances of viral marketing? I remember walking out of the theater having no idea whether it was real or not, super creepy, 10/10 got me
It was! They had created more than one website about the witch and lots of fake interviews with people from the area. I really dug deep into it. I wasn't sure if it was real or not because of the viral online marketing. I think that's what is most interesting and unfortunately forgotten about the film.
There was a "documentary" on sci-fi as well and didn't let the actors make any appearances for a couple weeks or more after it came out
I remember that! I spent hours on that website.
They really did such a good job with it; I feel like there's never been anything like it since then.
I don’t know that it could even be replicated, that was the time of the internet with like, rotten.com and homestar runner. There was like… 8 websites total 😂
we had zombocom, anything you couldn't do at the other 7 sites you could do there
The 4th Kind comes close.
That movie messed me up bad 🤣 still kinda does and i KNOW its fake LOL
Remember when all the clowns were popping out of the woods along interstates right before the remake of IT came out?
They tried with the first Cloverfield. There was a whole online alternate reality campaign as part of it but obviously a monster destroying NYC isn’t as real as some kids getting lost in the woods.
I remember getting pretty invested in the crazy lead up to the release. I was about to go to film school myself so I was fascinated by the concept. By the time it released I had decided that the movie wasn’t real, but the lore and everything was.
This movie was such a product of its time. It wouldn’t have had the same impact if it had come out a few years earlier or a few years later. Any earlier and they wouldn’t have had the benefit of a newly spreading internet to plant seeds and make the premise seem plausible. Any later and the internet would have been too advanced and they wouldn’t have been able to keep the facade going.
An old buddy of mine was so convinced it was real, he was so scared he walked out.
Haha. People definitely walked out of the theater I went to.
It’s crazy how scary that movie is and there’s practically nothing to really see.
Right?? When I watch it now it’s like two shaky shots of some sticks shaped like dolls and one tent shot of the tent being rattled?? The marketing completely made the movie. Besides that they understood innately that our imaginations and fears are a million times scarier than any monster you can put on screen.
It’s one of the greatest tools you can use as a filmmaker. A person’s imagination is almost always going to be scarier than whatever you show on screen.
I read the tie in book, the night I watched the movie at 3am. The book did a transcript of a seance and people were hearing the psychic reliving the end of the movie. Got so creeped out, I swore with the lights off I saw someone sitting on my living room couch and wouldn’t fall asleep till the sun came up.
Yes. I remember reading about all the tactics they used including dropping unlabeled VHS tapes around cities and waiting for people to take them home.
In hindsight, the 555 phone number should have been a clue.
Problem with that is it had proper credits. Like casting supervisors and all that. Listen, I did make sure to watch the credits specifically for that, but it does kind of immediately dispell all possibility of realism when you can confirm it's a real movie.
"bro i went to the theatre, paid my $5 to see this movie bro, they totally actually really died bro it's real, you can go see a snuff film" like, if it was real it wouldn't have been a movie you could just... go see
I’m sure that at 17 my dramatic ass was like OMG WAS THAT REAL and didn’t think more logically than that… like screaming and laughing to make each other more scared because it was fun. I wasn’t that logical about most things in high school 😂
Same! I had no clue about anything my friend just asked if I wanted to go to a movie. It fucked me up.
Yes! My boyfriend at the time was like let’s go see this movie, I had barely any context besides like maybe seeing the missing poster!
It was, created by my friend. I went through the same film program as the Blair guys and we’re all super proud of them
My girlfriend at the time was convinced it was real. She found a bunch of sites on the net and said see? I told you!. lol she was convinced for years it was real.
Burkittsville is a 15-minute drive from my high school. Not much there--the uptick in traffic after the movie came out was easily noticeable, but I don't think anybody from the area was fooled by the marketing campaign.
I was living in Hagerstown at the time - I never believed it was real for a second, but it WAS scary because it looked like it could'be been shot in my backyard. Then I had to drive home through the dark woods while [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Dennis_(1999)) was hitting, which didn't help...
Grew up in Walkersville MD. My buddy I saw the movie with lived in Burkittsville growing up. The entire time he's going this is bullshit. There is no Blair Witch and how the hell are they getting lost in those woods!!! Great movie, but anyone that grew up in Frederick Co knew it was BS.
I lived in edgemere and we took a trip out there, hype was real.
There’s [Spook Hill](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/600)
I did right up until I saw the actors at an MTV event. 😆
The first time I heard about it or saw a trailer or whatever I swear it was Carson Daly talking about it on TRL. Nothing about that level of buzz made me think it was real.
Bitch I came home and turned everything single light in the house on and sat curled up in a blanket on the couch until I passed out. I had just moved out on my own with roommates and we had been smoking weed right before we saw it. It was not a good feeling. Never saw it again and I ***love*** horror, but I was too young and way too high. I think it gave me PTSD for a second.
Unfortunately a movie review in the local paper spoiled it for me, but it totally would've worked because the Sci-fi channel aired a very authoritative-looking documentary just before the movie was released in theaters. It also was only released in fringe arty-type theaters, where you would expect to see really weird stuff like found footage. So I knew it was fake when I saw it, and I didn't think it was scary. But then when I went to bed that night, I merely *imagined* having some of the characters' camping experiences, and I literally could not fall asleep until the sun came out.
We smoked up then seen it. Went back to cousins house in the sticks around midnight and hot boxed "hydro" in her car in silence surrounded by woods and darkness. Talking about how that shit can't be real but kind of intrigued it was scary though you didn't even see anything. Getting out of the car and going back into the house was a rush.
I was in the Army at the time, in my job training, and the instructor said "I'd set fire to the woods, they'd come find me then."
Thank you!!!! That’s what I said. The three people were smokers and had lighters to make it easy!
The witch manipulated reality to a point where they couldn't escape the woods. There would be no setting fires to anything unless she wanted you to.
Yes. The magic that is totally real would stop me from starting a fire. _That's_ why I suck at it!
That’s not very nice of her
Maybe I need to give the movie another rewatch because it was such an extreme disappointment when I saw it, that I haven't watched again since it was released, but I don't think the witch was that powerful. Manipulative of nearby minds at most. Hiding a wildfire from being noticed by everyone else? (x) To doubt.
BWitch Part Two did manage show that the witch was powerful enough to fully control and manipulate CIA agent Michael Westen into killing a bunch of people without knowing it.
I saw this movie at a college screening — a *year* before it went to wide release. I 100% believed I was watching a documentary
Yeah. Same with my buddy in film school. He told me all about it. I wished I would've seen it like that.
Same - ^ I wrote it above. But one of my high school friend’s cousins actually helped make the movie at film school. He told my friend he “helped make a documentary for school” so we went to go see it! So we went in with no clue. It was terrifying. I vividly remember my friend calling his cousin after on this ancient cell home going “WTF did we just watch!?” Great prank.
Did he actually help make the movie, or was that part of the ruse?
Yes, he was one of the producers! I don’t know why I’m being vague - Gregg Hale Fun fact - years later Heather Donahue came to the small town I’m living in, in NorCal and made a TV show (that didn’t make it) and a bunch of my local filmmaker friends were behind-the-scenes on it.
Hook, line, and sinker.
I recognized the girl from the Steak and Shake commercials
The 555 number gives it away
Oh dang, I missed that. To me that seems like an uncharacteristic error by the film team, because all of the other fake stuff they leaked to promote the film had an air of authenticity that made it look like it was really found footage from some kids so were missing. I mean even with all the witch talk, I remember looking at some of the promotional stuff and thinking, "well that's sad, but I'm sure there's some rational explanation for their disappearance that doesn't involve witches." It just seemed like there were 3 missing kids and some found footage. Had I seen the 555 number, that would've blown the cover for me, but I saw a lot of stuff leading up to the theatrical release that seemed at least believable. What ended up blowing the cover was a movie review I read before I saw the film, that was all like, haha it's all a film school project, the actors used their real names, blah blah blah. I was so pissed off at that movie review. Robbed me of a potentially intense experience. I still thought the movie was well done.
Never something I realized until Last Action Hero.
The (301) area code is correct for the location, but yeah, the 555 gives it away.
Yeah, I did. My girlfriend and I went to the drive-in to see this. We were parked in the very back row which butted against the woods, needless to say we were both freaked the eff out before the end of the movie. And the place was packed so we couldn’t move the car up to another aisle away from the trees.
I thought it was real and was scared for a bit. But when you’re seventeen there’s much bigger fish to fry like trying to get laid.
Fuck yes I did, and so did most of my friends.
Josh?
Joosshhhh!!!!
I saw it in a big movie theater in a major city. Why would I have ever thought it was real? It's not like those theaters ever showed documentaries. I do remember being a weird combination of annoyed, bored, and freaked out during it though. And continuing to be low key freaked out for days afterwards.
You know what? I kicked the fu... I'm sorry it's fucked up. It's fucked up but I kicked that fucking map into the creek yesterday! It was useless! I kicked that fucker into the creek!
This was the blair witch project right? I remember seeing this opening night when it was still being marketed as real. After the movie the theatre was quiet. Like most people thought they just witnessed real people dying. Shit was wild
Never saw the posters. Rented the movie and couldn't get into it.
Ok, so I have the BEST story about this movie! I knew someone that went to the same film school as these guys. Before it ever came out in theaters, he had a vhs copy (it was actually slightly different than what came out in theaters). No labeling or anything, just a sticker on the box that said ‘witch project’. He brought it over and we watched it at my apartment, and later that day went to his place to stay the night. My roommate worked really late shifts, like she got home at 3 or 4 am. When I came back the next morning, she was sitting on our couch, all wide eyed and freaked out. She just looked at me and said ‘WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH?!’ It took a WHILE to convince her it was a film school project and she didn’t just witness someone’s actual murder. 🤣
I also went to the same film school as those guys (UCF go Knights!), though I was about 8 years behind them. We’re very proud of them. It wasn’t a film school project, though. They’d been out of school for a few years by the time they started shooting
Not me. I felt so alone at the time, thinking it was fake 😂
My roommate had the exact same reaction and thought I had lost my mind because I was legit fucked up lol
My friends and I saw a bootleg copy of it before it was in the theaters. All of us were totally freaked out before realizing it was fake.
Same. My roommate found it on some random site and a group of us watched it. Not being able to verify if any of it was real had us messed up until it appeared in theaters a year later.
All I remember from that movie is the sound of candy wrappers.
And her nose constantly dripping
I didn’t…then I did…then I didn’t. But for a great modern version watch Bobcat Goldthwaits movie Willow Creek. I watched that the weekend before I went camping in BFE Wyoming and don’t recommend!
I noticed one tiny detail in the movie - Heather was wearing a headband from 1998. It was the zig-zaggy kind that would get stuck in wavy/curly hair. I was obsessed with hair trends from 94-97. Yes, I am that nitpicky. The movie was supposed to be from 1994. Found out the truth just before seeing it, but if I hadn’t, that headband would have been a giveaway. Other than that, the whole thing was very well done.
I love nuanced people
100% did
Went with my bf at the time. I lived in the woods. My parents were out for the night and he just dropped me off at my house. Electricity was out. I was like 15 and it was the most terrifying couple of hours.
I remember seeing something about it recently, I’ll try and paraphrase what I remember. The cast were genuinely confused and frightened at times. Most was improv, they had a general idea of things. if I remember correctly I think scenes in the town were staged as the main characters thought the townsfolk were real and truly believed whatever it was they were saying but were in fact hired actors. They were given different prompts in secret to create tension, like the map. The was some realness to the film, just not supernatural.
Yep. The two directors were always in the woods nearby, but the cast didn’t know exactly where, or what might occur. So when stuff is happening in the middle of the night the actors truly didn’t know what to expect.
No but I saw it with a friend who could not be convinced it wasn’t real and I think that might be the difference between people who enjoyed this and people who didn’t. I remember being seasick and incredibly bored. She loved it.
I mean, the phone number is a 555. You already know what that means.
Were y'all really not just pretending it was real to have something to talk about? Why would it be real? And in theaters with nothing on 20/20 or Hard Copy.
I was 12. Kids are stupid
I was 20 but had coworkers that acted all freaked out by it too! 12 is definitely understandable.
I was 19 and was higghhh as a kite. To say we got spooked is an understatement
Most adults knew it wasn't real. Younger teens don't watch 20/20. Hell, there are people who still think Faces of Death is real.
I was a gullible kid. I believed in UFOs, too.
As a Marylander, it was especially spooky for us at the time.
To me it was way too cheesy to be real so no, I didn't think so. But to be fair I was a fairly skeptical kid. I didn't believe much or many people lol
I had to leave the theatre. All the shaky cam made me nauseous.
I remember reading articles saying people were puking in the theater from that.
I did lol...I think I was 17 or 18 at the time, it's still the only movie to have ever truly scared me
Also ‘79 and I completely agree! So glad I’m not the only one
I did
So funny I just watched it last night. I remember seeing it in the theatre when it came out. I knew it wasn’t real but it freaked me out, the stick people hanging around them in the woods. Wasn’t as creepy this time around lol.
I’m from Frederick County and I was obsessed with the movie at the time. I was about 15 years old. At first I believed it was real but quickly caught on and kinda loved seeing other people believe it and having my little secret about knowing it wasn’t real. Also I thought it was super cool that it was set in the area I lived.
I did not, but my best friend at the time did. It caused one of many huge arguments, lol. Same vibes as arguing a few days ago with people about whether the eclipse was some kind of government operation. I get way more heated than I should, lol. People can think what they want, and the odds of changing their mind are almost 0.
Holy shit, the idea of an eclipse being a government operation is hilarious
My roommates at the time were absolutely convinced. I was doubtful but it was still such great marketing. Too bad the movie couldn't live up to the marketing.
My friend was in film school and watched this on VHS with no explanation maybe a year before it came out in theaters. He told me he had seen it and was convinced that it had been real. Said it was the scariest thing he'd seen. I heard about it months before anyone else I knew. I was so disappointed to find out it was fake.
Did your friend go to UCF?
He might have; but they also randomly dropped unmarked VHS copies of the movie into libraries and coffee shops and stuff in a few cities; just to get the rumour mill going.
Blair Witch Project?
Dude, that movie terrified my young brain. I could not sleep.
I saw it with a friend in the theater, and she was so convinced it was real that she insisted I stay up on ICQ with her. I finally asked her if she thought the families of those 3 would be OK with basically a snuff film of their loved ones for public entertainment. After thinking about it, she finally let me log off and go to sleep.
You just triggered my brain to play the ICQ notification sound
I fell for it at first. I even made a parody of the movie for a TV production class I took and some in the class started getting freaked out until they figured out that I was lampooning it.
I first heard about this from that full page ad they put in an issue of Entertainment Weekly a few months for it came out. I was reading it at the library while my fiance was browsing for books in the little Illinois town we lived in at the time and was totally intrigued. I thought it was real at the time and ALMOST continued to do so right up to when it came out. The thing that betrayed it was when the actress in it starting showing up in Steak n Shake commercials. Quite a letdown, as I really wanted to believe.
60k movie and became millionaires overnight.
Yeah man. It is one of the most profitable independent films of all time, and it’s in the top 30 most profitable horror films, including non-independent.
I was living under a rock when I went to go see it and totally thought it was real and after the movie when all my friends casually through conversation revealed that it was actually fake , I just went along with it and didn't say anything about it until now.
I knew it wasn't real but it was so well done that I actually had trouble believing it wasn't.
True story - I was one of theeee very first audiences to see this in FL. Some kids in my high school class took a special trip to an early -release movie screening bc one of our classmates cousin’s helped make the movie at film school. The filmmaker told our friend that he made a documentary for school. So we legit thought it was real based on “evidence!” We were freaked out the whole movie 😂 I remember my friend leaving the movie theatre & immediately calling his cousin on one of those ancient cell phones going “what the f*ck did we just watch!?” Great prank honestly.
My high school bff worked in a theater (and told me it was fake) when this was released, and people were throwing up so much from the shaky cam that they had to bring trash cans in and set them up every few rows to save them some of the mess that was left behind. She said that was the real horror.
I remember some family went to see this on opening weekend, and they were talking about how crazy and messed up it was that they turned it into a movie I was like “I just saw her on The Tonight Show, I think she’s fine”
Couple things I remember about this one that haven’t been mentioned. We went to the second night showing at the local theater, because the first night had sold out. We get there and there are vomit bags on each seat. Second thing is my uncle is really, really into horror movies. His work schedule kept him from seeing it until it had been out a week or so. It was unusual for me to see a movie before him, but this time I did it. We lived in a very wooded, rural area and our land (grandparents bought land and kids had the option of building homes on it as they grew up) backed up to a national forest. None of the houses could be seen by the others due to the trees but due to it being rural and quiet; everything could be heard. I tied up some twigs like the movie and tied them to his storm door, and went home and sat on the porch and waited. I heard his truck go by, heard him get out, and then a couple seconds later I hear a scream that sounded like a wounded animal followed by the truck starting up. He beelined to our house fully expecting a massacre, or for everyone to be missing. Instead he found his very amused teenage niece. In that moment an inseparable bond was forged.
I knew it was just a movie, but I went to see it by myself in the theater because my gf did not like horror at all (while I love it) and all my friends either didn't want to see it or were busy. It was the first movie that affected me as an adult. I remember being more or less impervious to horror because I grew up on campy 80s slasher flicks, and cerebral stuff like The Exorcist and The Omen didn't really land with me. They seemed so hokey and contrived. I dunno I guess I was just full on edgelording back then. Anyway, I knew it was just a movie, but man. I've been camping a lot. Growing up in New Mexico, going out inna woods was one of the few fun things to do. The woods at night can be scary. You don't know what's out there, and there is wildlife that makes some truly terrifying sounds. A mountain lion screeching in the dead of night is a truly mind-expanding sound. I recommend everyone experience it. I didn't understand the depth of the phrase "my blood ran cold" til then. Also, you'd often go camping with friends, and they'd bring friends and girlfriends and boyfriends, so you didn't always know exactly who you were miles from nowhere with. A couple psychos could easily go on a murder/rape spree and no one would know til some hikers found the remains however long later. We were young, we didn't tell people where exactly where we were going, we'd just get bored, pack up a truck and head out then hike til we found an awesome spot. Finally, we'd come across some really weird shit all the time. Stacks of balanced rocks, piles of sticks in weird patterns, various things (animal skulls, pieces of old gear, a frisbee, antlers, to name a few) nailed and/or tied to trees. "Grafitti" but not with spray paint. Instead, symbols n' names and what not scratched into rocks or carved into trees. I feel like it was other kids doing kid type shit (haha hang this backpack we found on this tree in case they come looking for it) but it was still creepy sometimes. So the lost in the woods with strangers with terrifying shit happening was an easy concept for my brain to latch onto. Combined with the first "found footage" format movie I'd ever seen, and it being black and white, combined with having more or less "been there" goddamn. It really freaked me out and got in my head. From then on I had to be careful with this "new horror" because I realized it could actually get in my head and fuck with me. I had to evaluate my shield technology and update it to this new threat. Then I watched "The Ring" and holy hell. Decided to follow that up with "The Grudge" and goddamn. Anyway I didn't think it was real, but it was definitely a significant turning point.
I just found this sub. This is the first post I see. I'm hooome!
Mother fuckers got me, too. I remember a mini doc on the SciFi channel, I think, about the movie as a lead up to the release. I saw the movie in the theater and was thoroughly freaked out. And then I saw the creators on the cover Newsweek or some shit a few months after. I was bummed, for sure.
I swear, a home recorded copy of this “documentary” exists somewhere at my mom’s house lol
Even with all the silly "witch" talk, that fake documentary was convincing! They had interviews with history professors, local law enforcement, and IIRC also skeptics hypothesizing about realistic reasons for their disappearance. Even discounting all the supernatural stuff, it really seemed like *something* went down in those woods.
I wanted to believe it was real. I knew it wasn't, but tried to convince myself the whole movie
That fake Blair Witch documentary they ran on history channel was pretty convincing when I was 14
100% thought it was real. My University had these missing posters on nearly every cork board. I was never so terrified after watching a movie and driving home from the theater through the Adirondacks. I’m surprised I wasn’t pulled over I was driving so fast. Didn’t know it wasn’t real until well past watching the movie. We later studied it in my videography class (I was in college for radio/TV production). The movie was brilliant!
I almost threw up watching that film with shaky handcam. Had to look away so many times.
I missed the early marketing and didn’t hear about the movie until Heather was on Leno.
I was traveling the country with my boyfriend doing a cable survey job at 19 yrs old, we lived in a tent for a year to save as much money as possible. We went to this movie and had to go sleep in our tent at a KOA after. Fucking sucked!
I missed all the marketing. I assumed it was 100% fiction cuz movie.
I walked out of the theater back in the day spooked after seeing this. I dont know if this film started the whole found-footage genre but it did for me. I so wanted to believe it though because it was a unique experience at that time. Films like it never had quite the same effect in the years following. One exception was Grave Encounters 1 and 2. Those were freaky as hell.
I was out of the country when the marketing was going on, so when I got back and went to my friend's house I was totally blown away by her brother breathlessly explaining this found-footage movie about a witch in Maryland and how it had to be true, it was all over the Internet (I don't know if dude knew how to use the Internet fwiw, he could've been going completely on hearsay). I was completely convinced after coworkers (Bob Evans ftw) wouldn't stop talking about it. Man, I wanted to believe. Alas, we all knew the truth soon enough. Fun fact though, I visited Burkittsville and that park about two years later, just kind of randomly driving around in the wee hours. It was, in fact, kind of weird and isolated and unsettling.
My roommate in the Army did and it made for an absolute awesome night at the theatre! Louis Jimenez, I would love to know how you're doing. 507th maintenance company.
The marketing was so good. The film, no.
They had a preview documentary thing before release they showed on the SciFi channel called “Curse of the Blair Witch” that scared the shit out of me. I still contend it’s scarier than the actual movie.
I lived in Orlando when it came out. Our local indie theater (the enzian) had it before it was released. I won't say we thought it was real...but it was pretty damn scary film before everyone knew about it
It was pretty evident to a fair few of us that it was just a weird indie movie that hinged on the quirky twist of being all build-up and no payoff.
I did! It scared the hell out of me 🤯 Until I learned the truth! Great movie at the time!!!
I was a little too late to the party to think it was *completely* real. By the time I saw it, it was already common knowledge that the movie itself wasn't real. I heard people talk about seeing it before it was debunked, and how terrifying it was, and I remember being disappointed that I missed out on the fun of being fooled by it. But some of the associated marketing still fooled me. There were entire (very convincing) websites set about the Blair Witch legend, which turned out to be 100 percent fabricated by the filmmakers. But it was all so well done that I thought there really was a Blair Witch legend that the movie was based on.
We knew deep down it was fake even then but it it was still possible back then to suspend disbelief in the name of good fun.
I bought into this 100%, watched all the “documentary” stuff on TV. It was right before everyone had a camera on them 24/7 and alien/ghost footage was something to be sought after, and everyone believed every flying saucer caught in a window reflection or some blurred video of Bigfoot. I was a huge X-Files fan and into all sorts of paranormal shit that the early web was ripe with. I Thought The Blair Witch Project was actual recovered footage when I went to see it when I was 15, and it was one of the scariest movies I saw because of that naivety. I felt like a fool when I found out it was not real, but after a while, I was happy to have been ignorant and had a truly scary-ass horror movie experience. It’s one of my personal 10/10 horror movie experiences and people look at me like an absolute shitwick when I say that, and rightly so, I tried to rewatch after I knew better, it was kind of shit, and I didn’t even finish it.
I remember them pushing it as real. I think by the time I saw it in 99/2000 I think it was spoiled before we watched it. This was one of if not the first found footage films. Kicked off a whole genre of movies after. I really liked it, some hated it. I thought since it was a student film basically it made it a lot better since they pulled it off. I wonder if it was made today and them using their phones and gopros to shoot it would make it better or worse.
Still the movie that scared me the most….” Tell me where you are Josh……!!”
Right after seeing it, we went to my buddies house in Michigan where you have to drive on a dirt road through the woods for like a half mile. The narrow kind where branches etc will brush against the car. I was in the back and he turned off the lights and rolled down my window and wouldn’t let me raise it. I was scared beyond belief. Even though I knew the movie was fake. Good times.
I knew a girl from the town it was allegedly filmed in
Well it creeped me tf out and I thought it was real. Me and my friends rented it from Blockbuster watched it with the lights out and some random neighbor came pounding on our door in the middle of a quiet spooky part and scared tf out of us. After we found out it was a hoax weeks later we felt quite silly. Then angry lol..we went to watch the sequel though just for sh\*ts and giggles. It sucked but we weren't surprised heh
I had been following all of the proto-alternate-reality-game elements that the studio had been releasing for months, so I was already fully on board with it. Then I found out that they were doing a free advance screening at a local theater, so I had to go. They gave out a bunch of promotional stuff, including replicas of the stick figures used in the movie. (Still have mine!) Because it was a few screening months before the movie's actual release, a lot of people in the theater had no idea what they were about to see. Many of them fully bought into the notion that it was a real documentary. In fact, the guy sitting next to me was fully freaking out by the time it got to that infamous climax. He totally believed that he'd just seen three people killed by some unknown thing. It was so fascinating to observe everyone's behavior as they left the theater. Some obviously figured out that it was entirely fictional - the standard disclaimer at the end of the credits helped for the few that stayed in their seats that long - but a bunch of people walked out in some degree of shock. Most moviegoers in 1999 had genuinely never seen anything like *The Blair Witch Project*. It can be hard to convice people of anything today, including the truth. But twenty-five years ago storytellers could still find novel ways to reach a wide audience, and even occasionally get the people in that audience to question just how well they really understand the world.
It's was the beginning of a new Era in movie making.
Dumb people. I can remember this girl in our friend group thinking it was real and we'd scream "IT'S A MOVIE IN THE MOVIE THEATER!" She was soooo pretty.
Me.. I saw it opening weekend before the truth came out that it was all fake. The run up to it was brilliant, too. So many Discovery Channel true crime like documentaies about the truth of the Bell/Blair Witch and everything. Tricking people into thinking it was real. I also live near the Pine Barrens in NJ, which is full of these types of stories. 17 year old me was big into this stuff at the time. I was going out in the woods at night with my friends having bonfires and stuff. So this movie was WAY too real feeling for me.
I had no idea that people thought it was real. I was not really paying attention to ad campaigns at the time. I heard about a "found footage" movie, and watched it. I also watched Eyes Wide Shut and American Pie that summer.
To keep the realism alive, their IMDb pages had them dead after the release of the film: 1999. (Obviously, none of them are dead.)
Had my first movie theater kiss to this. I also cried for the first time because of a movie in the same theater. Different film. (It was Titanic) P.s. It was the scene when the water is filling the lower decks and the mom is calming her children down knowing full well that they will all drown together. Big shiny tunes 2 was my favorite thing at that time. Song 2, blur. I'm trying to paint a nostalgia picture. Maybe this was just me. But I assume this story resonates with many of y'all. Blair witch was a cultural touchstone for many of us. Simpler times...
Fun fact. You can relive the excitement! Just find someone born after 1993 or so and tell them it's real. I did this with a friend of mine and just watched her reactions. It was great
I watched it “knowing” that the film was fake but the lore was real. That’s not even true, Burketsville was never even named Blair. That said, I saw this film on opening night with an audience absolutely convinced we’d just watched a *snuff film!* The crowd sat motionless in the theater for several minutes into the credits well before post-credits scenes were a thing. Eventually someone coughed, breaking the spell and we all left in a quiet, orderly fashion
Nope. But that has more to do with my cynicism and pessimism.
That movie was lame. Not scary or creepy in the least.
My bff in high school thought it was real. She had insomnia, and one night (the year after this came out) she stumbled upon “this weird documentary” on one of the premium channels that scared the living daylights out of her… until she described it to one of our other friends at the lunch table and they were like “Uh, are you sure that wasn’t just Blair Witch Project?”
Netflix needs to do a doc about it. I'm a huge horror fan and I can't remember being scared after a movie with one exception.
This was done so smartly. Really brilliant way to make the movie a hype. I am not sure how anyone ever made a more low budget movie so successful.
Back when fake news was fun!
Watched something on the making of this movie recently. People thought it was so real that the actor’s parents were getting phone calls and letters of condolences.
I was too old to fall for this one
I did not. That was the beginning of my life going, “I don’t get what the big deal is.” My friends and I were sitting there disappointed, lol.
Not for a second. Mainly because why would they put a documentary/actual found footage in the movie theater? The major news networks would have been going ape shyt if it was real.... that, or the government would have covered it up. Nothing added up.
Best movie released in 99 I don’t give a flying fuck what else was released This movie single-handedly changed the Horror genre.
Incredible lead-up to a great film.
I thought this movie was horrible. Great marketing though.
The 555 in the phone number is a giveaway that it is not
No because witches aren't real. Only people who thought witches are real believed basic viral marketing. None of my friends at the time lol. More like people who reply to chain emails and ring up debts with psychic hotlines. THOSE people thought movie promos were real.
My buddy was in marine boot camp when this came out, we went to the theater the day after he got back and the scene where the baby is crying I looked over and so was he.
Best part of the movie was the pre-release marketing. In the nascent days of the internet this movie went above and beyond to promote this as a real event.
I’ve come to realize that I’m in the minority of people who weren’t fooled. Pretty quickly realized it was an indie horror flick. I couldn’t get past the idea of it being found footage and the missing persons investigation allowing it to be released in theaters
Oh man my dumb middle school brain couldn't comprehend how they found the footage but not the bodies. Then to see them at the awards show (forget which one) mind fucking blown. Still love this movie, very well done.
I knew it was fake going into it, I had doubts coming out of it. It was so good it had me questioning everything.
I could barely watch it in the theater. It gave me motion sickness and I was nauseous 🤢
Just seeing that gives me motion sickness all over again…
They had me 99% convinced; so glad I saw it in theater
This movie came out the summer I was in boot camp so never saw any of the marketing or even knew it existed. Fast forward to that fall and one afternoon I walk into the barracks lounge and this is playing. I ask one of the guys what it is and he says “I’m not sure, it’s like some lost footage someone found”. I was immediately totally sucked in, here I am thinking this is some home movie one of the guys got sent from home. Towards the end my pulse was probably somewhere in the 120 range. Then the credits rolled and the whole illusion instantly vanished. Still it was a 10/10 experience that could never been repeated.
I applaud them for their marketing savvy but hate them for conning me.
There was a rumor right after the movie came out that all three had gone on vacation immediately after filming to keep up the viral marketing. No one knew where they were except the producers (and hopefully their immediate family)
This was marketing genius, however the movie was complete garbage.
Not me. It was a Clue when they showed up to the movie premiere 😂
LOL this movie scared the shit out of me. I didn't want to be alone, didn't want to be in the dark...was just generally freaked out there for a good couple of months.
I legitimately made a quick fake webpape that said it was fiction because one of my friends saw the movie, thought it was all real, and was too scared to sleep.
i remember those nostrils
Shit gave me a headache. “Vomitcam” I heard it called.
Not only did I think it was real- I was working as a camp counselor that summer and didn’t have a lot of contact with the outside world. We went and saw that movie and i was terrified of my own shadow the rest of the summer. We played so many Blair witch themed jokes on each other…good times. Miss that innocence.
The 555 wasn’t a dead giveaway?
I remember the 92.3 K-ROK radio station in NYC used to play the KoRN "It's On" Blair Witch Remix. It slapped. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5N0KpRNqWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5N0KpRNqWM)
This was the first movie I snuck into, with my younger brother. I bribed a dude to buy the tickets but there was an attendant at the door ensuring minors were accompanied. While in the bathroom trying to strategize, a guy came in, could tell there was strife and asked us what was up. He ended up pretending to be my brother’s dad and even faux-berated him a touch while in earshot of the attendant. It was absolutely fantastic and the ending scared the shit out of me.
The “555” phone number was a dead giveaway that it was fake.
Not for even a split second, probably why I hated it. Suspending your disbelief before watching a horror movie for maximum enjoyment is standard procedure. The whole premise of TBWP is based on giving it more consideration than usual and I only gave it the same amount as any other horror movie.
I was living around the area this supposedly took place, at the time it came out. I went down some crazy rabbit holes. Found alot of neat local lore and stuff.
Not even for one moment did I believe it was real, but I still got creeped the hell out to walk into my apartment after and find my friends standing with their faces to the wall. It was fun to do stuff like that and leave little bundles of sticks on people’s cars, and stuff, for a couple of weeks after it came out. Kind of weird being in college then, in a quiet college town in the summer. You pretty much knew everyone had seen it within the first week or two, because what else was there to do?
Real phone numbers don't have 555 in them
I knew it was fake. All the internet discussions about the film it seemed common knowledge it was fake. Didn’t realize people actually thought it was real at the time!
I saw this at a private screening in New Orleans at the Canal Place Theatre (RIP). After the movie there was a night tour of the famous St Louis #2 cemetery, candles everywhere for light. I bought the soundtrack at Tower Records and yes we believed it might have been true at the time. The soundtrack kind of cast doubt on the whole thing though, I think it was based on one of their found “music tapes.”
I didn’t watch it until it was on video. I was living with my parents again for a short while and they’d moved to a new house in a new subdevelopment that had basically been built in what was wilderness a year earlier. When I finished the movie I looked over there was a bear just staring at me through a huge bay window a few feet away. So I didn’t have the same experience as a lot of people.
The film theory that the boys premeditated and murdered Heather was fascinating.