Posted on 10/29/2017 6:03:21 AM PDT by Twotone
Twenty years ago - October 31st 1997 - a pair of actors emerged from Seneca Creek State Park in Maryland and were taken to the local Denny's for their first full meal after eight days in the woods living on Power Bars and bananas. They had been filming a "naturalistic" horror film, and described how "surreal" it felt to return to the real world and be surrounded by booths of people dressed in Halloween costumes.
And thus did one of the most unusual of all movie shoots wrap.
It's hard now to recall how huge this thing was upon its eventual release in 1999. I remember hoping London's film critics would decline to roll over in the face of the juggernaut, but if anything they loved it even more than the US reviewers, whose enthusiasm derived mainly from a fear of being wrong-footed by a surprise hit. "Low-budget" hardly begins to cover it: The film cost $60,000, or $50,000, or $35,000, according to which paper you read, and made $135 million in its first nine weeks, or $150 million in its first three months, or whatever. In fact, the original budget was less than 25 grand and it grossed over a quarter of a billion - which makes it the biggest indy hit ever. It was also supposed to herald a whole new school of film-making.
The premise of The Blair Witch Project is explained in the card that pops up on screen right at the beginning: three students making a documentary disappeared in the Black Hills of Maryland; the footage we're about to see was found in the woods.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
We made an effort to watch this thing when it first came out. What a disappointment. Having lived in the woods most of my life I personally would find the inner-city much more terrifying than being alone in the woods.
I think this crappy movie set the tone for reality and paranormal shows where idiots are whispering in the dark with stupid green lights illuminating their faces using intentionally poor photography skills. Most viewers do not realize an animal, and probably a paranormal thing, can hear a whisper equally as loud as a normal voice.
It was a question of whether or not you could get yourself into the situation. Lost in the woods, cold, hungry, fatigued, with some unknown entity stalking you outside of your vision. If you could, then that is a truly scary place to be.
Very impressive story, did you ever go back and try find the river? I spent hundreds of nights, lost and wondering aimlessly through woods, jungles, deserts, high plains and frozen tundra, but that happens when you give a 21 year old Army 2nd Lieutenant a map and compass.
The brilliance was in the marketing. The distributor paid college kids all over the country to stick flyers all over campuses. Then the herd mentally kicked in.
Same here: scarred the dickens out of me!
Saw the movie in the theater, wasn’t impressed. Since then I have loathed and boycotted all “found film” movies, with the exception of “Cloverfield,” which I watched, but wished it had been made like a normal movie.
Proof that P.T. Barnum was right.
My vote goes with dumbest. Wasn’t about to spend money on it at the time. Years later, I tried watching it just to see what all the hoopla was about and gave up after about 5 minutes.
I did find the river. I knew right where it was and the fish were biting. But being a stupid kid, I went looking for a shortcut and before I knew it, I didn’t know where I was. I ended up way out in the middle of nowhere. There were cops looking for me and I heard helicopters, but couldn’t see them through the canopy, plus there was Ft. Polk nearby and choppers constantly buzz through the sky in that region. I didn’t have a way to make fire
BWP is now a running joke and turned into adjective.
It’s a hell of a note that someone could make a “video selfie” with snot running out of her nose and get paid a million bucks.
The distributor went back to the “film” makers and gave them a million each. I think he originally gave them about $30,000. The budget was four college age kids with a video camera and cokes and chips. But the concept was genius.
The only other thing I remember about that movie was thinking everything they are doing is making there situation work. It could have been re-titled, "What not to do in the Woods."
A much better version of the "Blair Witch" is the "Blair Thumb" by Steve Oedekerk.
And spawned the worst sub-genre ever. Still a pretty solid movie though.
Innovative, but vastly overrated. I didn’t find it scary at all.
we have woods in our back yard, and when we came home from the movie my kid was not happy! My hubs messed with her in the early AM, scratching at her window. Boy she was scared and pissed at the same time.
"I understand too that most people do not talk like Oscar Wilde"
True, but Mark does.
"there's too much light, too much sky; there's not that claustrophobia you get, that sense of the branches closing above you and the trees swallowing you up"
Hey Mark, set your VCR to tape a couple of episodes of Naked and Afraid.
Back in the day the Boy Scouts did a decent job of map and compass training. Didn’t take with every Scout, but they at least had the opportunity to gain a skill.
Orienteering is a good way to hone one’s skillz. Maybe the Army should encourage their young officers to compete in same.
Probably the worst movie I’ve ever seen and I didn’t even see all of it. After about 3/4 I decided it’s not going to get any better and left.
Worst movie I’ve ever tried to watch.
The pron industry had a field day with “Forrest Gump” too.
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