Thread by @ATRightMovies

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was released 24 years ago today. One of the most influential horror movies of its generation, and made on a shoestring budget, the making of story is one of Hollywood’s most unique…

A THREAD

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Student filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez met at the University of Central Florida in 1993 and bonded over a love of horror. Together they came up with an idea: a group stumble upon a terrifying house in the woods and aren’t able to resist going inside.

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Over several years, they developed their idea until they had a full lore for their concept – a supernatural creature they called The Blair Witch. To make their film they set up a production company with three friends called Haxan Films, named after a 1922 silent horror.

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They pitched their idea to distribution companies. Miramax passed, saying there was no chance their idea would make any money. Eventually, after making them wait 3 months for an answer, Artisan Entertainment struck a deal with Myrick and Sánchez.

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Myrick and Sánchez didn’t write a full script, but rather a 35 page outline for the film. They did this as they wanted to hire actors who were good at improv to add realism to the high concept idea.

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The auditionee would enter the room and be told "you've just served 10 years of a 25-year prison sentence. Tell us why you should be due for parole". Heather Donahue went on a 10 minute rant about why she should never be released and was cast in the lead role.

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A concerned Donahue asked Myrick if they were making a snuff movie and said: "The reaction of loved ones was that I shouldn’t go to the woods with some guys I didn't know. My mom wanted their Social Security numbers. My friends pitched in to make sure I bought a knife."

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Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard made up the rest of the cast. The characters were originally going to be named Jane, John, and Bill but the actors suggested that they use their real names to make the improv more natural, and the directors agreed.

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Donahue faced a backlash as a result of her role (in the film, Heather is presented as responsible for the team getting lost) including physical threats. She retired from acting in 2008 to pursue a career in medical cannabis.

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Due to the low budget, the directors put up posters to recruit students to work on the film. Patricia DeCou replied: she played Mary Brown and helped with the art department. Also, one of the cameras used by the actors was returned after filming for a refund.

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The three actors agreed to stay in character for the entire 8 days of filming. If an actor wanted to break from character, then the remaining two actors also had to break from character. The safe word was "taco."

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The actors had the 35-page outline of the plot, but that was all. All lines were improvised and they filmed themselves. The crew followed but remained hidden and would leave each actor an individual note every morning to let them know what they were to do that day.

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The Blair Witch was named after Blair High School, the school Eduardo Sánchez's sister had attended. The film was originally called The Blair Witch Tapes, and had a working title of The Black Hills Project.

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Music rights became a problem. The directors had The Animals’ We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place on the car radio at the beginning, but had to redub it when the studio wouldn’t pay for it. They did agree to pay for the theme to Gilligan’s Island, after Mike sang it.

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The final day of filming was on Halloween night. The crew had planned on wrapping one day before, but the camera had run out of batteries due to the camera light, so an additional day of shooting was needed.

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The setting of the film is Burkittsville, Maryland. Burkittsville is a real-life village with a very small population. At time of filming, the population was 171.

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The actors’ first task was to interview the townfolk, who were planted by the directors and told what to say. The woman telling her account of the Blair Witch made up the story on the spot. As a result, the three actors thought The Blair Witch was a real legend.

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The early scene where Heather, Josh and Mike are in the motel room was the longest piece of film shot. It lasted 90 minutes and involved Josh and Mike reading poetry followed by some drunken arguing between Josh and Heather.

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The cast were given a walkie-talkie to contact the crew in an emergency and a o device was used to help them find a crate with a red flag attached. The crate had instruction for that day and snacks. And the actors left the previous days footage in the crate.
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Despite the walkie talks and detailed instructions, Heather, Mike and Joshua got lost 3 times. Including on the first day, within 1 hour of leaving the car and being separated from the crew.

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A storm moved in on the day 3, and the actors returned to their campsite to find their tent had leaked and their bedding was soaked. They couldn’t contact the crew but found a nearby home to call from. They spent that night in a motel and shooting resumed the next day.

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Although having been given a crash course on using the 16mm camera, Joshua Leonard struggled to focus using it for the first few days. This is why the interview with Mary Brown is of so out of focus and very grainy.

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The three leads signed a release giving the crew permission to "mess with your head". This led to the nighttime tent attack, below. The actors didn’t know it was coming and their terror was genuine. They said they hoped, but didn’t know for certain, it was the crew.

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In the scene, Heather yells, "Oh my God, what the f*** is that? What the f*** is that?" The cameraman was supposed to pan to the left where we would glimpse a woman wearing a white gown. Myrick and Sanchez preferred the accident and it wasn’t reshot.

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The crew had to step in when Heather threw the bundle of sticks away they’d left. The teeth inside the bundle are from Eduardo Sánchez's dentist and from casting's Lisa Dane. And the hair was really Joshua Leonard's hair.

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The sounds of children heard at night was taken from kids playing around the house of Eduardo Sánchez's mother. The tape was played over boomboxes in the forest and Mike said this was the most terrifying moment to film.

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Over the course of filming, the crew left less and less food for the actors each day. Over the last two days, Heather and Mike were left a Power Bar, a piece of fruit, and some water. Heather later said she’s never been so hangry.

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The most famous shot is the close-up of Heather’s face as she tapes her goodbye video. Donahue planned to have her whole face in frame, but had zoomed in too much. The directors were blown away by the moment and kept it in.

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The actors had been told that Mike would disappear at some point but the crew left a note for Josh telling him to wait for the others to fall asleep then leave the tent. He was glad to leave as he wanted to go to a Jane’s Addiction concert.

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Several different endings were shot, all in the basement of Rustin Parr's house: two versions of Mike standing in the corner (backwards and forwards), one of Mike hanging from a noose, and one of Mike levitating amongst branches and stickmen.

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The actors weren’t told what was in the basement. Mike was told to run downstairs and keep Heather behind him. When he reached the basement he was told stand in the corner. When Heather arrived they grabbed her 16mm and dropped it floor while gesturing to stop screaming.

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Due to sound issues the scene had to be shot twice. There was a big break between the two takes as, after the first one, Heather couldn’t stop hyperventilating and crying.

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Test audiences found the end confusing so Sanchez and Myrick shot the scene that explains murderer Rustin Parr forced one kid to stand in the corner while he was killing another. This is Rustin Parr’s last interview from The Curse of The Blair Witch.

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In 8 days of filming, Heather, Mike and Josh shot 19 hours of footage. It took 8 months to edit it down to the 90 minute runtime.

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The marketing campaign was legendary. The three actors were listed as "missing, presumed dead" on IMDb and posters put up around film festivals. Donahue's mother received sympathy cards from people who believed her daughter was dead.

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A website was created starting the rumour that the found footage was real, and promoting the mythology of The Blair Witch as if a real legend. In the very early days of digital marketing, this was groundbreaking.

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A fake documentary was created called Curse of the Blair Witch featuring faked news footage and clips from a fake 1970s documentary. It aired as if real on the Sci-Fi channel, leading to thousands of viewers believing the Blair Witch was an actual historic legend.

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The film had an initial budget of about $25k. After the studio carried out post-production on the footage, it rose to about $600k. The film’s box office gross of $250m led to it being in the Guinness Book of Records for Top Budget: Box Office Ratio.

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