Article by FisterRoboto of lefthandhorror.com

If you’re a horror fan – you remember the first time you saw the wonderfully understated film “The Blair Witch Project”. I had just come off the 1999 Summer Phish Tour. It was hot and my body was thrilled to be back amongst the land of air conditioning. After spending what felt like an entire night googling this movie along with The Bell Witch and The Black Hills – I was ready to see this film. The beautiful and historic Kentucky Theater was airing the film and I jumped at the chance to see this away from the congested multiplexes that make up my fine city. There was a long line at the theater and horror fans were debating the authenticity of the film. The authenticity of a work of fiction? One word is responsible for the speculation behind this film: marketing. Very smart marketing at that. This gem was originally shot with a mere $35,000 until it was acquired by Artisan for a little over a million bucks. Artisan dropped down another 25 million in marketing and the rest is found footage history.

Wiki:

The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American independent supernatural horror film, written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. The film was produced by the Haxan Films production company. It was pieced together from amateur footage and relates the story of three student filmmakers (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams) who disappeared while hiking in the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland in 1994 to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch. The viewers are told the three were never seen or heard from again, although their video and sound equipment (along with most of the footage they shot) was discovered a year later. This “recovered footage” is presented as the film the viewer is watching.

This film is one of my favorite horror treasures to this day…and I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this. WTH? Look for that review in the near future.