It’s been 25 years since The Blair Witch Project took Hollywood by storm, but has the movie stood the test of time?
Shot with handheld cameras, the indie movie followed three students who trekked off into a forest in America to film a documentary about the local Blair Witch legend. At the time of its 1999 release, a sophisticated marketing campaign had preceded the flick, stoking the anxiety felt by audience members before they’d even set foot in the cinemas.
To create a buzz, producers billed the film as real life, setting up a website claiming the “students”, whose birth names were used, really did disappear. There was even a fake documentary doing the rounds, complete with news reports about the missing individuals.
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The lead actors were even prevented from doing any sort of press at first, to add to the pretence that they were indeed dead.
(Image: Getty Images)
And it worked like a charm, as the movie which started off life with a budget of $60,000 went on to rake in a massive $200million (£157m), to make it one of the most successful independent films of all time.
But that was a quarter of a century ago, and for whatever reason not everyone has been able to catch up with the ‘found footage’ horror.
And without the media furore, and marketing to complement it, can it still generate the same fear levels it did at the end of the last century?
(Image: Getty Images)
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, one new viewer said: “Watching The Blair Witch Project for the first time and I’m shaking whewww.”
Another wrote: “Watched The Blair Witch Project for the first time earlier and that s**t f***ed me up.”
Others who were there at the start, remain impressed, with one stating: “The Blair Witch Project remains an absolutely terrifying classic. I thought it was real when I saw it as a kid, full stop. The ending petrified me into a silence that lasted well after the long car ride home through the dark.”
(Image: Artisan Entertainment)
A second said: “I watched THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT on the big screen for the first time last night. It’s easy to forget how revolutionary this film was back in 1999, but this is still incredibly terrifying. The pacing is surprisingly effective, but the creepy sound design is the real standout.”
And a third commented: “Watching The Blair Witch Project for the first time in 20+ years. I don’t know how I was so okay with camping and going in the woods after this movie. It’s terrifying.”
(Image: Artisan Entertainment)
But not everyone was sold on the movie’s scariness, with one writing: “Watched The Blair Witch Project for the first time. It was pretty much exactly what I thought it was. If you like the idea of 3 people being fairly annoying in the woods for 80 minutes, then this is the film for you.”
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