When released in 1999, no one could have predicted the cultural and cinematic impact The Blair Witch Project would have. While perhaps not the first found-footage film, it is undoubtedly the one that defines the genre, demonstrates how powerful the format can be, and opens doors for hundreds of ambitious filmmakers.
As Second Sight releases a new special edition Blu-ray for its 25th anniversary, we sat down with writers and directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez to discuss their film’s legacy, their relationship with it now, and where it all began….
STARBURST: Does it seem like 25 years have passed since you first released the film?
Eduardo: A lot has happened!
Daniel: It hits home sometimes when I see a grown adult say, ‘I was just a kid when your movie came out’. I’m like, oh, OK. It goes by so quickly.
The ’90s were an interesting time for horror, primarily with the post-slasher movement. What was the original genesis of the story against that backdrop?
Daniel: It sort of snuck up on us a little bit. Ed and I were big fans of the In Search Of series with Leonard Nimoy and pseudo-documentaries that were pretty popular in the late ’70s and early ’80s, like Legend of Boggy Creek and that sort of thing. So, we discovered in each other that we were fans of that genre of films. And we discussed how they had a certain interesting effect on the viewer, those documentary style films and photos. We wanted to try to capture that, something that was simple and straightforward and in that format. But we weren’t really sure how to go about doing so that would have that effect but still have a controllable narrative. Those old programmes were part of it, and we were discussing one time about coming across this old house in the woods, which you can imagine pretty clearly. You’re walking through the woods, it’s already dark, you have the single light of the camera, and you enter this old decrepit house. It’s really creepy when you describe it. So, that’s really the creative kernel of how we wanted to approach it and capture that primal essence it was invoking in us. At the time, a lot of movies had the pretext of being horror, but they weren’t really scary. They were self-reverential or big budget Hollywood films, but not really scaring us at the core level, not like The Exorcist or The Shining. So, we wanted to get back to that. And the documentary approach was something we thought we could exploit. We weren’t sure quite how we were going to do it, but that was really the genesis of our trajectory.
Eduardo: And it was definitely inspired by the fact that the discussion began with ‘What happened to scary horror movies?’ and what scares us. That’s how the weekend began, and we rented a bunch of videos the rest is history, I guess.
And a lot of films were based upon jump scares, not real fear…
Eduardo: They were fun. The movie that really started the discussion was Freddy’s Dead with Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold. And it was a fun movie, but it wasn’t scary at all. It was just what was popular at the time. Like you said, we’d gone through the slasher phase, but people had kind of forgotten horror movies were meant to be scary.
For you, what is so scary about Blair Witch because you never really know what’s going on or what the characters are up against? They even say in the film that they suspect someone is messing with them.
Eduardo: This is something Dan and I discussed early on, too: camping and being lost in the woods is scary. I think one of the reasons the movie was successful all around the world is that people are simply scared of being lost in the woods. It’s like with Jaws, people have been in the water, and if they think there’s a shark, that’s a universal fear. The woods are a universal fear too, since we started being human. For us, it’s waking up at 2am and hearing a sound outside your tent, it’s probably a squirrel, but it sounds like a fucking bear or something. Dan and I are both Bigfoot fans, so is Sasquatch coming to visit me? Spending hours sitting in the dark and not being able to go to sleep as there might be something out there. I think that’s what drove the movie. It’s a first-person account of something horrific happening in the woods, and your imagination fills in the details and creates something much scarier than a filmmaker could show you. That’s the main reason it works.
It’s interesting to still be talking about Blair Witch today given how the genre has exploded, and perhaps been diluted somewhat. Did you have any idea what you had at the time?
Daniel: Not early on. Our expectations were like most filmmakers, trying to scrape together some money and make a movie. And we were hoping to get into a decent festival. By definition, it’s a very small film. We knew it was pretty experimental and we thought we have a pretty clever concept. Whenever we pitched it to people we got a positive reaction. But going into Sundance our hope was that we could sell it, make our money back and use it as a stepping stone to the next project. But it just kept building and building. And taking on a life of its own that we all felt along for the ride. So, before we knew it, Ed and I were in Cannes, and on this filmmaker panel with Ron Howard and Spike Lee, and we’re like ‘What the hell are we doing here?’ It just became surreal. A real eye-opening experience as to how the movie business works. We were just showing up at junkets and the more the press engaged with it the more the film took on its own energy. That was something to behold. To this day I’m still taken aback if I see Blair Witch referenced anywhere. We had no idea it would become so big and so ubiquitous throughout the world.
Eduardo: We’re just amazed by it. As Dan was saying, you have to be humble about it. The success was as surprising to us as it was to everyone else. The fact we’re still talking about it, it’s the gift that keeps on giving and while not all of it has been great, it’s defined my life, and a lot has come from it. And we get asked if we’re tired of talking about it but why would we be? I’m just amazed there’s so much interest. We say it all the time, we feel blessed to have been a part of what was a super collaborative film and try and keep it in check that this movie is doing what it’s doing. Just a small film that we never expected anything from.
You touched on this a little there, have you had a mixed relationship with Blair Witch over the years, perhaps with having so much success so early in your careers?
Daniel: Speaking for myself, I definitely felt that. Certainly, on the heels of Blair Witch, you’re like ‘What do we do next?’ You kind of burden yourself with a lot of that. But I always remind myself these are good problems to have. Nowadays, I’m pretty comfortable with the legacy of Blair Witch and feel fortunate and blessed to have been a part of it. It occupies a very warm place in my heart. That collaboration we did back in film school, you never have that again. That innocence you had back in those days that made Blair Witch happen; we didn’t know what we were doing. But there’s always that phase of how you live up to it.
Eduardo: Also, especially in our films after Blair Witch, there’s this thing of you want to use it because it’s the top thing on your resume, but also you need to say ‘This film’s not going to be Blair Witch. You understand that, right?’ Blair Witch is an anomaly.
There’s a scene that maybe you wouldn’t notice so much 25-years ago, but one that feels very prescient now. Josh turns the camera on Heather and says that he understands why she likes it so much, this separation from reality when you’re looking through the lens. Was that something that was scripted, improvised on the day, did you discuss that scene?
Daniel: We had talked about doing something along those lines as one of the biggest issues we were facing early in the process was ‘Why is the camera running?’ Especially on an intimate scene or something. Now everyone’s breaking out their cell phones but back then we had a dilemma. When the shit hits the fan why would they continue rolling? So, we were trying to come up with ways using Heather’s personality, and then maybe a survival journal, and Josh took that and embraced it. Being in that viewfinder is a protective space for Heather and by definition removes you from reality. It could be a safe space for her as a character, all with the purpose of convincing the audience why there is a reason to keep rolling. We weren’t sure if it was going to work, and there are some questionable moments.
Eduardo: There was this discussion with the actors when we first got to Maryland to just video everything. And I think we had talked about the photo-journalism thing, where if people are in a gunfight but they’re still filming. I remember I was allowed to video my sister having a c-section and when I was filming, I was like ‘This is amazing.’ But then watching the footage back I’m like ‘Oh my God!’ But Dan was right, that was our main problem. We were constantly putting notes in but then fighting against it with the characters arguing with each other about filming. We built it in there, but it’s always a struggle with found footage.
You have both revisited the format since. Do you think you would do so again as the genre always seems to reinvent itself with changing technology and so on?
Daniel: I enjoy the format. At the end of the day, it’s just a style choice. If you have a good story and so on, and the format lends itself to it, then it’s liberating and fun to shoot that way.
Eduardo: Yeah, Dan’s right. And it also limits you, as we said about the reasons for filming. I’ve been pitching a found footage movie and television show for a few months now, and we’re moving forward with that but in the early development stages. So yeah, it’s still very viable and why we’ve both come back and revisited it.
Second Sight releases THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT on 4K UHD Limited Edition from November 11th. You can preorder here.
