Film Analysis (Primary Research)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

One of my influences for my film is The Blair Witch Project (1999) directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. This movie was a pioneer in the horror genre and is the flagship film for the

found footage theme. With a minimal budget of 60,000 dollars, it grossed nearly 250 million dollars at the box office making it one of the most successful independent films of all time. There had never been a film like it before so the audience thought everything in this horror/thriller had actually occurred. Although some people might say it doesn't hold up to today's movie standards, it ended up becoming the 41st most profitable horror film and kickstarted a media franchise including sequels, comic books, novels and video games relating to the Blair Witch. The success of this film pushed the found footage style into revival and from this came other popular found footage films such as Paranormal Activity (2007) and Cloverfield (2008.) This movie started a new era of horror and inspired more independent filmmakers at the start of their journey to get their films out there and keep pushing for stardom.

Marketing Campaign

The film begins with a short statement explaining that all of the footage that is about to be shown is real and was found in the discarded cameras of some missing filmmakers. Straight off the bat, this movie becomes ten times scarier as the director has made the audience believe in the paranormal horrors of this film. Blair Witch is believed to be the first movie to use the internet to promote a movie, the internet was a new and scary place for people at this time and people could be easily exploited.

The film's executive producer had brought in a public relations firm named Clein and Walker to create a website containing fake information and news-style interviews about missing students in the area. They released fake missing posters and hired actors to pose as police officers working on the case on their website. They even listed the actors in the credits as "missing, presumed dead," and urged the audiences at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was first screened, to come to them with any information about the "missing" actors. By August 1999, the website had gained 160 million hits. It is considered that the only reason that the film became such a cult classic is because of the marketing campaign before its release and the online hype that it received which was the first example of a "viral movie."

Camera Techniques and Auidence Affect

This movie was not filmed like any other horror. Unlike other horror movies, this one does not have much pre-production and it did not have a pre-planned shot list either. It uses unconventional camera angles and shots as most of these choices were improvised by the actors. On the set of filming, the three actors just went camping whilst the camera crew were observing and filming them. They suffered psychological torture on set and some of the distressing scenes shown were not being acted out; they were the real emotions of the actors. The film uses claustrophobic, extreme close-ups and handheld camera shots which shows that these students are just amateurs and their sanity is slowly slipping away. This movie does a very good job of portraying the descent of madness as the three characters slowly start to hate each other and they enter deeper into the forest. The film also uses mid-shots to show the full character and the forest surrounding them, this creates the

feeling of isolation and the feeling that they are encased within the forest and will remain lost. They all slowly start to snap under this pressure and the legend of the Blair Witch starts to become even more real for them as they originally were naysayers towards the Blair Witch until they hear the townspeople's accounts and experience the terror themselves.

Final Scene

The legend behind the Blair Witch describes the killings and disappearances of some of the residents of Blair, Maryland (a fake town in Burkittsville, Maryland) from the 18th to 20th centuries. Residents blamed these occurrences on the ghost of Elly Kedward, a Blair resident accused of practising witchcraft in 1785 and sentenced to death by exposure. The story goes that Elly would lure children into her house in the deep forest of Blair and would commit ritualistic killings, she would make the children face the corner as she picked the different children to be killed.

This story is told at the beginning of the film and it sets up the final scene. One of the male characters Micheal had gone missing in the night and his blood-curdling screams are being heard coming from the old house, the other two are reluctant to leave the safety of the camp but eventually do when the screams become unbearable. They enter the house and it becomes dead silent, the actors use POV shots in the entirety of this scene. they keep exploring until Heather loses her companion in the house and she is now all alone. she screams for her friend but nothing shouts back as she goes deeper in. Suddenly, small handprints and ritual symbols are all over the walls and Micheal's screams are heard again but this time ten times louder. She rushes over to the summit of the screams and is in shock when she sees Micheal facing the corner and perfectly still. The legend is real and this situation perfectly replicates the killings of the 18th century. The camera becomes increasingly more shaky as Heather cries and screams Micheals's name. The camera is whacked and it falls to the floor; all is silent as a distorted picture of the stone wall and it cuts to black. This sudden and traumatic ending is representative of the traumatic history of Blair and the fate of the students is the same as the original child victims.