Movies That Settle: The Blair Witch Project

"It's not the same on film is it? I mean, you know it's real, but it's like looking through the lens gives you some sort of protection from what's on the other side."

I came across this AP article the other day about Heather Donahue, the girl known for the 1999 independent hit The Blair Witch Project. The article itself is not all that compelling, unless you’re like Leslie Knope and are into whether or not roads in a small town in Maine are private or public. Apparently, Heather argued that it was public and started painting orange marks on the trees to help show hikers where the roads lead. Unfortunately, like Leslie Knope, she was recalled from her position on the Town Select board for caring too much.

Heather could have used that orange marker while she and her companions were in the woods back in the 90’s. For those too young or just don’t recall such things, The Blair Witch Project was kind of a phenomenon upon its release, and spurned a couple bad sequels and a bunch of found-footage knock-offs, because that kind of thing really only works once. But it was a big deal because the marketing campaign was done in such a way that it made some people believe that all of that really happened and these three film students were forever lost in the woods. Remember, it was 1999, and The Blair Witch Project is widely considered to be the first film that was marketed primarily using the internet. There was an official website that featured fake newsreel footage with detailed reports on the “missing students.”

The original budget for the film was between $35,000 and $60,000, and the final budget, after marketing and production was somewhere between $350,000 and $750,000, depending on who you ask. The point is they spent a lot on marketing, and it worked, to the tune of $248 million box office. I’m not sure how else to adequately illustrate how a lot of people thought this was actually a documentary comprised of these dead kids’ footage, except to say that a very smart friend of mine asked me, “That movie isn't real, right?”

It wasn’t, but the intrigue was, and it was enough that it is still one of the most successful independent movies of all-time, and the story of its creation is perhaps as interesting as the movie itself. Back in 1993, film students Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez decided that documentaries on paranormal activity are way more frightening than an actual horror movie (and don’t forget that X-Files was pretty big back then, too.) So, they decided to make a movie that was a bit of both. They wrote up a 35-page screenplay where most of the dialogue would be improvised, sent out a casting call for actors, found some people with money to help out, and went out into the woods with a few cameras. Speaking of which, Josh Leonard, who played Josh in the movie, said that he was cast because he knew his way around a camera, not necessarily for his acting skills, because the movie’s only shots done by “real” cameramen were after the movie was screened for test audiences and the filmmakers felt they needed more explaining at the beginning. Everything else was shot by the actors.

That wrinkle ended up being a bit controversial, as Heather later convinced her co-stars to sue the production for not paying them enough to do all that, and since it was an indie film, they had no union to back them up. The actors apparently were not aware that their footage would basically be the entire movie, and they also said they regretted that they had to use their own names in the movie to sell the illusion, and they claimed that it may have hindered their chances at landing future roles (and a quick glance at their IMDb pages may bear that out. Only Josh has had what I would call an active career.) It kind of seems like a strange thing to say, unless the marketing was just so good that even casting directors thought they were all dead in the woods. Anyway, they were eventually awarded an extra $300,000, and a “performance bump” when Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows came out, but the less said about that movie, the better.

In my humble opinion, the actors probably did deserve more than their day rate on this one. During production, the directors would leave clues for them regarding their dialogue each day, and give them a general direction to walk in, but other than that, they were basically on their own. The clues were very general, like, “You’re mad at Heather today.” It definitely adds to the tension, although not necessarily enhances the performances, when the actors don’t even really know what they are doing, and it kind of even helps you forget that they’re actors. The only real problem there is, like all found footage movies, this one requires a bit of suspension of disbelief. There are certainly moments when you ask yourself, “Would they really really still be filming right now? I mean, they found Josh’s bloody remains wrapped in a piece of his shirt.” A lot of movies require some suspension of disbelief, and you can argue that as film students, these kids were more likely to keep filming, especially when they were just lost in the woods. I mean, when I was in film school, I filmed a lot of dumb stuff with my friends, but I was never really near death. The reality aspect of the marketing did put you in the headspace that this all happened, and when Heather cries and drips snot all over the lens while describing that she is pretty sure they will die in the woods, you realize that she is filming all this because she wants to leave something behind for anyone who eventually, you know, finds the footage.

According to the article on Heather and her comings-and-goings in small town Maine, she has had some ups and downs after Blair Witch. First off, let me say that she is now north of 50, which probably means that Hollywood isn’t knocking on her door for starring roles (a sad reality in our culture.) It’s possible she doesn’t even want to be an actor (Her last acting credit was in 2008.) But my first thought was that, if nothing else, she could probably do the convention circuit and make money signing headshots, at least around Halloween if she wants. It was a pretty big movie that a lot of people from my generation remember, and Roger Ebert named it one of the most influential movies of the century. However, Freedom, ME, which boasts a population of 700, opportunities probably don’t come along that often. Interestingly enough, Heather found herself living there after some stints living in California and abroad, and apparently a bout with alcoholism, and now she enjoys growing weed and walking around the woods with an orange marker, illustrating paths so people don’t end up like the fictional Heather. After her acting career had ended, she wrote a book about her life, and the blurb on Amazon says she woke up one day and realized that her tombstone might read, “The Girl from the Blair Witch Project,” and decided to make some changes.

I’ve always been interested in stories like this, as she seems to have a complicated relationship with the movie. Without Blair Witch, would people be interested in Heather's memoir? I read a couple of the sample pages on Amazon, and she seems like a smart, funny person who has been around and seen some shit, but would she even be given a publishing deal if she’s just a lady who grows pot? And yet, it apparently disappointed her when she thought that she would only be known for that one movie. Is it wrong that my first response is, “Most people don’t even have that.”?

This is why I decided to write about this at all, because as I said up top, the story os the movie is probably more interesting than the movie itself. The Blair Witch Project was a moment in time that hit big and was extremely influential, but it was lightning in a bottle that probably won’t be duplicated in my lifetime, if ever again. None of the movies it influenced were as successful or done as well, because we had already seen it (and nobody was going to believe that Cloverfield was actually real.) And maybe that’s what Heather Donahue realized when she thought back on her life. It wasn’t so much being remembered for one thing that bothered her. Maybe it was being remembered for that thing. A thing that will probably never happen again.

So, rather than try to recreate that sensation, she decided that she would just get high. And I got no problem with that.

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