references for the blair witch project 1999 posters

It’s a treat to see the Blair Witch mythology expanded and fleshed out, and the movie is a masterwork in shocking scares, plus a technical achievement to boot. Not even our ever-reliable technology can save us from the unknown. Updated to fit into the context of the 21st century, Blair Witch utilizes cell phones, drones, Bluetooth cameras, and GPS in such a real way that it only compounds the horror on screen, and resonates with a modern sense of doom. The story follows James (James Allen McCune) as he journeys into those same woods with a group of friends to find out just what happened to the original documentarians after seeing newly released footage on YouTube. In what can only be described as a communal “holy shit” moment, the entire theater gasped as a secret years in the making was revealed: this was a Blair Witch movie. Then there was a reference to a local legend-the legend of the Blair Witch. The brief image of a man, frozen stiff as a board facing a corner, flashed onscreen. A dizzying, horrifying opening sequence of handheld footage opened on someone running for their life through a dilapidated house.

Then the opening scrawl, sans title card, mentioned a mysterious DV tape found in the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland. Red and black posters for The Woods lined the multiplex walls, and a giant display of the eerie The Woods graphic was stationed in the center of the lobby.Īs the lights dimmed in the packed theater, I was still primed for a run of the mill horror movie experience. Fans of Wingard and horror aficionados alike were actually legitimately salivating over the faux movie, looking forward to the uncanny way Wingard subverts any genre he traffics in (see V/H/S/2 for a deconstruction of found footage watch You’re Next to see the home invasion flick flipped on its ear).Īrriving at a theater slightly off the Comic-Con trail to see what I expected to be The Woods felt, at first, like a typical screening experience.

The Woods came complete with its own trailer and promotional material.

Forget Marvel and DC’s superhero stables-the shocker of the year is that there’s actually a proper sequel to The Blair Witch Project.ĭirected by Adam Wingard ( You’re Next, The Guest), the sequel, titled Blair Witch, was initially marketed as a mysterious found footage horror flick called The Woods. Last weekend at Comic-Con, the micro-budget horror movie that spawned an entire genre of found footage fear returned with a vengeance-out of nowhere.

References for the blair witch project 1999 posters