The Blair Witch Project - Technique Helps Terrify Viewers
LOS ANGELES (AP) - ``The Blair Witch Project'' is turning out
to be a spellbinder that has some moviegoers asking for a reality check. The film's
mock-documentary technique follows three young filmmakers who vanish in the woods near
Burkittsville, Md., as they track a 200-year-old legendary witch. It's scary stuff for
some - and apparently realistic.
``One guy wrote us to say he went
driving around Burkittsville and he felt this strange presence had surrounded him,'' said
filmmaker Eduardo Sanchez, who created ``Blair Witch'' with Daniel Myrick. ``Then he was
afraid to get out of his car.''
It's no accident. Believability in
``The Blair Witch Project'' is central to its success, with the film's Web site,
blairwitch.com, helping to embroider the tale. The site has a timeline of events that
begins with the witch's rumored origin, and ends with details of the search for the
missing film crew. It never explicitly states the story is fiction, which it is.
And there's more...
On cable television's Sci-Fi
Channel, an ``Unsolved Mysteries'' -style promotion provides interviews with family and
friends of the film's missing characters. A traveling museum making the rounds at theaters
exhibits ``Blair Witch'' lore. And a novel, purportedly written by a private detective who
searched for the film crew, includes excerpts from one of their journals.
``The advertising is like a
companion piece to this film,'' said Amorette Jones, a marketing director at Artisan
Entertainment. ``We never lied to anyone, but we tried to make it scarier by creating an
element of truth in the story.''
The marketing scheme has resulted
in days of sold-out ticket sales at the 31 locations showing ``Blair Witch.'' The film
earned $2 million last weekend - only slightly less than the total for ``Muppets from
Space,'' which was showing at more than 2,200 locations.
Such breakout success has Sanchez
and Myrick wondering just how much the film's legend will spread when ``The Blair Witch
Project' goes into wide release on Friday.
Already, a fan has written the
filmmakers to criticize a purported tale of an 1886 search party that was found murdered
after its members apparently fell prey to the forest-dwelling witch.
``That letter started out, `It's
all a lie. It's a big hoax,''' said Myrick, 35. ``And I thought, `Well, this guy figured
it out.' Then he went on to say, `You had it wrong. Here's the real way they were
found.'''
Some believers have organized
search parties to look for the fictional documentary crew, who vanished in 1994. Still
others have ventured into the Maryland woods with hopes of being spooked by the witch, the
filmmakers said.
``You hate for them to waste their
time,'' Myrick said. ``But at the same time you're really excited.''
Sanchez, 30, added: ``Everybody is
getting something out of it on a lot of different levels.''
As they spoke at a Beverly Hills
restaurant, a waitress volunteered she'd been duped by the ``Blair Witch'' tale, and
admitted she'd spent an hour arguing with a friend who told her the film isn't true.
``So, it's real, right?'' she asked
the pair. Myrick glanced at Sanchez and said: ``We're not telling you one way or the
other.''
