![]() I could forgive a few technical mistakes. Sure, well, there was only a $35,000 budget.well below, way way way below the budget for many small, independent films. Then, I immediately became distracted by glaring technical mistakes. I was looking forward to seeing "The Blair Witch Project." I'd heard enough about its uniqueness, and I've always admired the low-budget independent filmmaker so I thought."Wow, a perfect combination. While most subsequent films would not market themselves to be true events, most films now are primarily marketed on the internet, with even major Hollywood features being promoted through viral marketing campaigns to help make themselves stand out from the competition.Yes, I'm truly tempted to end my review there but out of respect for those who actually read my reviews I suppose I should offer at least a semblance of an explanation for why I consider 1999's "The Blair Witch Project," the low-budget wonder film from Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez which was originally budgeted at $35,000 and ended up grossing over $140 million in the US alone sparking a series of spoofs and one pathetic sequel. The postmodern superhero film Chronicle would employ a similar style, as would the police drama End of Watch and teen comedy Project X. While The Blair Witch Project's impact on horror cinema and the success of Blumhouse alone is significantly influential, the 1999 film's innovative approach would spread beyond the horror genre. ![]() The films most evidently inspired by the mockumentary approach were Paranormal Activity and the Spanish horror film REC. Receiving its wide theatrical release in 2009, a full decade after The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity's found footage presentation proved popular with audiences, leading to it becoming a franchise of its own and single-handedly building independent film studio Blumhouse Productions to become one of the leading horror film studios in the world today. ![]() RELATED: The Prodigy Trailer Reminds Us That, Yes, Little Kids Are Terrifying While not the first film to employ the found footage style, its critical and commercial success certainly made it the most visible and influential use of it at the time. With the film's marketing purporting the events of the movie to be real, its cast missing (and presumed dead) and the documentary being recovered from subsequent searches for them in the Maryland woods, the marketing campaign and innovative found footage cinematography style worked on early internet audiences, combined with strong word-of-mouth. In 1999, the internet was still gradually being embraced by the general public and The Blair Witch Project was one of the first films to be primarily marketed online. NEXT PAGE: The Blair Witch Defined Viral Marketing Instead, the film earned a spot at 1999's Sundance Film Festival with a well-received midnight screening leading to Artisan Entertainment purchasing its distribution rights for $1.1 million and securing a wide theatrical release for that July. ![]() Post-production turned out to be the biggest hurdle for the project, lasting eight months with the filmmakers anticipating their passion project to premiere as a late night cable television movie. RELATED: Blair Witch Project Is Being Turned Into a TV Seriesįilmed on a production budget of $60,000, principal photography lasted eight days during October 1997, with filming ironically concluding on Halloween. ![]()
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