The cast was told Blair Witch was a real urban legend, but it was a fictional invention of the producers.ġ3. It was meant to heighten the tension between the actors. Day after day, the directors gave the three leads less and less food. Despite being given walkie-talkies with which to contact the production crew during emergencies and a GPS device to keep them on-course, the actors actually got lost three times during the filming.ġ2. In scenes there the three leads were interviewing townspeople about the legend, they were under the impression that they were real townspeople rather than hired actors.ġ1. All three lead actors, although obviously aware that what they were filming was not authentic, had been told that the legend of the “Blair Witch” was real. One of the directors had shaken the tent.ĩ. About 45 minutes into the movie, their tent suddenly began shaking uncontrollably, which was not in the script and which genuinely terrified the actors. The producers indeed messed with the actors’ heads. What a real scare! The tent scene stands out as one of the scarier scenes in the flick.Ĩ. Williams, and Joshua Leonard-were forced to sign a release form agreeing to let the producers “mess with your head.” Each of the three main actors-Heather Donahue, Michael C. The original edit of The Blair Witch Project was roughly 150 minutes, whereas the final edit was only 81 minutes.ħ. Filming only took eight days but editing took eight months.Ħ.

The “Blair” in the title was in honor of Blair High School, where the sister of director Eduardo Sánchez briefly attended.ĥ. Heather Donahue no longer acts and now works on medicinal marijuana farm.Ĥ. The film’s original title was The Black Hills Project. It was later changed to The Blair Witch Tapes, and then finally The Blair Witch Project. In terms of total dollars, it also held the record for the highest-grossing independent film of all time until it was eclipsed by My Big Fat Greek Wedding in late 2002.ģ. The Guinness Book of World Records lists The Blair Witch Project as the all-time winner in the category of “Top Budget: Box Office Ratio.” Having cost only $60,000 to make and reaping box-office receipts of $248 million, it made nearly $11,000 for every dollar spent in filming.Ģ. Here are 40 tidbits about the film, most of them largely unknown, that make it even more intriguing.ġ. But Blair Witch was probably the most influential in that it completely revived the genre and lead to a spate of copycats seeking to capitalize on its unprecedented success. The general consensus is that the first was 1980’s extraordinarily gruesome Cannibal Holocaust. The Blair Witch Project (1999), in which three aspiring filmmakers-two males and a female-get lost in the woods while investigating a legend, was not the first “ found footage” horror film.

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