“I’m scared to close my eyes...
I’m scared to open them.”
Did The Blair Witch Project invent YouTube as we know it?
“I wanna make movies, Heather.
Isn't that what we’re here to do?
Let's make some movies.”
20 years ago, the Blair Witch Project was more than a movie-
it was a movement.
This story of three student filmmakers getting lost in the woods-
told through what's supposed to be their own footage discovered after their death
“Oh my God!
What the f… is that?
What the f… is that?!?!”
wasn’t the first found-footage horror film,
but it so captured the global imagination
that it started a found-footage craze in cinema.
In the years that followed,
countless movies tried (and mostly failed)
to replicate the runaway success of this low-budget movie
which was (at the time)
the most profitable movie ever in terms of return on investment.
Even more than its impact on cinematic style,
Blair Witch became the gold standard for what amazing film marketing looks like.
“The Black Hills search of three missing filmmakers has been called off.
Ten days and thousands of man hours have been unable to produce any clues
to the cause of the mysterious disappearances.”
In 1999, this movie was one of the first to unlock the mysterious power
of the world wide web to drive meaningful viewership.
Cut to 2019-
we’re years into a cultural obsession with viral video and shareable content.
And what’s really fascinating is that today’s online video ecosystem
revolves around truths that Blair Witch demonstrated-
like that audiences often care less about expensive production value than
that elusive feeling of authenticity.
“He didn't tell me he was going out to a club.
He didn't tell me he was going out with another girl.”
That you need a story around the story to generate buzz,
and that there’s nothing like confusion and controversy to start a conversation.
“I tried to be that person for you, James.
I really tried.”
So here’s our take on what Blair Witch taught us
and whether, two decades on,
it might still be able to illuminate what audiences really want.
“I see why you like this video camera so much.”
“You do?”
“It’s not quite reality.”
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So what does the found footage craze have to do with the YouTube generation?
In the early 90s, co-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez
were film students
who felt like horror movies just weren’t scary any more.
“There were horror movies, quote-unquote,
and they were kinda fun to kinda go check out and stuff like that.”
“It was scaring us that they were being made!”
“Yeah.
But nothing that really freaked us out
like The Exorcist or The Shining…”
The two loved pseudo-documentaries-
they felt the ‘reality’ of these docs made them more terrifying
than fictional material of the time.
So they channeled this connection to verisimilitude and the documentary format
to create a far more genuine scare than audiences were used to.
“Oh Jesus!
Oh Jesus!”
“Shhh”
[Shushes]
The raw footage of the actors in the woods felt “real.”
“I don’t know why we have to have every conversation on video.
Tape some ants.”
“Cause we’re making a documentary.”
“Not about us getting lost.”
And in a certain sense, this is because it was real.
Myrick and Sanchez had the actors actually operate the cameras
and improvise their dialogue.
“Ok, who wouldn’t let me have a cigarette in the tent,
but he’s allowed to fart as much as he wants?
I really don’t think it’s-””
“I never gave Mike any fart allowance.”
The filmmakers hid in the surrounding woods,
orchestrating events for the actors to react to.
Each morning, they guided the actors via GPS to find
hidden film canisters and their instructions and motivations for that day.
“Okay, here's your motivation... you're lost, you’re angry in the woods
and no one's here to help you...
there's a fucking witch and she keeps leaving shit outside your door.”
Here were these unknown actors, going by their real names,
“Heather, I really wish you found a trail.”
unfiltered by the usual Hollywood gloss and thrown into this uncomfortable set-up
designed to get honest, spontaneous reactions out of them.
All this added up to the feeling that real people were responding
to a genuinely terrifying situation.
“I think it’s safe to say at this point that we’re lost.
I don't know what to do.”
Another way Blair Witch made us feel this was real
was by creating a clear division
between the movie these young people are supposedly making
“Yet legend tells a different story, one whose evidence is all around us.
Etched in stone.”
and the behind-the-scenes footage they’re filming for fun.
“I f… hate scotch.”
When Heather's in her movie she puts on a persona.
“This is Burkittsville… much like a small, quiet town anywhere.”
And because the film establishes these two differentiated versions of her,
later when everything descends into mayhem,
we believe her fear
because this is clearly not her fake movie persona.
“We’re gonna die out here.”
So the central achievement Blair Witch pulled off
was the perception that it was authentic.
“Mike?
Please don't fall asleep.”
After the unbelievable success of Blair Witch
and the later Paranormal Activity franchise-
which broke Blair Witch’s profitability record-
found footage showed up everywhere-
not only in horror and monster movies,
but also in science fiction and even comedy.
Some of today’s Hollywood directors proved themselves
with a low-budget found footage picture-
like Josh Trank with Chronicle, Neil Blomkamp with District 9,
and Matt Reeves with Cloverfield.
“Still filming?”
“Yeah.
People are gonna want to know… how it all went down.”
Found-footage movies are still popular,
as evidenced by Paranormal Activity’s endless sequels,
but no longer the fresh, exciting choice they once were.
Today filmmakers might seek that authentic, stripped-down feel
by filming on iPhones.
“But you still see your stalker everywhere?”
Tangerine director Sean Baker has said that nonprofessional performers
are more comfortable in front of an iPhone camera
because phones today are so ubiquitous.
So just like with Blair Witch,
finding ways to get rid of the Hollywood gloss
can focus the film on a situation and performance that feels real.
“You're breaking up with him!
Thank God.
Because honey, if he’s gonna be cheating on you like that…
“Wait, wait, wait.
What?”
YouTube in its early days
was also a place for new directorial talent to get noticed-
look at David F. Sandberg, whose viral 2013 short Lights Out
led to him directing the feature Lights Out in 2016 and Shazam! in 2019,
Jon Watts, the director of Spider-Man: Homecoming
and Far From Home,
was part of the New York filmmaking collective Waverly Films
posting videos to YouTube in 2007.
But just like the found footage genre,
the ascendancy of YouTube and the channels that thrive on it
prove that a sleek, Hollywood production style isn’t the only
(or even the main) thing audiences look for-
they crave a window into real people’s lives, warts and all.
“Ok so guys, I think I have a wart on my leg.”
“Bruh.”
“Do I have a wart like right here?”
To this day, the authenticity that was Blair Witch’s selling point
is one of the top qualities that people consciously seek
in their entertainment.
Stories based on true events thrive, while viewers flock to YouTube
for content that feels made by "regular people.”
“So for me to come out about my eating disorder
and talk about it,
I think it’s helping a lot of people in different ways.”
The second thing Blair Witch proved was the power of the story about the story.
This is still a key aspect of successful movies-
just look at the way Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga
fed the narrative that they were artistic soul mates
(or even secret lovers)
while promoting A Star is Born.
“There can be 100 people in the room and 99 don’t believe in you.
And you just need one to believe in you.”
The Blair Witch directors’ masterstroke was the choice
to pretend their movie was a true story.
Blair Witch’s official website featured fake police reports
and newsreel style interviews.
When the film premiered at Sundance,
flyers were distributed asking people to come forward
with information about the missing students.
And even IMDb listed the three actors as “Missing, presumed dead.”
“Tell me where you are, Josh!”
This was all the more believable because the actors didn’t make
public appearances to promote the film.
And a special called Curse of the Blair Witch
was released on the Sci-Fi Channel before the movie came out.
“The only piece of evidence found by police
was Joshua Leonard’s car, parked on Black Rock Road.”
The result of all this is that some people who saw the movie in 1999
believed that they were watching actual footage of student filmmakers
who had died in the woods.
And even if most didn’t literally believe that,
the marketing successfully created a strong confusion for viewers
as to what degree details were real or not.
“The search of the three missing Montgomery College students
continues in Frederick County tonight,
as dozens of volunteers and state officials join local forces
in what has now become a full scale search of the Black Hills area.”
This power of confusion is a really interesting lesson
we can draw from the publicity campaign-
it didn’t actually matter that the majority knew deep down
that this was a work of fiction…
the seed of doubt was planted,
so they felt that Blair Witch was somehow more real than the average horror movie.
“Woke up this morning, just like two seconds ago,
and there are piles of rocks outside of our tent.
There are three, actually.”
The popularity of Blair Witch’s marketing
foreshadowed our current obsession
with true crime and stories based on real events.
“This is not just a story.
This really happened.”
The Blair Witch filmmakers weren’t the first to understand
that audiences are intrinsically more interested
if they think a story really happened.
They learned from the example of the actual first found-footage film,
1980’s Cannibal Holocaust,
which was so convincing its director was actually charged with murder.
“Those are the last pictures we have of them.
Two months have passed since they were last heard from.
Are they still alive?”
There’s also a precedent for
fictional stories passed off as real going viral.
The explosive 1971 book Go Ask Alice
was billed as the “Real Diary”
of a teenage girl descending into drug addiction.
But many believe this is actually a fictional story
by editor Beatrice Sparks, who went on to replicate her success
with a number of other “anonymous diaries.”
And we’ve also seen this fake-true-story effect
in action on YouTube.
“I tried called my parents 20 times but no one picks up-
I’m really scared.”
Starting in 2006,
the lonelygirl15 webseries captivated viewers.
“I’ve been chosen to participate in a ceremony.
The ceremony is a really big deal in my religion.”
Eventually, it was “outed” as a fictional show.
Part of the fascination around the show came out of-
like with Blair Witch- the element of confusion.
“Before we were outed it was very much a mystery
and that was what drew people in.”
Viewers engaged with the exercise of analyzing the show
to figure out if it was a fraud.
“The first video went massive,
I mean at the time I think it got over 100k views
which was insane on YouTube.”
Lonelygirl15 began only a year after YouTube’s inception,
and it’s hard to imagine viewers being as easily taken in today.
“So this is my first video blog-
Um, I’ve been watching for a while and I really like a lot of you guys on here.”
Likewise, Blair Witch’s marketing success
had everything to do with the particular moment when it came out.
The team took advantage of how new internet marketing was,
and how viewers were relatively undiscerning and naïve
about what they read online.
This explains why so many who have tried to copy the particulars
of the Blair Witch marketing campaign have failed to gain traction.
Audiences aren’t going to be fooled by the same tricks over and over-
savvy promotion efforts need to do something fresh
and tap into something current.
According to J.P. Telotte,
another often overlooked secret to Blair Witch’s success is that-
within this new territory of the world wide web-
it actually applied a number of traditional marketing techniques.
It had a $20 million marketing budget-
which is another reason why
just tweeting that your character is missing presumed dead
is not going to get the same reach.
So the mythology of Blair Witch was incredibly calculated and deliberate.
“We were trying to kind of make
the marketing an extension of the storytelling.”
The compelling narrative around the film
came together with a conventional, well-budgeted promotional campaign
that capitalized on the late 90s internet moment.
Today’s YouTubers came of age believing in that Blair Witch dream
that anyone can make content on limited means and find an audience.
But it’s important to remember that this movie wasn’t just a fluke that
rose up out of nowhere,
just as most people uploading videos on the Internet
don’t get millions of views.
Even when it looks cheaply made,
most of the consistently successful media online today
is backed by well-funded and implemented strategy.
“So you earn different amount of money based on where your viewer is from.
It’s kind of weird, I know,
but it’s just based on what advertisers pay.”
So can Blair Witch give us any insight into why things go viral now?
This is one of those unknowable mysteries-
why does some random piece of content catch on and get shared around the world,
while so much else (that may seem more interesting)
is ignored and unviewed, lost to the ether?
A lot has changed in the media landscape since Blair Witch…
The nature of social media today
makes it harder than ever to pass something off as real when it’s not.
And if you do manage to trick audiences,
that might not be well-received on an Internet that’s
often consumed by outrage culture.
“A popular vegan blogger is being slammed on social media
for eating fish at a restaurant…
Rawvana apologized to her viewers in a 33-minute video.”
Meanwhile, many online creators resort to ever more shocking gimmicks
in order to generate the surprise or controversy that virality often requires.
Still, there’s something eternally enthralling and effective
about Blair Witch’s strategy of creating not just a story
but a mystery around the truth and the fiction.
In recent years, the craze for Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels
was fueled by wide-spread curiosity
about the anonymous author’s real identity.
“The fact was that Elena Ferrante was a major public figure,
arguably the most famous Italian in the world,
therefore, there was a legitimate desire
by her readers and by others to know more about her.”
Most fundamentally,
researchers say that the secret to virality is creating
a strong emotional response
(positive or negative.)
“I'm gay- it feels so good to say that.”
When something takes root in us emotionally,
posting an article or video on social media
or sharing it with a friend
is a cathartic release that helps us process what it made us feel.
So essentially, creators need to find a way to move us
and let us do the rest of the work for them.
“Will you marry me?”
“Going viral” is -as the name implies- to catch and spread, like a disease.
And as the New York Times put it,
“Online, as in real life, feelings can be caught like the flu.”
Through its combination of fresh-feeling elements,
Blair Witch made people feel visceral fear-
and evidently- they needed to share that-
to tell others about it- so they could deal with their response.
20 years later, it still holds true that the way to reach people is
to infect them with a potent, contagious emotional response
they just can’t shake.
“It’s totally like a filtered reality, man.
It’s like you can pretend everything’s not quite the way it is.”
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