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| Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez; Starring Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard |
Well I saw The Blair Witch Project almost completely clean of prior knowledge. All I had seen of the film was the opening shot and the snippet shown as the theatrical trailer, nothing more. I had not seen a single television trailer thanks to the invention of the mute button on a TV remote control and I had not read a single review ahead of time in fear of spoilers (don’t worry, my review is spoiler free). All I knew was that it was getting good reviews and the rest of my hype relied on psychological thoughts of how great and scary it might be (plus a few visits to the ultra-frightening Deliverance Land helped).
So when the a little fake documentary on the whole Blair Witch myth was made by The Blair Witch Project’s directors, I wanted dearly to see it, but I had promised myself to steer far away from anything that might give anything in the least away. That little documentary was titled The Curse of the Blair Witch and aired on the US’s Sci-Fi Channel and Canada’s The Space Channel. An hour long, it features many people that were involved in the whole myth and the disappearance of the three filmmakers. Ranging from one of the people on the search party to a somewhat cynical professor to the teacher that okayed the project. They all have something to say and most of what they say is rather spooky.
I actually enjoyed this little film. It was smart and a great precursor to the film, though I would recommend waiting to see it after seeing the film. Some of it is rather hilarious like the scenes of memories of Mike as a child, and other parts are chilling like the artist recreations of some of the Blair Witch’s history (I especially liked the drawing of the witch looking like DaVinci’s sketch of the Human Figure). I think that I was more enthralled with the film afterwards thanks to this documentary that out many of the stories told in the film into a larger light. I’ve seen many behind the scenes and making of… specials over the years, but The Curse of the Blair Witch is the best yet.
