28 The Blair Witch Project (Urban Folklore And Legends)
Description
This article is from the Ghost Stories FAQ, by obiwan obiwan@best.com with numerous contributions by others.
28 The Blair Witch Project (Urban Folklore And Legends)
"The Blair Witch Project" is a movie (released summer 1999) based
on a Bell Witch style mythos invented by the film's director/writers
Dan Myrick and Ed Sanchez. To make their movie, which was shot in
pseudo-documentary style, seem more real and thus more scary, Myrick
and Sanchez created a legendary figure called the "Blair Witch."
They even crafted an elaborate history to surround the Witch. They
then gave this invented legend to some hired actors, set them loose
in the woods with a minimal supply of food, and filmed the actors
(who ad-libbed all their lines) as they reacted to scary surprises
set up by the two directors. The result is a quite frightening, and
quite FICTIONAL film.
As word of the movie and its mythos spread, however, many people
began to believe that the Blair Witch was a real legend and that
the film footage was an actual documentary shot by students doing a
real project. This is NOT the case. The actors starring in "The
Blair Witch Project" are alive and well. There is not and never has
been a Blair Witch legend in or around Burkittsville, Maryland.
A town called Blair has never existed in that spot.
This is an interesting urban legend because it has unfolded before
our very eyes. It is both frustrating and amusing to watch it happen.
There is no doubt that the popularity of the Bell Witch legend (see
FAQ 3.3) has contributed to the spread of the Blair Witch story. It
is probable that the two mythologies will become intertwined in the
future; indeed, some believers have already concluded that the Blair
and Bell witches are "related." For more information about the Blair
Witch Project, see the list of links at http://www.ghosts.org/faq/4-6.html.
Continue to:
My Books
