The Blair Witch Project

Institute History

Description

When Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick ventured out into the desolate Maryland woods with a skeleton crew and only three cast members in tow, they had no idea what a phenomenon they were about to create. Heading into the 1999 Sundance Film Festival not knowing what to expect they left audiences buzzing and landed a major distribution deal. The Blair Witch Project went on to become one of the first viral sensations of the internet era, spawning an entirely new horror subgenre that thousands of aspiring filmmakers have since attempted to emulate.

Using a mixture of video and 16 mm film, Sanchez and Myrick leane heavily on the film's cast of unknowns to flesh out their bare-bones screenplay with improvised dialogue. The result catapults us into the seat of pure, unadulterated, primordial horror, made all the scarier by its exacting authenticity. While this is a fictional account of three student filmmakers traversing Maryland's Black Hills to discover the truth about the mythical Blair Witch, the film's cinematic ingenuity and heartstopping urgency made believers out of us all.

DCP courtesy of Lionsgate.

— A.M.

Screening Details

As you use our Online Archives, please understand that the information presented from Festivals, Labs, and other activities is taken directly from official publications from each year. While this information is limited and doesn't necessarily represent the full list of participants (e.g. actors and crew), it is the list given to us by the main film/play/project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications. Each entry in the Online Archives is meant as a historical record of a particular film, play, or project at the time of its involvement with Sundance Institute. For this reason, we can only amend an entry if a name is misspelled, or if the entry does not correctly reflect the original publication. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected]