Institute History
Description
Picture yourself stranded in the woods, paralyzed by the night, and bombarded by the aural and physical evidence of your deepest, darkest phobias. If you’ve ever faced the demons of the night, you’ll understand the rich psychology of fear that permeates The Blair Witch Project, a film which catapults us into the seat of pure, unadulterated, primordial horror. Friday the 13th, eat your heart out—this is bone-chilling, soul-stirring, cardiac-arrest-styled terror, made all the scarier by its exacting authenticity.
Shot in real time on video and 16 mm film, The Blair Witch Project is the firsthand account of three student documentary filmmakers who venture into Maryland’s remote Black Hills to discover the truth about the local scaremonger, the mythic Blair Witch. After the trio disappear without a trace, their footage is unearthed one year later, revealing a terrifying account of the events which marked their final days. It is an edited compendium of the purported filmmaker’s findings that forms the harrowing content of The Blair Witch Project.
Brilliantly blurring the lines between fact and fiction, The Blair Witch Project redefines the horror genre with sheer cinematic ingenuity, urgency, and invention. Deftly building suspense through sound, visuals, and performances of unparalleled realism, The Blair Witch Project's violence is psychological, not physical; nary a drop of blood is spackled onscreen. But the result is none-the-less frightening, as the cameras bite into the heart of darkness, documenting the emergence of evil and the mounting hysteria of its unwitting victims.
Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, Directors
Eduardo Sanchez was born in Cuba and has lived in Spain, Washington, D.C., and Florida. He studied film at the University of Central Florida.
A prolific writer, he is currently finishing his sixth screenplay. The Blair Witch Project is his second feature film. A native Floridian, Daniel Myrick also studied film at the University of Central Florida. After graduating, he worked extensively in the commercial market while making several short, independent projects. The Blair Witch Project is his first feature film.