While this isn’t the original found footage movie, or the first found footage movie, that honor goes to… it’s hard to pin down. Wikipedia lists the first found footage movie as The Connection (1961), some credit The Last Broadcast (1998). This documentary on Shudder credits UFO Abduction aka The McPherson Tape (1989). Some film nerds credit Cannibal Holocaust (1980). Well, it may not be the first, but it put the genre on the map. I actually watched this movie for the first time just this month. It was… an experience. I watched it with a friend so This movie was… an experience.
The plot, can I even summarize the plot? Documentary filmmakers Heather Donahue (Heather Donahue, she has since changed her name to Rei Hance), Joshua Leonard (Joshua Leonard), and Mike Williams (Michael C. Williams). If you haven’t guessed, the actors used their real names. It’s basically 81 minutes of these three screaming at each other. The ground gets more screen time than the Blair Witch. It’s walking, screaming, pissing, and gratuitous corner standing. That’s it. That’s the movie. The movie includes interviews with residents of Burkittsville, Maryland. A real town so it makes it feel like a real documentary. It’s rough to say the movie isn’t that impressive, and those residents were real residents of the area. Know what was? The marketing.
A website was set up in 1998 featuring the “found” material of the filmmakers. Audio logs, police reports, it was the first viral internet phenomena. Posters for the movie were even missing persons posters. The only other film to take a stab at the type of marketing this movie did was 1980’s Cannibal Holocaust. Deodato went to court over that film's marketing because the Italian government believed he actually murdered those actors. A faux folk legend was crafted, featuring three tv mockumentaries set within the film's universe to further its reality; Curse of the Blair Witch (1999) focuses on the missing filmmakers, Sticks and Stones: An Exploration of the Blair Witch Legend (1999) focuses on the Blair Witch legend, and The Massacre of the Burkittsville 7: The Blair Witch Legacy (2000) focuses on the legend of Rustin Parr and his murder of seven kids for the Blair Witch. The most fascinating part of the movie is the marketing surrounding it because the marketing made it feel like real kids went missing and there was a real legend out in Burkittsville. All three mockumentaries were produced by and aired on the Sci-Fi channel, and that added to the authentic feeling of the material.
The film, as said, put the found footage genre on the map. And rightfully so, it felt like the most realistic one out of all of them. Even 25 years later it still feels like real footage of missing college filmmakers. The film's legacy is as said. The film had a sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000), itself having a tie in mockumentary on the Sci-Fi channel; Shadow of the Blair Witch (2000). There’s been tons of tie-in books, games with one as late as 2019, and even a direct sequel… just called Blair Witch (2016) which focuses on Heather’s brother James trying to find his sister.
I give this movie three skulls out of four. Steve says check it out, but don’t watch 30 minutes after eating.
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