it's kinda sad kids today don't appreciate this film as much as we did. This was so crazy and innovative in 1999.. So many films have bit off of this film but in the end this was and is still the best found footage horror movie ever.
I remember when I was kid watched that movie in theater movies on 1999 and that made me very scared shitless then tonight I with my parents on the bed for a weeks. This movie are awesome than other horror movies. Blair witch sequels looks lame. First movie is a legend
I think Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 got an unfair beating because it wasn't supposed to be a paint by number rehash of the first movie. Director Joe Berlinger was best known as a documentary filmmaker, and the angle he took was exploring the power of belief and what exactly is reality. Once I accepted that, I found the biggest problem was having the script undecided as to whether Elly Kedward herself was history or hoax. If the first movie was fake, where did the couple from Boston get all this research from? They would then switch to going on about the hysteric aspect of belief as if there was nothing but TBWP to key off of. That kind of messed with my suspension of disbelief quite a bit. The newest Blair Witch started out okay; even with the introduction of Heather's younger brother from out of nowhere, but it soon fell into way too many jump scares toward the end. Still, I would like to see a prequel about Elly Kedward; since it was sort of promised since 1999. If done right, an origin story for the Blair Witch could be cool.
I feel like watching the mockmentarys and reading the website is a must do before you sit down and watch the film. It helps get your head into that time in history. Absolutely loved the movie, fucking terrifying.
@@uNkLeRaRa4 You're right. I remembered that after making my comment, but didn't think it worth it to edit it. I should have said "very little blood," especially when compared with your run-of-the-mill horror film. My overall opinion about BWP remains the same.
what i love is that my uncle made me believe this was a real found footage movie in 2008 ( i was 14) that gave me the exprience that people had in the 90s
They're psychological character differences made it scary, how one would really feel if you were lost in the woods. No other film like this are as good as this film
@ED S I feel like watching the mockmentarys and reading the website is a must do before you sit down and watch the film. It helps get your head into that time in history. Absolutely loved the movie, fucking terrifying.
It's a shame to see what these guys went through with the production company and post-release phase.. I'll always be awe-struck with their incredible performances in a movie that legitimately changed my life (became obsessed with horror mythology, now work in art direction). Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams are names I will always respect. I've followed their endeavors post-BWP and think they are capable, talented fucking artists. On a side note: Mary Brown always scared the shit out of me and completely set the tone for the rest of the film. She totally sold the mythology.
She looked like a real old school idea of a witch to me. I thought it was possibly her for a while until I kept watching. Mary Brown was a sweet person though and I think she really nailed her part. She did a lot with a little. She seemed totally authentic.
when I seen this alone in the theatres, I didnt know it was fake. the ending and the part with the kids really messed with me. at the time, my house was REALLY haunted. I remember sitting in my car for about a half hour contemplating whether to go in the house or sleep in my car. lol
The audiences that viewed the 1999 original fall into one of two categories - They either loved or hated it. I was one of the former, and definitely not the latter. This film turned my whole movie-going world completely upside down. To really make it even more intense for me, I have always loved (and still do) forest hiking. For that reason, it hit home even harder. What gets me with movies....any movie....isn't the big dramatic things, but the little things. The sorts of things that can almost seem dull and mundane, but have a sense of realism that you can identify with on a personal level. For me, the anger and frustration that Michael had towards Heather for getting them lost, and then finally losing his temper, with Josh trying to act as the calming intermediary the whole time....that really got to me. And the scene of finding Josh's teeth (if that's what they were?), wrapped up in some torn fabric....during the DAY. Then I knew this movie was something else....like nothing ever before. Hard to describe. Not just scary, but unsettling. Really got me to my bones. Like the interviewer said - 6:13 - the movie really was "lightning in a bottle".
You can tell Mike is a really genuine and cool dude. It’s awesome that he is not bitter about anything and looks back and the experience with no regrets.
..A revolutionary film that never really got the respect that it deserves. It will go down as one of the greatest Horror movies of all time and I don't care who you were....if you saw this back in 1999 and then had to go walking through a park at night to get home you were terrified.
Man, I had to go to one of those weird wilderness programs in high school not long after it came out. Had to camp out in WVA for a month. Just had that feeling of "when we gonna die?" the whole time
Lovely to see heather Mike and josh have retained how down to earth and genuine they all are, probably a blessing in disguise they steered clear of Hollywood
And like Mike said, once you loose that, it's not as impactfull. I remember going to see this in the theaters and seeing a sign at the ticket booth saying " If you have any information on the whereabouts of Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Lenerd call you local police department" that made it real for me
No, it was genius because they made a huge ass profit off of it. I think the budget for this film was like 60,000 and they ended up making close to 300 million. That's genius.
Nah it wouldn't. It's how the internet was at the time. There wasn't really a website or a forum talking about this sort of thing. So...because this was a real sleeper of a movie, it ended up benefiting it.
I remember seeing this movie with friends in Huntington Beach, CA on Main Street. It scared us all silent. We all left that theater and didn't say a word to each other the entire walk back to our cars. The film is part of my collection now and I obviously know the ending and the truth, but it's still pretty terrifying to this day. Good to see their faces again after all this time.
The Blair Witch Project is a monolith of a film in terms of what it did for horror, found footage and internet marketing. There will never, ever be a phenomenon quite like how BWP's hype was in 1999 leading up to the release.
Well, I just saw this movie for the first time a few weeks ago. I never read or saw any spoilers, didn't even know the premise. All I've known all this time was that it was a horror movie, and the title made me think it was going to be about witches...like, Salem witches. Having finally watched it this year, this film scared the shit out of me and I started sleeping with the light on. I guess I am a total puss, but I have seen many horror films before seeing TBWP which didn't scare me in the least. This one...as I was falling asleep, I kept seeing that parcel of blood, teeth, and hair and Mike standing in the corner. The atmosphere, suspense, and suggestion in this film was great, in my opinion. I am the sort of person who gets more frightened by internet creepypasta and a film like Blair Witch rather than overt or gory horrors about demons/ghosts running around someone's house that just don't seem believable. The thing about Blair Witch was that it hinted at something supernatural without ever coming out and really BEING supernatural. And for what it's worth, part of what makes the film so timeless is that none of them ARE famous actors. If I had gone into it and immediately been hit with someone who is now super-famous, that would have ruined my suspension of disbelief and I would have just been immediately aware that obviously this famous actor lives and the whole thing wasn't real. So while I do think that Heather, Mike, and Josh should have been paid better given the film's success, it is cool that I could watch it this many years after it was released and not have the realism disturbed by a famous face.
when I saw it first time I couldn't sleep about a week !! only sleeping in morning 🥲💔 , that was terrifying and I still love this movie , it 's looks like real amazing , and of course I've seen the 2nd one first and than after many year I saw the first one , and actually the first one mutch better than the 2nd one ! 👌💯
I saw it in 1999 when o was 10 and thinking that it was real and while it obviously scared me because of my age and what I thought, I didn't have to sleep with the lights on lol but never forgot it.
Congratulations my friend, you're one of few left with an imagination. I saw this film opening weekend but even now at age 41 it's still the only film to ever actually frighten me.
Very well-said. That's a good point about them not getting famous. I never considered that. Their subsequent lack of fame helps to insure this movie's future impact.
i went to see this movie alone... I still remember sitting in the movie theatre being scared shit less ....very disappointed to find out the next day it was fake....LOL
I saw this film when I was a kid like back in 2000 on VHS. I swear to god, I didn't sleep that night. The film truly haunted me for a week straight. This probably is still the scariest film i've ever experienced.
I was 13 in the summer of 1999 and I remember that was the summer of Woodstock 99, columbine massacre had just happened it was the biggest story of the year...and I remember seeing the trailer to this movie and they were saying it was the scariest since the exorcist.
which is ironic as the actress of the possessed girl in The Exorcist is named Linda Blair, seriously no kidding, she had a tiny cameo as a reporter in the first Scream film
I was 13 in 1999 as well and the only thing I can add was all the fun times doing things with friends and playing PS1 together during the winter months. Good times. For me, it seems the world changed after 9/11.
Heather is hilarious! I love hearing what she has to say. It appears she has an upcoming acting credit on her IMDB for the first time since 2008. I hope this marks a successful return to the business for her.
That was really nice to watch. One of the best panel discussions I've seen. What a bunch of shits the studios were. They should have given each of them a million bucks.
Couldn't agree more. A million apiece wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of millions the movie made. And the production company sent them a damn *fruit basket* when it hit $100 million. Especially considering how the company tormented them to get real reactions. This is capitalism at work.
@@blueberreez I haven’t finish the vid yet but wow none of them got even 1mill for the work they did???? Wtf. They spent 8 days in the woods (literally camping at specified locations via handheld GPS) and were literally deprived of food on purpose and also chased those one or two nights by the art director and crew. But otherwise for the most part they were basically alone and starved and forced to walk long distances to the next location. over $200mill and NONE of them got even 0.01% of the money THEY reeled in. That’s really disgusting and angering to know. Heather had major difficulty finding a role in anything afterwards because she was synonymous with the genre of this film. At least they all could have gotten the amount they deserved from the insane profits!!! Capitalism ya’ll. That’s sick
@@sylviabennan Exactly. These guys WERE the movie. They sold the fear, paranoia and insanity. Yeh the directors etc were the masterminds with the world building etc but it's Josh, Heather and Mike we all think about when looking back on this movie. I wonder how much both directors got?
In my opinion what makes the movie scary/ creepy wasn't the spiritual side of it for me it's that hopeless feeling of being completely lost in the woods and cut off from any help i can't speak for everyone but when they're all screaming and yelling that was what got me
that’s def what helped make it so effective: it’s eerily easy to get lost in a state park, with some parks being thousands of acres. I’ve heard stories from friends who were hiking who met lost hikers that got separated from their group, and I even got lost on a daytime hike with that same group of friends. It’s crazy because I was a novice hiker and I had the right trail/map in my mind, and they were way more experienced yet they got us all lost and had ignored me when I said “hey it looks like we just passed the right trail?”... then after two hours of hiking towards nowhere they finally went “oh” and we turned back. so yeah it’s scary knowing how even experienced hikers can get lost.
To me. The feeling never changed. I still find it unsettling and real. But again, I grew up in a small town . With the woods completely around me. The acting comes off so real. That you forget every single time, that its a movie. And its not real.
What an articulate, honest, intelligent, likable trio. I’m genuinely appreciative of this interview...especially fifteen years removed from this iconic film.
awesome video..thanks for posting it..The Blair Witch is my favorite movie of this type. I remember my wife and me going to see it in the theater..we instantly LOVED it..I still watch it about 2-3x a year..Just brilliant..too bad so many dont have the imagination to see it..
Being A horror fanatic,I think the Blair Witch documentary was A great film. Ive seen it many times and everytime I watched it,I immersed myself in the movie to feel like I was actually their with Heather,Mike and Josh,being lost in the woods and getting stalked by elle the witch made for A creepy satisfying atmosphere.Truly A one of A kind fictional horror documentary.
When I watch the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT for the first time there was one seen when you hear the children laughing and making noise outside the tent, that scared the HELL out of me
It's so weird watching them all talk 15 years later. It's like the characters from the movie in wacky costumes and wigs. I would have so many questions for them! Glad Josh got his teeth back.
I was 14 when this came out; I remember seeing it in theaters and loved it! There were woods behind where I lived and my house had a lot of windows; for a good while I was so scared to look out the windows at night after seeing the film!
I am a huge horror movie buff. I’ve seen it all and nothing has scared me more than The Blair Witch. I have seen it over 50 times and it still gives me the chills. One of the best movies.
I remember as a young teen in the summer of 2001 i worked my ass of by cutting the lawn from neighbours, delivering newspapers and washing trucks to save up money for a dvd player. But not much was left to buy any movies. So a friend gave me his dvd from the Blair Witch Project, since he wasn't that fascinated by the story. For an entire year this Movie was the only one i was able to watch, because i couldn't watch tv in my room. I watched it every night when i went to bed, making me remember every single sentence that was spoken in this movie. And still today i watch this movie at least once in a month and i still can speak the whole movie with the actors. The end though creeped me out back then and i always switched off before they entered the house. For this reason i fell in love with found footage movies of any kind, and its ignorant how many negative critics this genre gets. Especially the BWP deserves more respect. This is one, if not the best horror movie ever made, since most of us really thought it might be real and no other horror movie could scare me that much, because you always knew that right behind the camera stands an operator with his headset on. In the BWP you know that this is not the case. Allthough if the BWP would came out these days it wouldn't be the same, since everyone would instantly yell that it's fake ruining the immersion. And i think the immersion is what fascinated us the most back then. Today, if you had doubts at all, you would google on your smartphone while still being in the cinema and would know its not real in a matter of seconds. In 1999-2001 it was not that easy to fact check things online.
Man I was sooo creeped out when this came out... I'm 38 now and it's cool because my younger cousins and friends of my stepchildren aged 15 to 20 have virtually never heard of the original Blair Witch. So when they ask me for a horror movie I put this on and tell them it was real and watch them freak out til the end.
I saw this film opening weekend when I believed it was 100% real. I've been a horror fanatic since I was in diapers so I thought there's no way this film will scare me. But holy shit...it did! The way it was shot and the realistic acting had me convinced this was actual found footage. I was literally in a state of shock when we left the theater; I couldn't talk, I could barely move and I had tears streaming down my face. I felt paralyzed. I will never forget that feeling so kudos to them for making a small project turn out to be the scariest movie in history (imo).
The first film which made smart use of the internet to generate a buzz. And unlike many films which have done so since, this one had something they didn't...MYSTIQUE!
When Mike says "Oh sh*t, it's a house." the viewer is absolutely horrified for them. That house was the first sign of civilization in days and it looked like the most frightening place ever.
I still never yet watched this movie. I stumbled onto this video and decided to watch. I very much enjoyed this video. One would think with the amount of money this movie made, all three of them would have been cut a decent sized cheque. I hate cheap people. The moderator James Wallace, very enjoyable.
Well, you get what you're contracted for like everybody else. $1000 a day in 1997 was great for young, unknown actors working on an indie project. And no one knew then it would be picked up for major release. Blame the studio if you like, but if you expect morals from those guys... hahaha
great to see u guys alive- i remember driving home from cinema on my malaguti 50cc and fearing that everything I saw in the cinema was real- internet wasn a grown up thing at that time and I really felt unsave. My house is built on the edge of a big forrest...and I slept with my shotgun in my bed for 2 months.....and after that 2 months I slept with my shotgun 20 more years. thx for that. :D
Nice to see Heather Donahue there because I had kind of assumed that when she gave up Hollywood (and burned all her mementos of that career?), to become a pot farmer, she'd be like Christopher Lee with Dracula, like "Don't talk to me about it!!", and just distance herself. Nice to see she's still proud to be associated with it.
She should be. I get all the hype back when it came out and detractors… but I think, all these years later it’s amassed quite the cult following and many horror fans (myself included) consider it one of the most unique and frankly greatest horror films of all time.
@@SFforlife I seems, though, that she really has now distanced herself from the film. She was paid a big wad of money in 2016 to use her likeness in the sequel, Blair Witch, and she said that she used this money to basically go on one long bender. After getting sober she says that she moved to Maine, became a Buddhist and changed her name to Rei Hance. The name change being at least partly to get away from being known for this film.
That was GREAT...very informative and funny. LOVE the movie, still creeps me out and still get goosebumps. The movie has been playing for the last few days here...
Poor kid seems so nervous interviewing these guys lol. Blair Witch to this day is one of my favorite movies of all time. Not just favorite horror. Favorite period.
I really appreciate what you guys did, and I loved this real interview, much like what you did with the film itself. I really thought it was true; my regret is that one day before I was going to see it, the myth had been dispelled by some thing I accidentally saw on the computer. I really thought it was real! And I am NOT that person; I am naturally cynical and not very trusting of people or things. Anyway, I still don't get why you didn't get parts after this film (I understand what you were saying and why it happened that way); I remember looking for you in other films or tv and was sad I never really got to see any of the 3 of you. Thank you so much for your performances, for the movie, and for this interview. :-) And thanks James Wallace! You are adorable and did a great job with this!
This was a great panel! I just watched TBW again today and it still scares me. The performances just seem so real with the way it was filmed tbh. Unfortunately, the moderator missed some great moments, like when Mike said he had no regrets, the mod should of ask "Even kicking the map into the creek?" 😆
I can remember being in the theater...it was dead quite because everyone was so into what was happening. An experience I will never forget. This was a great horror movie!
What really drew me in, even before seeing the movie itself, was the amazingly inventive marketing campaign. The Blair Witch Project featured one of the first Internet viral campaigns for a movie, and that was a huge factor in making the movie into a sensation. It worked so well that _millions of people thought the movie footage was real._ For those who weren't around or were too young to remember, the movie "website" was purposely made to look amateurish, as if it had been created by search volunteers who weren't html-savvy. The main page was dominated by an image of the very official-looking Missing posters and included a plea for any information as to the whereabouts of the students. There were blurry scans of Heather's diary, with the early pages documenting her plans for the film project and the later pages revealing her increasingly panicked state as the film team finds themselves lost in the woods. Heather's research on the legend of the Blair Witch (itself a masterwork in building a convincing legend) were scanned from her messy handwritten notes on spiral notebook paper. You could find grainy Polaroid images of the filmmakers screwing around in Burkittsville before heading into the woods. Everything about that website looked *real.* It was carefully crafted to look like these campers were indeed lost and their families were desperate for any information. It made the experience of finally watching the movie that much more terrifying because it felt like this was actually some kind of snuff film and I was watching three young people get killed.
and now this year is coming up 20th anniversary from premiere in 99!! cant believe its been 20 years!! hope we will get even more Blair witch movies after 2016 one
The Blair Witch was a perfect example of a particular kind of horror, in which what the viewer doesn't see is the center of the fear. 'The Haunting' of 1963 is another good example. You know something, potentially dangerous and even outright evil, is behind the phenomena portrayed in the story but you never truly see it. It takes fear of the unknown and unseen to that particular level that many would rather avoid.
They were on the cover of "Newsweek" and the two directors got the cover of "Time" with full stories of the making of the film and the subsequent journey to release, yet there were and are people who still ask if it was real.
The Blair Witch Project truly was-and still remains to this day- a work of GENIUS .
Yep, it inspired a lot of other movies.
Heather looks Beautiful xx
+ammorreztristar Definitely a hottie. They barely let her speak though
Yeah, shame .But wow is she beautiful !
ammorreztristar
she's fat, tf you talking about
it's kinda sad kids today don't appreciate this film as much as we did. This was so crazy and innovative in 1999.. So many films have bit off of this film but in the end this was and is still the best found footage horror movie ever.
Dasha Jean i love this movie bc first of all I can tell my friends abt it and they would be like never heard of it and then we can watch it together
I remember when I was kid watched that movie in theater movies on 1999 and that made me very scared shitless then tonight I with my parents on the bed for a weeks. This movie are awesome than other horror movies. Blair witch sequels looks lame. First movie is a legend
I think Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 got an unfair beating because it wasn't supposed to be a paint by number rehash of the first movie. Director Joe Berlinger was best known as a documentary filmmaker, and the angle he took was exploring the power of belief and what exactly is reality. Once I accepted that, I found the biggest problem was having the script undecided as to whether Elly Kedward herself was history or hoax. If the first movie was fake, where did the couple from Boston get all this research from? They would then switch to going on about the hysteric aspect of belief as if there was nothing but TBWP to key off of. That kind of messed with my suspension of disbelief quite a bit. The newest Blair Witch started out okay; even with the introduction of Heather's younger brother from out of nowhere, but it soon fell into way too many jump scares toward the end. Still, I would like to see a prequel about Elly Kedward; since it was sort of promised since 1999. If done right, an origin story for the Blair Witch could be cool.
I was 9 years old when this movie released. Watched it on VHS and it was so scary.
I feel like watching the mockmentarys and reading the website is a must do before you sit down and watch the film. It helps get your head into that time in history. Absolutely loved the movie, fucking terrifying.
Legend has it Heather still knows where she’s going
😆🤣
😂
JAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Maps? Where we're going we don't need maps.
She's not the one who ditched the map
Nice to see Josh got his teeth back.
Thanks for going back in time to save them Marty.
And his ear
That one shot of the teeth wrapped up in a bloody scrap of his shirt hits like damned howitzer.
@@albertfeibstein8787don’t remember seeing his ear
@@MartyMcFly88Me either, I saw that big molar. No ear. The molar was more than enough to scare the crap out of me!
No blood, no visible villain, and low budget, yet still the best horror film ever. Change my mind.
There's blood, Josh's teeth.
@@uNkLeRaRa4 You're right. I remembered that after making my comment, but didn't think it worth it to edit it. I should have said "very little blood," especially when compared with your run-of-the-mill horror film. My overall opinion about BWP remains the same.
Real horror is in the mind.
@@tomhaskett5161 YES!
what i love is that my uncle made me believe this was a real found footage movie in 2008 ( i was 14) that gave me the exprience that people had in the 90s
Heather's screams at the end of that movie are still chilling even now when I rewatch the film.
Heather pretending to know where she is going is by far more chilling I'd say.
They're psychological character differences made it scary, how one would really feel if you were lost in the woods. No other film like this are as good as this film
Also Mike standing in the corner
so many years later i still tell people to watch this movie who haven't seen it
Same here
@ED S I feel like watching the mockmentarys and reading the website is a must do before you sit down and watch the film. It helps get your head into that time in history. Absolutely loved the movie, fucking terrifying.
@@monkeydad47 That and if the people that you're having watch it don't know about it, just tell them it's real and the rest will figure itself out :]
It's a shame to see what these guys went through with the production company and post-release phase.. I'll always be awe-struck with their incredible performances in a movie that legitimately changed my life (became obsessed with horror mythology, now work in art direction).
Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams are names I will always respect. I've followed their endeavors post-BWP and think they are capable, talented fucking artists.
On a side note: Mary Brown always scared the shit out of me and completely set the tone for the rest of the film. She totally sold the mythology.
The character "Mary Brown" was played by and props to Patricia DeCou (1934-2007) RIP.
Agreed
@TheKimberlydw Absolutely. Trail blazers.
She looked like a real old school idea of a witch to me. I thought it was possibly her for a while until I kept watching. Mary Brown was a sweet person though and I think she really nailed her part. She did a lot with a little. She seemed totally authentic.
Micheal Williams is my Improv/acting teacher he is really good
That’s so cool!
It's fucked up but I kicked that fucking map into the creek yesterday!
“I kicked that fucker right into the creek! Wooooooo!!”
😆😆😆
"Jooooooooooooooosh!!!"😖 I will never forget the creepy feeling this movie made me feel. 🐧🌈
+bran8337 Not so much 😞😢
+bran8337 😲💬!!!!🏃📹.........👻💨💨👊💥💥......💀💀............📼🔜📀
it was the LAST great ghost story made, it could only happen without the internet when rumor was still king.
sharaxxvable that line where michael yells out tell me where you are josh. fast forward 8 years youll find him iin the movie hatchet.
@@adams1458 Uh the internet marketing was a big reason of why people thought it was real
These 3 people made magic happen on screen.... I can't believe their careers didn't explode. They literally made history together... Crazy
its a damn shame mike wasnt in a ton more movies, hes really likeable
Yeah, and Josh seems like a douchebag.
Film is going on 25 years old, now. Feels like I just seen it in the theater. I liked it the first time I saw it. And I still get shivers watching it.
when I seen this alone in the theatres, I didnt know it was fake. the ending and the part with the kids really messed with me. at the time, my house was REALLY haunted. I remember sitting in my car for about a half hour contemplating whether to go in the house or sleep in my car. lol
The audiences that viewed the 1999 original fall into one of two categories -
They either loved or hated it.
I was one of the former, and definitely not the latter. This film turned my whole movie-going world completely upside down. To really make it even more intense for me, I have always loved (and still do) forest hiking. For that reason, it hit home even harder. What gets me with movies....any movie....isn't the big dramatic things, but the little things. The sorts of things that can almost seem dull and mundane, but have a sense of realism that you can identify with on a personal level. For me, the anger and frustration that Michael had towards Heather for getting them lost, and then finally losing his temper, with Josh trying to act as the calming intermediary the whole time....that really got to me. And the scene of finding Josh's teeth (if that's what they were?), wrapped up in some torn fabric....during the DAY. Then I knew this movie was something else....like nothing ever before.
Hard to describe. Not just scary, but unsettling. Really got me to my bones.
Like the interviewer said - 6:13 - the movie really was "lightning in a bottle".
You can tell Mike is a really genuine and cool dude. It’s awesome that he is not bitter about anything and looks back and the experience with no regrets.
..A revolutionary film that never really got the respect that it deserves. It will go down as one of the greatest Horror movies of all time and I don't care who you were....if you saw this back in 1999 and then had to go walking through a park at night to get home you were terrified.
Peace Dweller I went to see it 3 times
I still can't go camping in the woods :(
Im start to like camping in the woods because this movie,seriously.
Absolutely! Every time I go hiking in the woods or camping, I try to make sure I am back inside BEFORE dark!!
Man, I had to go to one of those weird wilderness programs in high school not long after it came out. Had to camp out in WVA for a month. Just had that feeling of "when we gonna die?" the whole time
Lovely to see heather Mike and josh have retained how down to earth and genuine they all are, probably a blessing in disguise they steered clear of Hollywood
Heather is starting to look like the mom from home alone
troyrblb44 looks nothing like the mum from home alone lay off the drugs
Yeah she does
That's who she reminds me of...Thank you!
Heather’s hair looks like (Geri) Ginger Spice circa 1997.
@@RustySpoons6490 stuck in the 90's. LOL.
You know why this movie was genius ? BECAUSE WE ALL THOUGHT IT WAS REAL
And like Mike said, once you loose that, it's not as impactfull. I remember going to see this in the theaters and seeing a sign at the ticket booth saying " If you have any information on the whereabouts of Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Lenerd call you local police department" that made it real for me
No, it was genius because they made a huge ass profit off of it. I think the budget for this film was like 60,000 and they ended up making close to 300 million. That's genius.
I disagree, it's a scary damn movie on it's own. The atmosphere is enough to make you believe it's real as you watch it even if you know it isn't.
Daoon H If it was realesed today it would have the same impact but def would not make as much money
Nah it wouldn't. It's how the internet was at the time. There wasn't really a website or a forum talking about this sort of thing.
So...because this was a real sleeper of a movie, it ended up benefiting it.
It's been 20 years now
2019 anyone?
2020
I'm in the end of 2020 lol 🤪😂
Yes dude 2020
2021
2021
oh shit, it's a house
"Is that him? ...Is it a trick"?
I didn't even realize that was Josh until I heard his voice.
It's cute how Michael takes a picture of the audience, and really cares when someone badly wants to ask them a question.
You can tell he is genuinely a good person
I remember seeing this movie with friends in Huntington Beach, CA on Main Street. It scared us all silent. We all left that theater and didn't say a word to each other the entire walk back to our cars. The film is part of my collection now and I obviously know the ending and the truth, but it's still pretty terrifying to this day. Good to see their faces again after all this time.
Same here. We were stoned loud 17 year olds seeing this opening weekend and left the theater silent and terrified.
When they talk about "scream queens", Heather should be at the top of that list.
The Blair Witch Project is one of my top 5 favorite scary movies. I love all of the three actors. They did an amazing job and provided a classic film.
The Blair Witch Project is a monolith of a film in terms of what it did for horror, found footage and internet marketing. There will never, ever be a phenomenon quite like how BWP's hype was in 1999 leading up to the release.
They paved the way for the found footage market. Revolutionary
Well, I just saw this movie for the first time a few weeks ago. I never read or saw any spoilers, didn't even know the premise. All I've known all this time was that it was a horror movie, and the title made me think it was going to be about witches...like, Salem witches. Having finally watched it this year, this film scared the shit out of me and I started sleeping with the light on. I guess I am a total puss, but I have seen many horror films before seeing TBWP which didn't scare me in the least. This one...as I was falling asleep, I kept seeing that parcel of blood, teeth, and hair and Mike standing in the corner. The atmosphere, suspense, and suggestion in this film was great, in my opinion. I am the sort of person who gets more frightened by internet creepypasta and a film like Blair Witch rather than overt or gory horrors about demons/ghosts running around someone's house that just don't seem believable. The thing about Blair Witch was that it hinted at something supernatural without ever coming out and really BEING supernatural.
And for what it's worth, part of what makes the film so timeless is that none of them ARE famous actors. If I had gone into it and immediately been hit with someone who is now super-famous, that would have ruined my suspension of disbelief and I would have just been immediately aware that obviously this famous actor lives and the whole thing wasn't real. So while I do think that Heather, Mike, and Josh should have been paid better given the film's success, it is cool that I could watch it this many years after it was released and not have the realism disturbed by a famous face.
when I saw it first time I couldn't sleep about a week !!
only sleeping in morning 🥲💔 , that was terrifying and I still love this movie , it 's looks like real amazing , and of course I've seen the 2nd one first and than after many year I saw the first one , and actually the first one mutch better than the 2nd one ! 👌💯
I saw it in 1999 when o was 10 and thinking that it was real and while it obviously scared me because of my age and what I thought, I didn't have to sleep with the lights on lol but never forgot it.
Congratulations my friend, you're one of few left with an imagination. I saw this film opening weekend but even now at age 41 it's still the only film to ever actually frighten me.
Very well-said. That's a good point about them not getting famous. I never considered that. Their subsequent lack of fame helps to insure this movie's future impact.
i went to see this movie alone... I still remember sitting in the movie theatre being scared shit less ....very disappointed to find out the next day it was fake....LOL
I saw this film when I was a kid like back in 2000 on VHS. I swear to god, I didn't sleep that night. The film truly haunted me for a week straight. This probably is still the scariest film i've ever experienced.
These guys are awesome. Every time is see them in a panel they give warm, genuine anecdotes and seem truly grateful to the horror genre fans.
I was 13 in the summer of 1999 and I remember that was the summer of Woodstock 99, columbine massacre had just happened it was the biggest story of the year...and I remember seeing the trailer to this movie and they were saying it was the scariest since the exorcist.
Same age here. I was obsessed with getting in the theater to see this.
which is ironic as the actress of the possessed girl in The Exorcist is named Linda Blair, seriously no kidding, she had a tiny cameo as a reporter in the first Scream film
John Michael i agree 100% i was 11 lol yayy us lol
John Michael and then
I was 13 in 1999 as well and the only thing I can add was all the fun times doing things with friends and playing PS1 together during the winter months. Good times. For me, it seems the world changed after 9/11.
I remember alot of people thought this was either based on actual events or was real,the marketing was very well done.
Heather is hilarious! I love hearing what she has to say. It appears she has an upcoming acting credit on her IMDB for the first time since 2008. I hope this marks a successful return to the business for her.
One of the ten. Greatest. Films. Of. All. Time. Love hearing them talk about it. Thank you to the actors for everything they did.
Just watched this movie for the first time and spent the last 2 and a half hours watching all the lore as well as this panel, brilliant film.
That was really nice to watch. One of the best panel discussions I've seen. What a bunch of shits the studios were. They should have given each of them a million bucks.
Couldn't agree more. A million apiece wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of millions the movie made. And the production company sent them a damn *fruit basket* when it hit $100 million. Especially considering how the company tormented them to get real reactions. This is capitalism at work.
@@blueberreez I haven’t finish the vid yet but wow none of them got even 1mill for the work they did???? Wtf. They spent 8 days in the woods (literally camping at specified locations via handheld GPS) and were literally deprived of food on purpose and also chased those one or two nights by the art director and crew. But otherwise for the most part they were basically alone and starved and forced to walk long distances to the next location. over $200mill and NONE of them got even 0.01% of the money THEY reeled in. That’s really disgusting and angering to know. Heather had major difficulty finding a role in anything afterwards because she was synonymous with the genre of this film. At least they all could have gotten the amount they deserved from the insane profits!!! Capitalism ya’ll. That’s sick
@@sylviabennan Exactly. These guys WERE the movie. They sold the fear, paranoia and insanity. Yeh the directors etc were the masterminds with the world building etc but it's Josh, Heather and Mike we all think about when looking back on this movie. I wonder how much both directors got?
yep, corporate greed scum
They shoulda got broken off proper! They made the movie
The Blair Witch Project was one of the best cinematic experiences to end my 20s on alongside The Sixth Sense, The Green Mile and The Matrix.
Some of the GOAT movies of all time. They don't make them as good anymore.
In my opinion what makes the movie scary/ creepy wasn't the spiritual side of it for me it's that hopeless feeling of being completely lost in the woods and cut off from any help i can't speak for everyone but when they're all screaming and yelling that was what got me
that’s def what helped make it so effective: it’s eerily easy to get lost in a state park, with some parks being thousands of acres. I’ve heard stories from friends who were hiking who met lost hikers that got separated from their group, and I even got lost on a daytime hike with that same group of friends. It’s crazy because I was a novice hiker and I had the right trail/map in my mind, and they were way more experienced yet they got us all lost and had ignored me when I said “hey it looks like we just passed the right trail?”... then after two hours of hiking towards nowhere they finally went “oh” and we turned back. so yeah it’s scary knowing how even experienced hikers can get lost.
They did a ridiculously awesome job!
The acting in TBWP is outstanding.I love the movie to bits.
No joke. Heather was amazing but Josh and Mike were also fantastic. They sold it sooooo well, the hunger and desperation and terror.
I don't care it is still one of my favorite movies it makes me really happy to see that the 3 still have a close chemistry.
To me. The feeling never changed. I still find it unsettling and real. But again, I grew up in a small town . With the woods completely around me. The acting comes off so real. That you forget every single time, that its a movie. And its not real.
I'd say Mike is the 'Gilligan' of this group. I mean that as a compliment. Gilligan was a funny guy.
The Blair Witch Project is the Woodstock of the Millennial generation! Til the day I die, I will love this film!
Great panel! Glad this was uploaded.
I'm glad they survived! LOL
What an articulate, honest, intelligent, likable trio.
I’m genuinely appreciative of this interview...especially fifteen years removed from this iconic film.
their acting made the movie. they should've gotten a piece of the box office backend.
awesome video..thanks for posting it..The Blair Witch is my favorite movie of this type. I remember my wife and me going to see it in the theater..we instantly LOVED it..I still watch it about 2-3x a year..Just brilliant..too bad so many dont have the imagination to see it..
This was great, thanks for uploading.
One of the reasons I liked Blair Witch is their dynamic together. Glad to see it hasn't changed. Very much loved this panel.
You can tell there was definitely some trauma about how they were treated after. So crazy their performances sold this movie.
Being A horror fanatic,I think the Blair Witch documentary was A great film. Ive seen it many times and everytime I watched it,I immersed myself in the movie to feel like I was actually their with Heather,Mike and Josh,being lost in the woods and getting stalked by elle the witch made for A creepy satisfying atmosphere.Truly A one of A kind fictional horror documentary.
The mockumentary Curse of the Blair Witch was really good as well. Really added a lot of creepy ass lore to the mythos.
Legitimately watched this whole panel, very cool to see them answer questions that i even had.
When I watch the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT for the first time there was one seen when you hear the children laughing and making noise outside the tent, that scared the HELL out of me
Great upload. TBWP has always been one of my favorites!
Heather was an amazing character and performance
Every October as the leaves start to turn is my BWP rewatch time.
I appreciate all of these people to make this happen and all of the comments of love and support here ❤
This was so cool, thanks for the upload
It's so weird watching them all talk 15 years later. It's like the characters from the movie in wacky costumes and wigs.
I would have so many questions for them!
Glad Josh got his teeth back.
I was 20 years old when I watched it, and I was stoned, and it FREAKED ME OUT!! I love Blair witch project. I wouldnt spend a night in those woods..
I was 14 when this came out; I remember seeing it in theaters and loved it! There were woods behind where I lived and my house had a lot of windows; for a good while I was so scared to look out the windows at night after seeing the film!
I am a huge horror movie buff. I’ve seen it all and nothing has scared me more than The Blair Witch. I have seen it over 50 times and it still gives me the chills. One of the best movies.
My feelings exactly. Especially Heathers cries/screams, the suspense, even Mikes cries towards Josh that one night.
Same here. The original Halloween by Carpenter scared me as a kid but I was 17 when I saw this film in theaters and it absolutely HORRIFIED me.
I remember as a young teen in the summer of 2001 i worked my ass of by cutting the lawn from neighbours, delivering newspapers and washing trucks to save up money for a dvd player. But not much was left to buy any movies. So a friend gave me his dvd from the Blair Witch Project, since he wasn't that fascinated by the story. For an entire year this Movie was the only one i was able to watch, because i couldn't watch tv in my room. I watched it every night when i went to bed, making me remember every single sentence that was spoken in this movie. And still today i watch this movie at least once in a month and i still can speak the whole movie with the actors. The end though creeped me out back then and i always switched off before they entered the house.
For this reason i fell in love with found footage movies of any kind, and its ignorant how many negative critics this genre gets. Especially the BWP deserves more respect.
This is one, if not the best horror movie ever made, since most of us really thought it might be real and no other horror movie could scare me that much, because you always knew that right behind the camera stands an operator with his headset on. In the BWP you know that this is not the case.
Allthough if the BWP would came out these days it wouldn't be the same, since everyone would instantly yell that it's fake ruining the immersion. And i think the immersion is what fascinated us the most back then. Today, if you had doubts at all, you would google on your smartphone while still being in the cinema and would know its not real in a matter of seconds. In 1999-2001 it was not that easy to fact check things online.
Mike is even more gorgeous now x
These guys look amazing. Heather Joshua and Michael. Thank you for making one of my favorite horror movies. The Blair witch project
Man I was sooo creeped out when this came out... I'm 38 now and it's cool because my younger cousins and friends of my stepchildren aged 15 to 20 have virtually never heard of the original Blair Witch. So when they ask me for a horror movie I put this on and tell them it was real and watch them freak out til the end.
I saw this film opening weekend when I believed it was 100% real. I've been a horror fanatic since I was in diapers so I thought there's no way this film will scare me. But holy shit...it did! The way it was shot and the realistic acting had me convinced this was actual found footage. I was literally in a state of shock when we left the theater; I couldn't talk, I could barely move and I had tears streaming down my face. I felt paralyzed. I will never forget that feeling so kudos to them for making a small project turn out to be the scariest movie in history (imo).
The first film which made smart use of the internet to generate a buzz. And unlike many films which have done so since, this one had something they didn't...MYSTIQUE!
Either the story was real or not, getting lost in the woods and walking around in circles is still scary af
When Mike says "Oh sh*t, it's a house." the viewer is absolutely horrified for them. That house was the first sign of civilization in days and it looked like the most frightening place ever.
I still never yet watched this movie. I stumbled onto this video and decided to watch. I very much enjoyed this video. One would think with the amount of money this movie made, all three of them would have been cut a decent sized cheque. I hate cheap people. The moderator James Wallace, very enjoyable.
Well, you get what you're contracted for like everybody else.
$1000 a day in 1997 was great for young, unknown actors working on an indie project. And no one knew then it would be picked up for major release. Blame the studio if you like, but if you expect morals from those guys... hahaha
This was fantastic. I could listen to them talk all day about the making of this film.
great to see u guys alive- i remember driving home from cinema on my malaguti 50cc and fearing that everything I saw in the cinema was real- internet wasn a grown up thing at that time and I really felt unsave. My house is built on the edge of a big forrest...and I slept with my shotgun in my bed for 2 months.....and after that 2 months I slept with my shotgun 20 more years.
thx for that. :D
Love this. I just rewatched ‘BWP’ on the big screen and had forgotten how truly groundbreaking it was.
This was a great watch, even more details discovered. ✊
I loved this and when it first came out my mom couldn't stand to watch because of the camera shaking lol! :P
They seem like great, great people.
I question the reality of Josh's hair.
Josh honestly looks exactly like I think the character Josh would grow up to look lol
Nice to see Heather Donahue there because I had kind of assumed that when she gave up Hollywood (and burned all her mementos of that career?), to become a pot farmer, she'd be like Christopher Lee with Dracula, like "Don't talk to me about it!!", and just distance herself. Nice to see she's still proud to be associated with it.
she was on one of the early episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
She should be. I get all the hype back when it came out and detractors… but I think, all these years later it’s amassed quite the cult following and many horror fans (myself included) consider it one of the most unique and frankly greatest horror films of all time.
@@SFforlife I seems, though, that she really has now distanced herself from the film. She was paid a big wad of money in 2016 to use her likeness in the sequel, Blair Witch, and she said that she used this money to basically go on one long bender. After getting sober she says that she moved to Maine, became a Buddhist and changed her name to Rei Hance. The name change being at least partly to get away from being known for this film.
That was GREAT...very informative and funny. LOVE the movie, still creeps me out and still get goosebumps. The movie has been playing for the last few days here...
Poor kid seems so nervous interviewing these guys lol. Blair Witch to this day is one of my favorite movies of all time. Not just favorite horror. Favorite period.
For many years i thought that this movie was a true story.
PinkSoldier2009 me too I thought they were dead lol
I did too...
To market the movie they sent out missing person reports on Heather, Josh and Mike.
how would they be allowed to profit on 3 peoples death? come on just think a little
I really appreciate what you guys did, and I loved this real interview, much like what you did with the film itself. I really thought it was true; my regret is that one day before I was going to see it, the myth had been dispelled by some thing I accidentally saw on the computer. I really thought it was real! And I am NOT that person; I am naturally cynical and not very trusting of people or things. Anyway, I still don't get why you didn't get parts after this film (I understand what you were saying and why it happened that way); I remember looking for you in other films or tv and was sad I never really got to see any of the 3 of you. Thank you so much for your performances, for the movie, and for this interview. :-) And thanks James Wallace! You are adorable and did a great job with this!
I was 9 when this came out. And it scared the heck out of me but still visit it every year at least once
This was a great panel! I just watched TBW again today and it still scares me. The performances just seem so real with the way it was filmed tbh. Unfortunately, the moderator missed some great moments, like when Mike said he had no regrets, the mod should of ask "Even kicking the map into the creek?" 😆
I can remember being in the theater...it was dead quite because everyone was so into what was happening. An experience I will never forget. This was a great horror movie!
this is so cool! they'er still in character. Its like I'm watching an epilogue of the movie. I love this movie to death!
They changed film making in so many ways.
What really drew me in, even before seeing the movie itself, was the amazingly inventive marketing campaign. The Blair Witch Project featured one of the first Internet viral campaigns for a movie, and that was a huge factor in making the movie into a sensation. It worked so well that _millions of people thought the movie footage was real._
For those who weren't around or were too young to remember, the movie "website" was purposely made to look amateurish, as if it had been created by search volunteers who weren't html-savvy. The main page was dominated by an image of the very official-looking Missing posters and included a plea for any information as to the whereabouts of the students. There were blurry scans of Heather's diary, with the early pages documenting her plans for the film project and the later pages revealing her increasingly panicked state as the film team finds themselves lost in the woods. Heather's research on the legend of the Blair Witch (itself a masterwork in building a convincing legend) were scanned from her messy handwritten notes on spiral notebook paper. You could find grainy Polaroid images of the filmmakers screwing around in Burkittsville before heading into the woods.
Everything about that website looked *real.* It was carefully crafted to look like these campers were indeed lost and their families were desperate for any information. It made the experience of finally watching the movie that much more terrifying because it felt like this was actually some kind of snuff film and I was watching three young people get killed.
and now this year is coming up 20th anniversary from premiere in 99!! cant believe its been 20 years!! hope we will get even more Blair witch movies after 2016 one
The Blair Witch was a perfect example of a particular kind of horror, in which what the viewer doesn't see is the center of the fear. 'The Haunting' of 1963 is another good example. You know something, potentially dangerous and even outright evil, is behind the phenomena portrayed in the story but you never truly see it. It takes fear of the unknown and unseen to that particular level that many would rather avoid.
Josh looks completely different I almost didn’t realise it was him
And he has an amazing family with an amazing actress. He seems cool
They were on the cover of "Newsweek" and the two directors got the cover of "Time" with full stories of the making of the film and the subsequent journey to release, yet there were and are people who still ask if it was real.
People are stupid and they believe anything they hear. It's how it's always been
The sound
is simply
fantastic
THIS IS AWESOME!!!
They created a unique concept of filming ! Used by so many after but the blair witch project is a classic in my top 5.