It’s like having a Blair Witch-specific Wikipedia right there on your book shelf. The comprehensiveness of this book cannot be overstated – think of it more as an encyclopedia, indexing progress reports from private investigator Buck Buchanan to Angie Donahue (Heather’s mother, and his client) and collecting photographs of the various crime scenes. The result is The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier, which takes all of the information from the website, combines it with a number of the personalities from Curse of the Blair Witch (along with a smorgasbord of new info), and cements it in print form. When a tie-in book was called for by Artisan and publisher Onyx, author Dave Stern came up with a brilliant idea: rather than doing the standard novelization, they would further the deceitful marketing premise by providing a collection of every last bit of information out there on the student filmmakers, on the city of Burkittsville, and, of course, on the Blair Witch herself. And secondly, there is a small but potent bombshell revelation contained on the site that puts the film in a whole new context (more on which in just a moment). Firstly, only those crazy, diehard fans would find each and every scrap of the most background of information interesting enough to catalogue without having the emotional investment in the film proper (continuing the Star Wars riff, it would be like a casual fan reading all dozen or so prequel books before actually watching The Force Awakens). If were up so long before Blair Witch Project’s release, why put it as third on our chronology? The answer comes in two parts. (You can find the original site here for the time being, as the new film has temporarily taken over the main domain name.) And thanks to the insistence of Lionsgate and the tireless efforts of webmaster Dan Karcher, fans can still do so to this day, as has been lovingly restored to its 1999 state, earning it a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest-running movie site. Users can spend hours poring through the information – which they did for nearly a full year before the movie’s theatrical debut. It didn’t hurt that the mockumentary could also serve as a primer to all of the backstory and mythological episodes that had been accrued for Blair as such, Curse of the Blair Witch meticulously recounts the Blair Witch legend, from the execution of Elly Kedward back in 1785 to the butchery at Coffin Rock a century later, to Rustin Parr’s killing spree 60 years after that, all the while laying out the mysterious circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the three Montgomery College student filmmakers in 1994. Haxan Films, the production company behind the movie, for its part, saw this as a chance to double down on the “this really happened, and the Blair Witch really is a long-lived urban legend” premise. With the pre-release buzz of The Blair Witch Project reaching record highs (thanks in part to the expertly-crafted website, and in part to the bootleg VHS tapes that were floating around the horror convention circuit), Artisan struck a deal with the Sci-Fi Channel (now branded as Syfy) to do a promotional tie-in. Be sure to take it with you, along with your trusty camcorder, the next time you venture into the deep, dark woods. Here is our Complete Guide to the Blair Witch Mythology. Rushed into production, lacking any involvement from the original filmmakers, and offering something of a muddled story, the movie not only killed the film side of the meta-franchise, it also put a near-immediate stop to its “expanded universe.” After a veritable explosion of releases and assorted stories, Blair became deader than a doornail.īut what is dead is not forgotten not only is Lionsgate, who acquired the property 13 years ago, resurrecting the movies, director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett are ardent followers of the expanded mythology, hinting that that the vast assortment of tie-in releases may well play an important role in their Blair Witch – or in the movies beyond. Until, of course, a little sequel called Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 hit theaters just before that Halloween.
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