In October 1994 . . . and by now, you probably know the rest. If you haven't seen the documentary, the web-sites, or the film, you must surely have seen or heard reviews or comments about The Blair Witch Project. Although coverage of the film reached saturation point some time ago, it is an intriguing media phenomenon, so the copy keeps coming. This, even though few afficionados say it's a masterpiece. "Unnerving rather than scary" goes one of the more positive reviews.
Whatever its merits, The Blair Witch Project is acknowledged as one of history's most ingeniously marketed films. Made for $35,000 (maybe less, maybe more, depends on what you read) to make, it has made millions of dollars profit since it opened in the US last summer. How? The directors created such powerful pre-release hype that audiences believed (and many apparently still believe) they were watching the true story of three missing students. Fans of horror, directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez set out to make a film which breathed new life into the genre.
They came up with a psychological horror story which, they said, "plays on the innate fears of human nature". Then they used forms of media which we usually associate with the "truth" to publicise the film. One was a "real life" documentary about the disappearance of three students, and the tales of witchcraft accompanying the story - and they got the documentary, The Curse of the Blair Witch, screened on cable TV in the States. It had footage of everything from local police to a film lecturer lamenting his careless appraisal of the project planned by his student (Heather Donahue, played in the film by Heather Donahue).
Much as movie-goers understand the language of cinema, TV-watchers know "true" documentary footage when they see it: this was a bog-standard documentary replete with plausible details and tear-jerking pathos. And, let's face it, we've got used to documentaries on Sky and elsewhere that take the paranormal for granted.
However, it's the use of the Internet which is arguably the most interesting dimension of marketing The Blair Witch Project. Some consider it "the film that broke through the barrier separating old and new media". While film promoters have long since spotted the web as an advertising forum, the Blair Witch directors exploited the format of the Internet as an interactive medium to suck its potential audience right into the real-life story of the missing film students. Their website, up and running long before the film's release, included documents and photographs to support the "truth" of the tale. It still does, even as the advertising for Blair Witch merchandise runs across your screen.
