The Blair Witch Project is a divisive film for horror fanatics. Between the shaky cam and never revealing its villain, the movie earned many warranted criticisms. Despite this, it was a box office bonanza and brought the genre of found footage back to the forefront of cinema. While horror is generally less approved of by wide audiences, Blair Witch was a must see back in 1999. The ad campaign promised horror beyond anything most viewers had ever seen, and many trailers featured night vision views of movie goers in absolute terror. Many have claimed that it is the first movie to ever go viral, and this was before the glorious rise of social media. It’s a fascinating look into the possibilities of creative film making and how to execute on an extremely low budget.

Never forget the safe word.

When the actors needed to break scene continuity or in the very rare instances that the directors needed to clarify something for an actor, they would shout “taco.” Most of the time the actors followed a map to dead drop sites where they received instructions on where they were going and what could happen in a scene. It was a very hands off approach that relied heavily on the actor’s abilities to follow vague instructions and come up with their own lines.

Around 10% of the movie is spent arguing over a stupid map.

Improvisation can lead to some amazing moments, but it does have its disadvantages. It is often hard to cohesively wrap up a scene when you don’t have a script. This is quite evident in the 7 and a half minute argument that happens over the map. The three leads bicker and squabble over kicking the ‘useless’ map into the river for what amounts to 10% of the movie’s entire run-time.

They filmed a ton of improvised footage.

Since the film was based on a 35 page outline, it fell upon the actors to create interesting dialog and action. Over the course of 8 days they committed 19 hours to film. This led to the original cut running over two and a half hours. In the end it was chopped down to a svelte 80 minutes.

Gilligan doesn’t dance for free.

According to the director commentary, the most expensive scene in the whole film was when Heather Donahue quoted the Gilligan’s Island theme song. To have it in the movie they had to buy the rights to the song from Warner Brothers.

Kids are evil.

At one point the trio found themselves in the dark listening to children playing and speaking in tongues. To accomplish this, director Eduardo Sanchez recorded his mother’s neighbor’s children playing. He then set up three boom boxes in the woods and blasted the actors with the recordings. Michael C. Williams claims that this was one of the few sequences that genuinely terrified him.

Bonus Fact: Some who wander, are in fact, lost.

There were several occasions in which the trio of actors got lost in the woods, including the very first scene in the woods. When they walk away from their car the actors went the wrong direction and ended up wandering for several hours. This wouldn’t be the last time they got lost in the woods.

Know any other facts about The Blair Witch Project that you would like to share? Or have comments about the film? Drop them below!

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Tony Southcotte: Tony hails from the Rocky Mountains somewhere around the state of Colorado. Possibly raised by grizzly bears, this gritty denizen of the arena now spends most of his time grappling with Java updates and dysfunctional RAM. With not much fiction under his belt, it might seem tempting to bet against Mister Southcotte, but an impressive knowledge of everything from PVC pipe to psychedelic drugs makes Tony a storehouse of fiction waiting to hit the paper. Plus, you know, there’s the possibility of him ripping you apart like a grizzly bear.