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‘We filmed one of the most iconic 90s horror movies for $35,000 – but this would have ruined it’


A compilation image of Heather Donahue in the Blair Witch Project and a silhouetted treeline

The Blair Witch Project is one of the most important horror films ever made – and one key scene was almost entirely different (Pictures: Shutterstock)

The Blair Witch Project traumatised audiences upon its release in 1999 and it has continued to haunt horror fans for 25 years.

The supernatural mockumentary followed student filmmakers – Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard – who played fictional versions of themselves, as they embarked on a camping trip into the Maryland woods to investigate the local legend of the Blair Witch.

The students disappear, and their story is told via tapes ‘discovered’ with their equipment a year later.

The found footage style of the film coupled with a ground-breaking marketing campaign helped cement the realism of Blair Witch and terrify audiences in the process.

The film culminates in an abrupt yet haunting final scene in which Heather and Mike find an abandoned house, believing Joshua, who had been missing, is calling to them.

After becoming separated, Heather finds Mike in the basement of the house staring into the corner before she is attacked by an unseen force, dropping her camera to the floor which lingers on Mike before cutting to black.

The found footage horror film was released in 1999 starring Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C Williams (Picture: Moviestore/Shutterstock)

The trio played fictional versions of themselves with the same names as they created a mockumentary about the fabled Blair Witch (Picture: Moviestore/Shutterstock)

It is one of the most sinister images in horror cinema despite the film reportedly being created on a budget of just $35,000 (£27,000) – but directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez believe if they had had more money, they would have ‘ruined’ their own film.

‘The whole movie was based on making something for cheap,’ Eduardo told Metro.

‘We were film students and we knew how expensive movies were, So we were like, “How do you make a horror movie – or any movie – for cheap?” and we came up with the idea we could do cheap because it didn’t have to be crazy lighting, sound, or anything like that.’

He reflected: ‘I think the limits of the budget were actually the strength of the movie. Dan and I have both said a million times if we had more money, we would have probably had some kind of crazy creature at the end of the movie attacking them and in the cellar, or something in that basement, and we would have ruined our own movie.

‘We struggled with that ending and we asked ourselves at the time “How are we going to end this movie?” And I always tell people, man, if we had an extra 20 or 30,000 bucks, we would have hired somebody to make some stupid suit.’

Daniel joked that had they had more money, there ‘definitely would have been an alien in there somewhere.’

Directors Eduardo Sanchez (left) and Daniel Myrick (second right) struggled to end the film (Picture: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

‘The budget was just perfect looking back on it. It was a struggle because we were …read more

Source:: Metro

      

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