Hump Day Horror


 Summer of 1999, and the release of The Blair Witch Project.

I still remember the marketing campaign, which really set the tone for this being real found footage.

While it wasn't the first movie to use the film technique, it certainly popularized it for years to follow.

And for all the jokes it gets now, it really did scare the lot of us.

It was an independent, low-budget film which ended up making $250M worldwide.  Much of the filming was done by the actors themselves, and they were left to improvise much of the dialogue.  They also didn't really know when the director would be out there shaking the tent to get a realistic response.

It takes place in Burkittsville, MD, where Elly Kedward terrorized the town and was banished.  But then children disappeared, and the town was abandoned.  The movie makes reference to a book called The Blair Witch Cult, published in 1809.  The Maryland Center for History and Culture received many phone calls inquiring on the fictitious tome.

Of course, there are some true stories, such as that of Rebecca Fowler, the only person executed for witchcraft in Maryland.


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