Internet Powers Success of 'Blair Witch Project'

By AMY WALLACE and RICHARD NATALE

Aug. 5, 1999 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

To understand what’s driving the appeal of the little horror movie that the Internet made huge, all you have to do is log on.

“My pulse raced, my breathing became labored, and I felt weak. Damn, that was cool!” a 26-year-old computer science student nicknamed “Perfect Tommy” wrote after seeing the independent film phenomenon “The Blair Witch Project.”

“If this doesn’t scare you, then you’re one of the walking dead clogging our shopping malls,” wrote “Nordling,” a 30-year-old court clerk, who described the mock documentary, which purports to be the discovered footage of three student filmmakers who have gone missing while searching for a witch in the Maryland woods, as a vision of terror “through the eyes of the terrified.”

Another online user predicted: “It’s going to do to the woods what ‘Jaws’ did for the ocean.”

Every generation wants a movie of its own. Young people embraced “Easy Rider” in the ‘60s, “Saturday Night Fever” in the late ‘70s and “The Breakfast Club” in the ‘80s. Now the Internet generation has discovered “The Blair Witch Project,” a microbudgeted independent horror film distributed by Artisan Entertainment that is swiftly becoming the cinematic sensation of the summer, if not the year. Already, its $26,500 average box office take per screen has set records, besting the $22,000 per-screen average of the vastly more expensive (and more hotly anticipated) “Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace.”

As it spreads to 1,000 more theaters this weekend, doubling its presence across the nation, the $50,000 feature appears likely to gross at least $100 million, leaving several big-budget studio scare fests (“The Haunting” and “Deep Blue Sea,” to name two) sputtering in its wake. Its success has put Hollywood on notice, proving that multimillion-dollar production budgets, name movie stars and huge television advertising campaigns are not necessarily essential; to some moviegoers, in fact, they’re a turnoff.

Instead of sneering at the film’s low-tech effects and lack of gore, children and young adults are grooving on its non-slick, gritty look. To them, the jittery hand-held camera work that may drive older viewers nuts feels fresh, they say, as does the bare-bones (some would say maddeningly ambiguous) storytelling.

“I liked what they didn’t show,” said Leo Imbert, a 26-year-old freelance editor who emerged from an 11 a.m. screening in West Hollywood this week vowing to see “Blair Witch” again. “It leaves more up to the imagination, which is more twisted than any special effect.”

Audiences, mostly in their teens and 20s, have connected with a clever Internet marketing campaign that built a mythology around the film, using 16 hours of extra footage supposedly shot by the missing student filmmakers to create a complex world for the curious to explore online. The Web site (https://www.blairwitch.com) seeks to make moviegoers feel they’ve discovered the film, not had it forced upon them.

“In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Md., while shooting a documentary,” says the legend that appears when you log on (as people have done 63 million times since the site was created in April). A beat, then this appears: “One year later, their footage was found.”

On the Web site, as in all the advertising created by Artisan, the mystery is further enhanced by suggesting that the story may be true. (It’s not.) Fans can read supposed excerpts from one of the missing students’ diaries, look at supposed police photos of the car they left behind and watch tearful “interviews” with their grieving families.

“It’s like ‘War of the Worlds.’ It’s become an instant urban legend,” said Chris Pula, Disney’s marketing chief, referring to Orson Welles’ famous 1938 radio broadcast about an alien invasion that many Americans thought was real. Pula, one of many in Hollywood who is closely monitoring the film’s ascent, said “Blair Witch” has shown once and for all that, particularly for movies aimed at the young, Internet marketing can work.

‘The Pleasure of a Good Scare’

Folklorists say the movie’s basic story line taps into something humans have long found irresistible.

“It’s an old, old theme in folklore: the custom of kids--we call it the ‘legend trip’--daring each other to go out to a place about which there are spooky stories to see what happens,” said Jan Harold Brunvand, a professor emeritus at the University of Utah who has written six books about so-called urban legends. Summing up the allure of “Blair Witch,” he said: “I wouldn’t call it paranoia, but there’s an enduring sense that the media doesn’t tell us everything, that the government is suppressing something. That, and just the pleasure of a good scare.”

To be sure, many people leave theaters lamenting the movie’s lack of a credible plot line.

“I’ve made sandwiches that are scarier than ‘Blair Witch,’ ” wrote one Internet user with the handle “Napoleon Solo.”

“If you were scared, I pity you. Have Mommy get you a new night light bulb,” wrote “JMS Power!,” a 25-year-old workers’ compensation examiner.

But such critics may be missing the point. When a movie gets this big, its appeal almost transcends the celluloid itself, as even skeptics begin to feel they must see it, just to know where they stand.

“This whole ‘Blair Witch’ thing . . . is every bit as pervasive as a Loch Ness monster blurry photo or an out-of-focus distant shot of a Bigfoot traipsing through the forest,” Internet movie maven Harry Knowles wrote on his Ain’t It Cool News Web site. “It’s a supernatural story that you tell at a campfire.”

For a campfire story, however, this has yielded an astonishing payday. As of last weekend, the five once-struggling members of Haxan Films, the Florida filmmaking collective that created “Blair Witch,” were wealthy--and famous--young men. Thanks to a generous profit-sharing agreement with Artisan, which purchased the film for $1.1 million at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, one of the group confirms that each has already “made more money than we ever thought we’d make.” (Sources say $2 million apiece.)

The collective’s two writer-directors, 30-year-old Eduardo Sanchez and 35-year-old Daniel Myrick, have been booked on the “Today Show” and featured in national news and movie magazines. Their Orlando-based company has signed a two-year deal to develop new programs with 20th Century Fox Television and Regency Television. And they have several films in the works with Artisan--a romantic comedy and, potentially, “Blair Witch” prequels and sequels.

“We lucked out. We experimented, and it worked a lot better than we thought it was going to work,” said Sanchez, who earlier this year had his water turned off for lack of payment and who--despite his newfound riches--still jams his 6-foot, 7-inch frame into a tiny Hyundai automobile. Sanchez’s theory on the movie’s overwhelming appeal: “People are being scared by it--and not ‘Hollywood’ scared. They’re having nightmares. There’s this side effect to watching the film and people are digging that.”

Delayed Advertising

Another effect has occurred on the business side: Two-year-old Artisan, a true independent distributor (unlike Miramax and others with major studio connections), has become a serious player in Hollywood almost overnight. In pure profit terms, the company stands to make a killing, having spent a paltry (by industry standards) $15 million on prints and advertising by delaying almost all TV and print ads until after the movie had opened. Moreover, Artisan has sold the film to the F/X Channel for $10 million, and a related book, comic book and soundtrack are selling briskly.

But in the long run, the biggest payoff for Artisan may be in increased prestige. Just as “sex, lies and videotape” put Miramax on the map and “Nightmare on Elm Street” showed what New Line Cinema could do, “Blair Witch” is Artisan’s new calling card.

“It gives Artisan a personality, an identity, not only with the agents, but more importantly with actors, rising producers and filmmakers,” said Jeremy Zimmer, senior agent at United Talent Agency.

John Pierson, a longtime independent producer and writer who was the first to feature “Blair Witch” footage--on his “Split Screen” show on the Independent Film Channel--agreed.

“It’s a good thing Miramax is launching a new magazine this week. Otherwise I think some heads would be rolling over there,” he said, adding that with Artisan’s box office bonanza, Miramax Co-chairman Harvey Weinstein--who opted along with other studio execs not to bid on “Blair Witch” at Sundance--”has been trumped. It’s never quite happened at this level before.”

Industry observers have been struck by Artisan’s platform release pattern, which began in 27 single-screen art houses (which are known for more aggressive local promotions) although the film’s core audience rarely visits such theaters. The gamble paid off when the art houses went the extra mile to draw viewers. One Philadelphia venue installed flickering candle-flame bulbs in the theater’s light fixtures, played spooky outdoor sounds instead of Top 40 music and served “blood” popcorn. At Landmark’s NuWilshire in Santa Monica, a three-man tent is set up in the front of the theater where “Blair Witch” is showing, and bloody handprints adorn the exit doors.

“The total is the sum of the parts,” said veteran independent producer Jeff Dowd, an early champion of the film, who applauded Artisan for its grass-roots promotion. “Usually people say, ‘If the critics get behind it, it will work.’ Or, ‘If we spend $25 million and have McDonald’s spend another $10 million, that’s enough.’ But when you give the public the chance to embrace a film, miracles will happen.”

Amy Wallace is a times staff writer; Richard Natale is a freelance entertainment writer.

Read the Times’ review of “The Blair Witch Project” online at:

http://ukobiw.net./blairwitch

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Season of the ‘Witch’

* Total domestic box office (through Monday): $36.1 million

* Per-screen average: $26,500

* Original cost of the film: $50,000*

* Hits on the https://www.blairwitch.com Web site: 63 million

*Artisan subsequently spent $341,000 to enhance the film and remix the sound.

Sources: Artisan Entertainment and Exhibitor Relations Co.; Photo courtesy of Artisan Entertainment