I remember 1999 pretty vividly. For all of my life up to that point, I could sing along to the lyric “Tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999,” with emphasis on the like. When 1999 finally arrived, I could party because it was 1999. And for some reason, that was a big deal. Obviously, the real end of the millennium wouldn’t arrive until the following year, but there was something about 1999 sounding like it was the end of something big that created such an impact on society and culture.
Specifically, looking back at the films from 25 years ago, it really does appear that 1999 was one of the great years for cinema. It’s not that necessarily every single film released was a classic, but it was just that even something like a found-footage film became one. There was something in the air, and revisiting these films this year has been a pleasure.
When The Blair Witch Project was released that summer, it followed a masterful viral campaign that sold the found-footage horror film as an actual documentary of some sort. Plenty of people didn’t buy into that, while some did. It was great marketing, and honestly, I love that it didn’t even end when the film was released because there were adjacent works like Curse of the Blair Witch and the Blockbuster Video exclusive Stick and Stones that further developed the Blair Witch mythology. I ate all of it up.
By 1999, I was a full-fledged film geek, and I’d watch anything (and still will!). Alas, given the tragedy at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado that May, theaters cracked down on R-rated movies and there was no way I was going to see it. However, my mom went out after work and bought me the DVD the day it was released a few months later, and I watched it that night. I loved it. I’ve seen it once a year, every year, for the past 25 years. It’s kind of a masterpiece.
I’ve always thought this, and although my tastes have evolved over the past quarter century, it’s amazing how little has changed for me regarding this film. In fact, the only thing that has changed is how I see the film as not just a masterful found-footage horror film with an interesting mythology. To me, The Blair Witch Project is about how the structures of society fail when two things occur:
- when those in power take us in the wrong direction and fail to admit their mistakes, and
- when we decide to destroy any chance of finding the path because we’ve given up.
When Mike admits to kicking that map into the creek, he’s all of us when we feel like the best thing to do is no longer follow whoever is in charge. However, he’s taken it a step too far. Was the map useless? On the one hand, if there really is a Blair Witch, no. On the other hand, the map couldn’t possibly be useless. However, if only Heather can read it, what choice does someone like Mike have in the world?
Josh doesn’t fare any better. He knows Heather already and even tries his hand at reading the map a few times, but his disagreements don’t change much. Still, he’s willing to challenge Heather in a way that doesn’t involve getting rid of their best shot at leaving the forest and going home. There’s also the fact that Josh’s temper, arguably, is less than Mike’s, which makes him better suited to challenge the leader of their group.
Regarding Heather, as the years have passed and I’ve grown older and have gained more responsibility, I find that I understand her a lot more than I did as a 15-year-old kid. I most likely saw her then as just another authority figure who just couldn’t admit she’d gotten her group lost in the woods until it was too late. I kind of still think that, but I get where she’s coming from now. It’s really hard to be a leader, especially when you’re doing something no one else has done before. As far as I know, in 1994, no one else had gone into the woods near Burkittsville. That alone is stressful; add to that two dudes who are tired and upset.
Still, it’s important to admit when you’re wrong. I mean, I get it. It sucks to not only be wrong but to actually admit it. There is no part of me that doesn’t understand why Heather sticks to her guns so strenuously, even as things really begin to take a turn. But nothing excuses her lack of responsibility. As the de facto leader of the group, she not only has the responsibility to do the right things but also to own up to said responsibility.
Mike is in the wrong. That much is clear. He can espouse his criticism over the map and Heather’s leadership all he wants, but nothing gave him the right to kick that map into the creek. That said, I also understand his actions. It can be frustrating to know that those in power are not only messing things up, but they are failing to take responsibility. Regardless, there are better ways to go about doing something other than what Mike does. It does no one any good to get rid of the map.
As for Josh, I never saw him replacing Heather as the leader. He’s more rational, but he’s a lot less professional than Heather and he can have his outbursts like Mike. Not to mention, he’s taken away in the middle of the night near the start of the final act, so he’s never fully given the chance. That really does just leave Heather.
What would I have done if my leader had done what Heather had? I think a lot of viewers come to a pretty reasonable conclusion, which is to have just followed the creek. That definitely would’ve taken them somewhere, right? Nope. In fact, they do follow the creek. I suppose that means the Blair Witch is real, and if so, it makes sense to me why they become lost in the woods. It’s because they’re not really lost. There’s nowhere to go, since the Blair Witch can seemingly do magic and simply move things around. They were never going to leave that forest.
But even if the Blair Witch wasn’t real, and it was all just people out there giving them a hard time and possibly killing them, leaving the forest was never an option. What then can we do when all seems lost? If our leaders cannot lead and cannot admit to their failings, do we just give up like Mike? The film doesn’t give us the answer, not really.
By the film’s final ten minutes or so, Josh has vanished, and Heather and Mike have only each other. Gone is the fighting and the questioning. (Heck, even before Josh disappears, Mike tells an upset Josh, “Think how she feels,” managing to sympathize with Heather.) They come to understand that they need one another to survive and to lean on. And while Mike is starting to fall apart completely, Heather comes to terms with her actions or lack thereof.
In one of the film’s most iconic scenes, as well as the most parodied, Heather confesses to her camera that she failed. She apologizes, cries, and she’s so scared. “I’m going to die out here,” she manages to say through stifled sobs. Is it all her fault? No. Blair Witch or not, they got lost. Could she have admitted it earlier and had the three of them work together? You bet. It’s easy to see how wrong you are after the fact, and I don’t believe Heather had any malice in her actions. She was scared before the crazy stuff started; scared to be a failed leader.
It would be nice to have leaders who weren’t Heather, just as it would be nice to not be Josh or Mike, but a lot of us are. Somewhat early in the film, as Mike and Josh start to question whether they might be lost, Heather and Josh have this exchange:
JOSH: Look, serious, the area’s not that fucking big.
HEATHER: Exactly. lt’s very hard to get lost in America these days, and it’s even harder to stay lost. So, we have that on our side.
Unfortunately, 25 years ago and still today, it’s very easy to get lost in America.
Don’t be Heather, Josh, or Mike. If you find yourself in the woods, keep your map close. If you don’t trust it, keep it anyway. Don’t turn on one another. There’s either a witch or people in the woods who want to mess with and hurt you. If you cannot get out, at least have each other. By the time The Blair Witch Project comes to a close, all three become separated, and by the time Heather finds Mike in that basement, it’s too late.
The film is iconic. It’s a great horror film, and it’s a defining work in the found-footage subgenre. A lot of people have their faults with it, and that’s fine. For me, though, The Blair Witch Project is such a good movie. I love the performances (Heather Donahue, honestly, deserved an Oscar nomination), and filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, as well as everyone at Haxan Films, knocked it out of the park.
And on December 30, 1999, the film was listed as one of the ten most influential films of the century by none other than Roger Ebert:
In the next century, technology will place the capacity for feature filmmaking into the hands of anyone who is sufficiently motivated.
How right he was!
Without The Blair Witch Project, there would be no Paranormal Activity and the found-footage boom that followed. Beyond that, it remains a turning point in how to make films cheaply and effectively, and in my opinion, it’s a fascinating statement concerning the world at the turn of the century. At one point, Heather cannot fathom that there is no end in sight, saying:
“Not possible. Not possible in this country…Because this is America and it’s not possible…Let’s just keep going.”
Is Heather correct? Do we just keep going, even though we don’t know what’s ahead, even though we might be lost?
Twenty-five years after its release, The Blair Witch Project is not simply a film of its time, the way so many works tend to be. Fortunately for audiences, and unfortunately for the world in general, it’s timeless.