This week marks the tenth anniversary of The Blair Witch Project, a film that forever changed the face of horror as we know it. The Clerks of the horror genre, The Blair Witch Project had such an innovative concept and marketing campaign behind it that the film spawned a wealth of lovers, haters and imitators the likes of which we have yet to see matched. Co-directors Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick will forever be etched in horror film history for bringing us one of the highest grossing, most creative, independent horror features ever. But the real takeaway for fans and haters alike are the discussions that the film continues to spark even 10 years after its release. In celebration of its 10 year anniversary, we reached out to filmmaker friends of FEARnet Eric Stanze and Adam Green for their thoughts on the film, 10 years after its release.

So far this week we've seen quite a few tributes from the online community including one from our horror loving friends at Dread Central and an interesting piece from the LA Times. And in case you haven't noticed, the original Blair Witch web site has a little birthday message of its own. Our dissection comes from two indie directors currently working within the horror genre. Both Eric Stanze and Adam Green have written, produced, directed and even acted in the horror genre and they both have interesting takes on the phenomenon and film that is The Blair Witch Project. Check out their thoughts below, and be sure to let us know if you have any Blair Witch memories of your own.

The most striking thing about The Blair Witch Project was the uniqueness of why everyone flocked to see it.  People didn't rush to the theaters to see a famous actor, or to check out the recent work of a notable director.  It wasn't even that the story synopsis made Blair Witch a "must see" movie.  Instead, people rushed out to see it simply because of what it was.  "Unique" can also be considered "off putting" when millions of marketing dollars are at stake.  There was no established track record for movies like this.  No script.  No name actors.  Shot on camcorders.  No standard narrative tools tying together the "found footage."  It was its own beast, and it's a small miracle that something so untested received the well-funded marketing push it got.  I don't think anything like The Blair Witch Project came before it, or has come along since.  And that's a shame.  More unique ideas should have this level of faith behind them.
-Eric Stanze
(Director of Scrapbook, Deadwood, Ratline)

The Blair Witch Project was quite possibly the greatest viewing experience of my life and something that has forever spoiled me when it comes to horror films.  I was still living in Boston and though I had dreams of soon moving West and becoming a working filmmaker, I knew nothing of the Hollywood inside scoop or industry buzz.  In fact, I was so naive that I thought that film festivals were more like carnivals, so you can only imagine my disappointment the first time I had a film premiere at Sundance only to discover that there were no rides. 

A blank VHS tape showed up in my mailbox with a post-it that read "Here's some footage some people found.  Tell me if you think there's a good movie idea in here."  It was from a friend who was currently working at United Talent Agency pushing their mail cart, but I didn't have the foresight to suspect anything.  I watched the tape and within 10 minutes I felt much attached to the three people on the tape.  Having just finished film school, they were exactly the stereotypes I had lived and worked with for the past four years. Then they got lost.  And that was about the time my roommate came home. "What are you watching?" He asked.  "Um... a video tape with three film school students walking around in the woods... and talking.  But they're like, lost I guess?"  I answered.  "Is there porn anywhere on it?"  He replied.  "Not yet."  I answered.  So he sat down with me and together we continued my voyeuristic night watching the lives of three strangers unfold through my VCR and hoping that at some point there would be a three way.

Needless to say, by the time the shit hit the fan and something started banging on their tent, we had already signed up to buy into this tape.  Sure something about it seemed staged and there's no way we could believe that Mike would have "kicked the map into the creek"... but then again, who would waste their time making something like this just as a goof?  What would the point be?  We hunkered down scared shitless and finished the experience.  By the time it was done, I thought I was going to piss myself.  I ran to my computer with the hopes of proving that the tape I just watched was a sick joke.  But sure enough, there were countless websites with MISSING reports for poor Josh, Mike, and Heather!  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I called the friend who had sent me the tape and yelled "You need to get this to the authorities!  How did you find this?"  Only to hear him laugh and say "Gotcha!" 

It was amazing.  For a solid 45 minutes my heart had been racing like no other "movie" had ever made it race before.  The Blair Witch Project not only spawned a whole new form of fun for me in scaring everyone I knew, but it also emptied my then meager bank account with all of the money I spent on dubs, mailing, and post-it notes.  One by one, I took down each of my unsuspecting friends.  It was glorious.

Now for those who saw the film when it was released as a movie, or even if they saw it KNOWING it was a movie- of course this kind of reaction is hard to relate to.  I mean, if you saw The Blair Witch in theaters or on DVD, of COURSE it was hard to buy into because you could keep telling yourself "it's only a movie, this isn't real".  But for those of us lucky enough to have received one of those mysterious blank VHS tapes with the post-it note, it changed the way we watched horror films.  Innovative in every way, flawlessly executed, and brilliantly marketed... in my opinion The Blair Witch project reigns as one of the greatest and most original horror experiences of all time.  Many have tried to cash in on its brilliance and many have tried to ride the wave of "embracing low quality video" as a way of feature storytelling, but none will ever capture the lightning in the bottle that was The Blair Witch Project. 

To Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez I take my hat off to you both and say congratulations on the 10 Year Anniversary of one of the greatest achievements in filmmaking.  And to Heather, Josh (a good friend of mine now), and Mike... beware coffin rock!
-Adam Green
(Hatchet, Spiral, Frozen)