The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project an American found footage psychological horror film made in 1999. It is a story set in 1994 of three filmmaker students who go to film a documentary in Burkittsville, Maryland about the local legend who is Blair Witch. The three students Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard disappear but their footage, video and sound equipment is found a year later and the recovered footage is what the viewers are watching. 

Development 
The filmmakers Myrick and Sanchez came up with the idea of for the film after coming to the realisation that documentaries on paranormal phenomena scarier than traditional horror films. Using this they then decided to create a film combining styles and created a script that consisted of 35 pages and the rest of the dialogue was made to be improvised. In terms of the mythology behind the film being developed, the two filmmakers used several different inspirations the main one being Edward Kelly. Edward Kelly is a 16th century mystic ad was used for the character Elly Kedward which is a near-anagram. 

Filming
The filming only lasted eight days and a few people interviewed at the start of the film were not real and some were planted. The actors were given clues where to go for their next location through messages given in milk crates. Individually they were given instructions that they would use to help improvise the action of the day.

Plot
Set in October 1994, three film students set out to produce a documentary about Blair Witch. They travel to Burkitsville and interview residents about the legend. They are told about Rustin Parr, who lived in the woods and kidnapped eight children in the 1940s and used to kill them. He turns himself into the police and claims that the spirit of Elly Kedward, a woman who was executed for witchcraft in the 18th century forced him to commit the murders. A woman they interviewed claims to have seen Blair Witch in person and describes her as a hairy half-human, half-animal beast. 

They spend the next few days exploring the woods getting further and further and learning more stories from the locals. A series of weird events keep taking place such as hearing twigs snapping in the night, finding cairns built around their tent, hearing children laughing and Josh finds his camera equipment covered in translucent slime. 

On their sixth morning Heather and Mike wake up to find that josh has disappeared and later that night they hear his agonised screams. The next day Heather finds a bundle of sticks tied with some fabric of Josh's shirt outside her tent. She also finds blood-soaked scraps of Josh's shirt, teeth, hair and what appears to be his tongue. Again they hear Josh's screams which then draws them to an abandoned house containing runic symbols and children's bloody handprints on the wall. Something attacks Mike in the basement  and Heather enters the basement screaming and she is also attacked causing her to drop the camera and go silent. The footage then ends. 

How This Will Inspire My Horror Film
As I have decided to do a psychological horror film in a found footage style, I have decided to use Blair Witch as the main inspiration as its one of the most successful films from the genre. I've adapted the idea of three filmmakers into 4 media students making a horror film for their coursework which is essentially what I am doing. They are filming in the woods on handheld cameras like they do in the film however it all begins to go wrong. I have also made the decision of having them a very minimal script and making them improvise so that the acting is less forced.