Myth Building

A film professor talking about Heather's work ethic or Josh's lack thereof, Josh's girlfriend telling us she didn't trust Heather, a local who helped to search for the students who went missing in 1994, the skeptical professor of folklore who questions and challenges all the history blaming the Blair Witch for the deaths of children and searchers, the anthropology professor whose students while on assignment found the missing footage describing the difficulty of where the tapes and equipment were stored considering how the structure was undisturbed, the sheriff scrutinized for his search methods and work on the missing persons case, the attorney who seems to feel the sheriff didn't do enough (also posited by a local searcher and citizen of Burkittsville), and a brother of Michael (also Heather's dad talking about her as a child growing up) talking about his personality and mentioning he just couldn't bring himself to watch the "last moments Mike was alive" all are presented very matter-of-factly and feel very realistic as documentary subjects. To just build impact and effect when watching "The Blair Witch Project", "Curse of the Blair Witch" is a strong companion to accompany the found footage classic. I always follow up "The Blair Witch Project" with this companion; they are symbiotic to me.

I think the Scifi Channel deserved a ton of credit for building the Blair Witch notoriety, offering a bit of chum to bait horror fans into going to see the found footage film, "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999. I remember the chilling effect of Curse of the Blair Witch (1999), how it captivated me. I was 20, just shy of 21 when "The Blair Witch Project" was released to theaters and turned the genre on its head. What made "Curse of the Blair Witch" so worthwhile was the efforts directed towards giving "The Blair Witch Project" human faces behind the found footage. Talking with "family, friends, law enforcement, locals, historians, and professors" either involved with the case, speaking about the mythos of Blair Witch, or offering their own theories or opinions about the "three missing film students", "Curse of the Blair Witch" just further builds on the film's alluring nature. 

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I remember following "Curse of the Blair Witch", Scifi Channel, on this weekday morn, televised an early 80s witchcraft horror film from Lommel, The Devonsville Terror (1983). It was an unexpected low budget oddity with a strange-behaving Pleasence once again going where the work was. With my mind going about three missing film students and a witch in the woods of a small Maryland town, this little witchcraft film, about how a town (much like the one in "The Blair Witch Project") is "invaded" by a murdered witch's presence seemed like an ideal choice by Scifi.