THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT – festival cut – found footage review

So, I am a slappy for BWP. Boy, oh boy, am I. I talk about it endlessly on the blog, in reviews, and in podcasts. I love it for a lot of reasons but essentially, it’s because the work they did on creating a rich and deep mythology pays off in the film and in how it fuels the imagination. It doesn’t show any creatures or boogiemen (boogie witches?) because it built up enough of a foundation for me to create my own monsters that it works. 

Heck, even today, as I re-watch it, I find new ideas and theories about what happened to the hapless filmmakers. 

BLAIR WITCH PROJECT did not invent found footage. It was not the first. It may not be the “best”. What it is is very influential, though in that it showed that with a great idea, with some competent actors, and with a great mythology behind it, you can make a small-budget film into a blockbuster. They captured lightning in a bottle, to be sure, but the work is there. With the film, there was also a diabolical website that added to the mystery, and then there was a SciFi (or SyFy if you prefer) Channel mockumentary that filled in the backstory of the witch and her history. The film itself is powerful as a story of going too far into the dark, but taken with the other material it offers a tale that has been repeated time and again of people daring to reckon with the Blair Witch and paying the price. 

Second Sight Films, a boutique home media company out of the UK, recently released a boxed set of the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT that has had fans of the film giddy with anticipation. The set was going to correct something that had been done to the film when it first came out. In the process of the film’s initial release, it was transferred from one format to another and lost the very thing that made it unique, and that is that it was shot on video. Finally, the film has been restored to that look, to the delight of the filmmakers. With the original film, they included a book, Heather’s notebook, some postcards, a LOAD of deleted scenes, and the festival cut of the film. This festival cut was a little longer than the widely released version of the film and served to get people talking and selling the movie. The differences between this version and the theatrical version may seem negligible – there’s no big reveal of the witch, no shocking revelations, and no abandoned subplot, but what we get added enough to the film that this is my favorite version of it. 

The festival cut is the same, but different. What we get is a LOT more of the bickering and fighting among the trio of hopeful documentarians. And that bickering gets nasty. I can see what it was cut because, as it stands there are a lot of people that say “NO MAS!” to the fighting in the film as it is. In this version, it’s nasty and prolonged, but it also makes things feel more realistic. They are angry, they are scared, and they are desperate. These moments show this. We also get a little more before the trio head into the woods. None of this is necessary per se but it gives you a little more of a feel of them working at this documentary. It’s not exciting but it’s good background, and for a movie that’s still under 90 minutes, it doesn’t feel excessive. There are more of them in the woods, discovering the “stick men”, which really shows, once more, how scary it would be to really find them. The biggest change though is with the climax, which felt scarier than ever. The climax in the festival cut has Mike and Heather finding and entering the old house we believe was Rustin Parr’s – a house that was said to be long gone – and they are together longer. We see both of them looking around each floor and slowly ascending as they try to pinpoint where Josh is. We see the top level of the house, something I don’t ever recall seeing before, and see Mike turn and then racing down to the basement because that’s the last place Josh could be. Heather tries to keep up but can’t and this feels agonizing to watch as we know what’s going to happen. Mike’s footage is longer in the basement by a few moments, and when Heather makes it down there, her scream is cut off as she is screaming, which is horrifying and then the camera falls and keeps filming for most of a minute. It’s not a quick cut. It’s drawn out. It’s nerve-wracking. 

As I said, the changes aren’t huge, but they feel so impactful. The changes gave a film I have seen since it premiered at art houses a week before it went wide, a feeling of unease and dangerousness I hadn’t felt since that initial viewing.

BWP is still what it is, and if you never vibed with it in the first place this won’t change your mind. For me it still feels rich and interesting and makes me want to know more about the mythology of the place. Heck, I even went to Burkittsville for a second on my honeymoon – it’s a very small place that was just used for some exterior shots, by the by. But the sign was there!

Movies, at their best, take us to places we have dreamed but never been, to places we have feared but never seen, and introduces us to people we know but have never met. BWP does this. These feel like real people and a real place and whatever happened to them, you believe it’s real. Taking a step back, it says a lot that people thought it was all real, even in ’99. That shows you how powerful the movie was.

The movie looks better than ever and with the extras – sadly, in Region B so if you want to see all of this you need a region-free Blu-ray player – it’s an amazing set. And sincerely, as a huge fan of the film, the festival cut was amazing to see. I still need to work through all the deleted footage and the documentary but man alive, what a great set. I cannot recommend it enough if you can get an all-region player – and they’re pretty affordable to be honest (and some versions of films, special editions, and movies in general aren’t released here so if you’re a big movie person, it’s worth looking into). 

A must see. 

4.5 out of 5 

Buy it here. (they are just announcing that there was an issue with audio on the theatrical cut so you can sign up for a replacement disc, FYI).

Here is where you can look at region free players – Region Free Players.

(ADDENDUM – the set comes with a replica of Heather’s journal. Really interesting stuff. Not the same “handwriting” as the one we see in the film, or the same back (I mean, it’d be pretty ridiculous to get bratty about it not being exact, I am just pointing it out). It’s interesting in that it shows her mindset going into things. She definitely felt antagonistic toward Josh and a kinship toward Elly Kedward. It’s clear she was going into it without being as prepared as she should have been and full of a lot of self-doubt. I was surprised that the journal didn’t get into more about the kid voices (or that they seemed to see something during that encounter). It’s a fun part of the collector’s set and interesting that I don’t recall something like this ever being released otherwise).