Trivia

(at around 46 mins) In a scene where the main actors are sleeping in a tent at night, the tent suddenly shakes violently and they all get scared. This was unscripted and the director shook the tent; the actors actually were scared.

Heather Donahue's mother received sympathy cards from people who believed that her daughter was actually dead or missing.

One of the video cameras used by the actors was bought at Circuit City. After filming was completed, the producers returned the camera for a refund, making their budget money go even further.

(at around 46 mins) The Blair Witch was supposed to be seen in the movie. As the characters were running out of their tent, Heather yells, "Oh my God, what the f*** is that? What the f*** is that?", the cameraman was supposed to pan to the left where the audience would briefly see a woman wearing a white gown in the distance. But the cameraman forgot to pan to the left and the scene was not reshot.

The three leads believed the Blair Witch was a real legend during filming, though, of course, they knew the film was going to be fake. Only after the film's release did they discover that the entire mythology was made up by the film's creators.

The final day of shooting took place on Halloween night. The crew had planned on wrapping one day before, but the camera had run out of batteries due to the camera light, requiring an additional day of shooting.

It took eight days to shoot the film, but eight months to edit it.

Heather Donahue faced a considerable backlash as a result of her role, including threatening encounters and difficulty finding other employment. She retired from acting in 2008 to pursue a career in medical cannabis.

The actors were requested to interview the townspeople, who often, unbeknownst to the actors, were planted by the directors. As a result, the expressions on the actors' faces were unrehearsed.

Heather Donahue also told Fangoria Magazine that the final scene was so terrifying for her, she kept hyperventilating and crying long after the shoot was over.

(at around 53 mins) The reactions from Heather, Mike and Josh, when they discover they have walked south all day and ended up in the same spot, are real; they were genuinely upset that they had walked all day for nothing.

Heather Donahue wrote her own monologue for the initial scenes in her documentary.

Although having been given a brief crash course on using the 16mm camera, Joshua Leonard struggled to focus using it for the first few days of filming. This is why the interview with Mary Brown is of such poor focus and incredibly grainy.

In the movie, Heather and Mike share a somewhat antagonistic attitude towards each other. In the commentary, the directors revealed it was Heather and Joshua who were arguing most of the time (and more heatedly). Almost all of the footage of their arguments was taken from the final cut, after the filmmakers decided it seemed like both men were "ganging up" on Heather.

The three principal actors, Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams, shot nearly all of the completed film.

The 1999-2000 hunting season suffered badly due to this film. The movie was so popular that fans all over the country were hiking into the wilderness to shoot their own Blair Witch-style documentaries. As a result, they kept most of the wildlife scared away from hunting areas.

The woman on the street telling her account of the Blair Witch and the events in Burkittsville was just a random woman the actors came across on the street. She made up the entire story on the spot. After filming, the directors tried with no success to find the woman to get her to sign a release form.

The slime on Josh's backpack was actually KY jelly.

At 85%, this has the highest score on Rotten Tomatoes of any film that was nominated for the Razzie Award for Worst Picture.

The film was originally planned to include both the story of the missing students as well as the aftermath of their disappearance. The found footage of the trio would be framed by newscasts about the search for them, as well as interviews with family members and experts. Most of this material was cut out during editing for feeling contrived and too scripted, in favor of focusing completely on the story of the three students. However, much of the deleted material could later be used in the viral marketing of the film.

In the initial draft, Josh was intended to have a strong romantic interest in Heather. In several of the scene instructions given to the actors on the callback auditions, it was instructed that Josh take note of how attractive Heather was, and how dejected he should be that she seemed oblivious to this. Eventually the idea was scrapped as fear the movie would become too cliché. A similar plot element does appear in the 2016 sequel, however.

When promoting the film, the producers claimed it was real footage. Some people either have at one point or still believe it, or at the very least, believe that it is a re-enactment of a true story.

An early idea for the ending would have revealed that either the fisherman or his son-in-law would have been pranking the main characters all along, but this was rejected for sounding too similar to Scooby-Doo. Three months after the film's wide release, Cartoon Network premiered the parodic TV special The Scooby-Doo Project (1999). The spoof, in turn, hints at a typical Scooby-Doo franchise ending... until the real monster shows up.

During the woods shooting, the actors were mostly out of contact with the directors and crew, although they were always close by. The cast was given a walkie-talkie to contact them in an emergency and a GPS device which was used to locate a pre-positioned crate, with a red bicycle safety flag attached. The crate contained instructions for the day's shoot, notes from the directors, fresh film cans as well as snacks, water, and other supplies. They deposited their day's footage in the crate so the directors could view the dailies. The crew also set up the tent for them at the next location. The directors pinged the GPS with the new location when it was time for them to move on.

The 16mm camera used to shoot the black-and-white documentary footage was sold on eBay following production.

A storm moved into the area on the third day of the woods shoot, some scenes capture the downpour as they trudge through the woods. After filming, the actors returned to their campsite only to discover their tent had leaked and all of their belongings and bedding were soaked. They tried to contact the crew on their radio for help (none of the actors were permitted to carry cellphones) but they could not get a signal, possibly being out of range. Their GPS had been pre-programmed with emergency escape routes out of the woods in case they were lost (which happened thrice) and they found a nearby home which took them in. After using the homeowner's phone to contact the directors, they were picked up and taken to a local motel so they could shower and get a decent meal and a warm bed. The next day, after the crew had cleaned and dried out their camping site (as well as waterproof the tent), they resumed the shoot.

When the movie was released, the town of Burkittsville did some of its own marketing in the hopes of making at least some profit from the film. During the annual summer carnival, the local Ruritan Club featured the "Bur-Witch" sandwich: country fried ham and a fried egg on top of a cheeseburger, nestled in a sesame seed bun, doused with horseradish. The sandwich was the most popular selling item on the menu two years in a row.

Heather Donahue mentioned to Fangoria Magazine that her first question she asked the director, upon arriving on the set, was if he was planning on making a snuff film.

The production company, Haxan Films, borrowed its name from Benjamin Christensen's witchcraft documentary, Häxan (1922), a source of inspiration for the film. "Häxan" (pronounced HEKS-ahn) is Swedish for "the witch".

According to the directors, the scene where Heather, Josh and Mike were in the motel room was the longest piece of film that the three had shot. The scene reportedly went on for at least ninety minutes and involved Josh and Mike reading poetry followed by some drunken arguing between Josh and Heather.

The first title for the movie was The Blair Witch Tapes.

(at around 46 mins) When the three are running through the woods and Heather yells, "What the f*ck is that?" at something off-camera, she is really reacting to art director Ricardo Moreno dressed in white long-johns, white stockings, and white pantyhose pulled over his head running alongside them.

(at around 1h 5 mins) During the scene where Heather finds the bundle of tied sticks, production designer Ben Rock was looking on to see her reaction when she looked inside. She didn't open the bundle but instead threw it away. Rock conveyed this back to the production team who stepped in and to tell her to go back and look inside. The teeth inside the bundle are from Eduardo Sánchez's dentist and from casting's Lisa Dane. The hair is really Joshua Leonard's hair.

The 16-millimeter camera was broken during filming; Joshua Leonard (who had the camera in his pack) rolled down a hill, causing the lens to pop off the camera.

This film uses the word "fuck" 154 times.

(at around 49 mins) When Mike tries to force Heather to put down the camera, she actually bit him to get him away from her.

(at around 12 mins) The two fishermen were father- and son-in-law. Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick toyed with the idea that one of them was playing a prank on the kids, like something out of Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969). They didn't follow through with it because it seemed a cheesy reason for all the spooky goings on.

The DVD version of the movie showed sections of film previously never seen on the VHS.

The nighttime shot of Heather running through the woods (a prominent image in the trailers) had to be filmed twice because of logistical problems.

The film premiered in the midnight movie section at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.

The production put out fliers at a local community college looking for interns. Patricia DeCou, who plays Mary Brown, was the only person to sign up. She's referred on the commentary as the "world's oldest college student," the scene was actually shot at her home, and no production design was done to it. The make-shift wooden gate was already there.

Although the concept of a movie consisting of people's recovered video recordings is not new (with Cannibal Holocaust (1980) as a notable early example), The Blair Witch Project managed to reinvigorate the "found footage" style of filming for several decades to come, inspiring other horror movies like Paranormal Activity (2007), REC (2007), and The Last Exorcism (2010), but also non-horror productions such as Cloverfield (2008), Chronicle (2012) and Project X (2012).

There was an hour and a half worth of footage shot in the hotel when the actors are getting drunk. They really are drunk by the end of the scene, and each person's real characteristics came to light. Among the footage that was cut includes Mike and Josh reciting poetry and a scene of the three at a diner. This latter scene is included on the VHS version of the film.

Whilst in hospital, recovering from a near fatal car crash, Stephen King's son brought him a VHS tape of the movie to watch. He told his son to turn it off halfway through and said "it was too freaky".

On the set of Pulp Fiction (1994), actor Bruce Willis somewhat predicted the success of this movie five years prior to its release: "Some day in the next five years, someone's gonna take one of these and make a feature film with it. They almost did it with, uh, Bob Roberts (1992). Some kid, some 17-year-old kid, is gonna make this killer, drop-dead, poorly lit video movie that is gonna be the hippest fucking thing. And then there's gonna be hundreds of them everywhere. And they're gonna cost about... $60,000." At this time, e also suggested to director Quentin Tarantino that he be the one to create this video movie that would change the world.

Over the course of filming, the production team left less and less food for the actors in each day's drops. Over the last two days, Heather Donahue and Michael C. Williams were down to getting a Power Bar, a piece of fruit, and water each day.

Writers and directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez were catapulted into stardom and prosperity due to the success of The Blair Witch Project. In an interview, the question was raised: exactly how rich were these two men? One responded: I am not allowed to say, but I'm looking at houses for the first time in my life.

Eduardo Sánchez has said that it "bugs" him in scenes when Josh or Mike are yelling at Heather to put down the camera so they can start hiking. This is because they are in such a rush to leave, but aren't packing up the tent or gear. "They're not packing, because they know we're gonna come and pack it," says Daniel Myrick.

Heather, Josh, and Mike's characters were originally going to be named Jane, John, and Bill respectively, but the actors suggested that they use their real names to make the improv feel more natural, and the directors agreed.

Rock band HIM shot parts of their music video for the song 'And Love Said No...' directly outside the house seen at the end of the movie

The house that Heather is in during the opening shot is owned by Lonnie Glerum, the film's key production assistant. He is also operating the camera during the opening shot.

After pitching the idea to the studio Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick had to wait a further three months just to get the go-ahead. It was especially frustrating because they were strapped for cash at the time.

In the film, the trio do not experience supernatural encounters until Josh accidentally knocks over a cairn (burial mound). Desecrating graves and burial monuments is traditionally thought to enrage spirits.

This film, Fargo (1996), and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) were all presented as "true stories" when they were first presented to the public.

The big stick figure with leaves and grass is referred to as the 'Chewbacca.'

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

Heather Donahue was initially worried about the shoot because she worried that the directors were planning to make a snuff film.

The directors recognize certain anachronisms in the film. A few vehicles shown were not around in 1994. Also the flavor of Power Bar Mike was holding up earlier in the film was not available in 1994.

The entire marketing campaign was designed over 3 weekends by three women on the floor of the Global Marketing Senior Vice President Amorette Jone's office with LeAnne Gainer and Allison Graham.

Film producer Gregg Hale came up with the idea to move the main characters a long way during the day, harassing them by night, and depriving them of food. He used his own memories of military training as inspiration, as such tactics are used in the "Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape" (SERE) training program which prepares military personnel for various survival scenarios. The program was established by the U.S. Air Force at the end of World War II, but was later expanded to train personnel of the U.S. Navy and the United States Marine Corps.

Included among the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 movies nominated for the top 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Movies.

(at around 2 mins) The scene of Heather and Josh picking Mike up at his house is the only scene that was overdubbed. Heather's voice during this scene and the song were mixed in later. Mike's voice during this scene is that of Antonio Cora who did the film's score. Likewise, the song playing on the radio during filming was The Animals' "We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place," but the production could not afford the rights.

In the film, the supposed witch Elly Kedward was killed in a witch hunt, and her vengeful ghost seeks revenge. The screenwriters reportedly took inspiration from the Salem witch trials (February 1692-May 1693) and from the fictionalized depiction of the trials in the play "The Crucible" (1953) by Arthur Miller.

In the film, the trio locate a forest cemetery with several "piles of rocks". These are actually cairns, man-made piles of stones erected as burial mounds or trail markers. Cairns have been built since prehistory in all continents, except Antarctica.

The film used the abandoned Griggs House as the location of the climactic ending. It was a two-story wooden house, built on a stone foundation. It was located in the unincorporated community of Granite, Maryland. It was an example of Federal-style architecture, a style popular from the 1780s to the 1830s as an American modification of the older style of Palladian architecture.

According to Heather Donahue in the film, the trio are recording sounds in the format of the "Digital Audio Tape" (DAT). This format was developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. The format saw moderate success in professional markets and as a computer storage medium, but Sony discontinued production of its DAT machine models in 2005.

Burkittsville, Maryland, where the film's plot is set, received its official name in 1828. It was previously called "Harley's Post Office". The village is named after its co-founder Henry Burkitt. Burkitt and Major Joshua Harley had established the village in 1824, but Harley died a few years later and leadership was left to Burkitt.

Burkittsville, Maryland, where the film's plot takes place, was the site of a battle in the American Civil War. The Battle of Burkittsville/Battle of Crampton's Gap (1862) featured a small, hastily assembled Confederate force defending the area against the VI Corps of the Union Army, in order to protect the rear of Confederate Major General Lafayette McLaws. The Confederates eventually lost the battle, but successfully delayed Union forces and prevented any attack on McLaws' forces.

In the film, Mike makes a reference to the Wicked Witch of the East and the Wicked Witch of the West. They are both characters from the Oz novels by L. Frank Baum. The Wicked Witch of the East ruled the Munchkin Country in Oz's eastern quadrant, until she was killed by a cyclone. The Wicked Witch of the West ruled the Winkie Country, until she was accidentally killed by Dorothy Gale.

Screener copies were made a month before the home video release with the last 10 minutes missing and a message telling the viewer to buy the VHS or DVD as a way to prevent the movie from being bootlegged and leaked online.

The trio in the film expected their hike to last for a few days, but find themselves stranded in the woods for longer than expected. They compare themselves to the castaways in the sitcom "Gilligan's Island" (1964-1967). In the sitcom, a group of 7 people (2 crewmen and 5 passengers) set sail for a three-hour tour. They are shipwrecked on an uncharted island, and spend several years trying to return home.

Before the film was released, the three main actors were listed as "missing, presumed dead" on IMDb.

The film was originally of a much higher resolution and was degraded deliberately to look more authentic to the time it was shot.

The directors initially had some sort of shocking ending in mind, but when they ran out of money, they settled for the one used in the final film where Heather finds Mike standing in the corner, and then gets hit by something off-camera. Although the ending frightened test audiences, they also found it confusing, so the studio gave the directors additional budget to shoot a few alternative endings. These included Mike being hanged from a noose, having him crucified to a large stick figure, and appearing with a bloodied chest. Stick figures themselves were experimented with as decorations in the final scene. In the end, the directors were actually pretty happy with their original ending, so they shot an additional interview scene where it is explained that Rustin Parr forced one kid to stand in the corner while he was killing another, as a means to give their conclusion some explanation. Fortunately, the studio allowed them to release the movie with their original ending.

(at around 46 mins) When Heather screams "What the **** is that?!" she is seeing one of the movie crew standing on a hill dressed in white with a ski-mask on. Josh was holding the camera as he ran behind her and didn't manage to catch the image on film.

(at around 1h 6 mins) The teeth found by Heather near the end (supposedly Josh' teeth) were real human teeth, supplied by director Eduardo Sánchez's dentist. The hair really belonged to Joshua Leonard.

This film was one of the most pirated films of 1999 because of limited release due to its independent status. The pirated version was an unfinished leaked work-print with several plot holes and most of the initial interviews missing leading to audience confusion at final scene of the film. Paranormal Activity (2007), which was greatly inspired by this film, had similar piracy issues, including missing or additional scenes and an alternate ending.

The Blair Witch's real name, Elly Kedward, could possibly be a spoonerism for Edward Kelley, a renaissance-era occultist and a self-proclaimed "spirit medium." Kelley was supposedly responsible for the creation of the Enochian language, the "language of angels."

Several different endings were shot for the theatrical release, all occurring in the basement of Rustin Parr's cabin. They included two versions of Mike standing in the corner (facing backwards and forwards) surrounded by hanging stickmen, one of Mike dead and hanging from a noose, and one of Mike levitating amongst branches and stickmen. Four of these endings appear on the Blu-ray release.

The beginning of the movie states in a title card that the students went missing and a year later the footage was found but doesn't explain where or who found it. An unreleased version of the movie started with an explanation, revealing scenes of a police investigation, a room with a table displaying all the tapes and camera equipment with evidence tags. There were also scenes showing the foundation of Rustin Parr's house where geology students had been digging and come across the footage under several layers of undisturbed soil and ash from when the house had been torched in the 1940's and an expert explaining the footage could never have been placed there without disturbing and mixing the layers of ash and soil. While much of this footage was later worked into the mockumentary Curse of the Blair Witch, pirated versions of this unreleased version of the film did circulate when the movie was still in theaters, varying slightly from the theatrical version. Other missing scenes include several missing interviews with Burketsville residents, including the key scene revealing Rustin Parr's method of making children face the corner.

(at around 1h 6 mins) Heather Donahue's discovery of Joshua Leonard's teeth, blood and hair wrapped in a bundle of twigs bears a striking similarity to Washington Irving's story "The Devil and Tom Walker". Tom's wife goes to find the devil in the swamp, and never returns home. When Tom goes to find her, he discovers her apron with her heart and liver inside. However, it also reflects a scene in the silent documentary Häxan (1922) where a severed hand is carried by a witch hidden in a bundle of twigs.

A separate documentary-style film, Curse of the Blair Witch (1999), created by the same directors, was released as a 44 min introduction to the story and was broadcast on Sci-Fi (now SyFy) on July 11th, 1999, two weeks before Blair Witch was released in theaters by Artisan. The (fake) documentary features interviews with various experts on local folklore, local history, townspeople, scientists, academics and law enforcement, all of whom were actors, discussing the "legend of the Witch", various theories on the filmmaker's disappearance, and discovery of their film; all of which was completely fictitious. The documentary was professionally narrated and went into much deeper detail on some of the events that occur in the subsequent "found footage" movie. All of this interview/investigation footage was originally intended to be included in the theatrical release co-mingled with the "found footage" scenes shot by Heather, Mike, and Josh. Directors Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick decided they had captured enough "found footage" to use as a stand alone film without framing the story as a professionally produced documentary. They made the decision to compile all the interview footage into a separate, shorter film and present it as a real documentary which they used to preview the Blair Witch Project. Curse of the Blair Witch proved a believable, compelling, and ultimately successful marketing device for The Blair Witch Project. It is included as a DVD bonus.

The ruins of the old house the backpack with the lost footage was found in (as seen in Curse if the Blair Witch) are those of Rustin Parr's house.

MatPat from Film Theory proposed that the movie is really a (fictional) snuff film of Josh and Mike luring Heather into the woods to murder her.