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The Blair Witch Project Anyone who has even the slightest trouble with insomnia after seeing a horror movie should stay away from The Blair Witch Project-this film will creep under your skin and stay there for days. Credit for the effectiveness of this mock documentary goes to filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, who armed three.
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Shaking up historyWhen The Blair Witch Project took off with audiences, the mythology-heavy website was still at the center of its ad campaign and pointing to Burkittsville. Tourists from around the country and even swung by for a taste of mystery. Almost immediately, one of the four 'Welcome to the Historic Village of Burkittsville' signs disappeared (Artisan Entertainment would eventually pay to replace the sign with one welded to metal poles).
Michelle Beller, the town clerk at the time, noticed after-dark activity at the graveyard - someone was leaving candle luminaries on top of the gravestones. Brown reportedly called the president of the chamber of commerce from Amity, NY (who dealt with a similar craze after the release of The Amityville Horror in 1979), to ask for advice, and was told there was to stop the thrill-seekers.While some residents cowered, others capitalized; Ott, who weeks before spoke out about the fiction, now found himself in the Burkittsville postcard business. 'Yesterday I sold about a hundred,' he that August.
Local artist Margaret Kennedy painted the movie's logo on T-shirts and sold them out of her Main St art gallery. After a fan posted photos of stolen Burkittsville cemetery dirt online, Linda Prior Millard and her 81-year-old mother Louise selling 'Blair Witch rocks' for $5 a pop. The Priors also made their own 'stickmen' figures - both full-size and refrigerator magnet versions. By the end of August, Linda managed to finally see the movie. 'I thought it was pretty stupid,' she.Mayor Brown remained cautious. That October, Burkittsville officially moved trick-or-treating night off of October 31st so the children could grab their candy 'without outsiders being involved.' Brown eventually conceded to The Blair Witch Project's impact on Burkittsville history by putting a copy of the film in the official town record and welcoming film enthusiasts.
'We are friendly to the fans,' Brown, 'and they, for the most part, have been courteous to us.' Across the street from the mayor, someone had nailed a sign to a telephone pole that read 'THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT IS TOTAL FICTION.' Still, reports indicate that Burkittsville visitors trespassed on residents' private property, videotaped people against their wishes, and caused minor property damage, including a pentagram graffitied on the side of the church. Even residents playing nice were chastised; Deb Burgoyne let curious tourists use the restrooms in her house until someone her of jeopardizing her children's lives by living in a town where a witch historically hunts children.
Remaking historyBy 2000, the Blair Witch phenomenon appeared to be over, even if reports of 20-somethings recreating the fictitious exploration continued to trickle in ('We've been walking for hours and we can't find a thing!' One occult enthusiast to The Washington Post). But Hollywood was still possessed; in January 2000, Artisan Entertainment announced Blair Witch 2, with documentarian Joe Berlinger ( Paradise Lost) set to pump out the movie for a fall release. One planned stop: a visit to Burkittsville. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 would follow a meta path, abandoning found footage and beginning with Burkittsville's sudden popularity - a haunted tale of mass hysteria.What the sequel's producers didn't anticipate was a Burkittsville ready to air grievances.
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A Baltimore Sun for February 15th paints a chilly picture of Artisan's initial interaction: 'When the producers arrived at a town meeting Monday to pitch an idea of filming residents talking about the impact the original movie had on the town, they were repeatedly interrupted and insulted until they finally walked out. Yesterday, only a few residents of this town of 200. Would discuss the fracas, and most who did talk wouldn't give their names.' (Not that it's hard to identify some of the angrier residents from their previous statements - it's a small town.)'They'd come along and be peeking in people's windows, asking them where the witch lived.
There were even people holding candlelight vigils in the cemetery for the dead children,' said a man who would only identify himself as the town historian. 'And they wouldn't believe it was fiction.' Even though Berlinger told the meeting that his movie was a psychological thriller spurred by The Blair Witch Project fake-out, the memories of property damage and invasions of privacy overruled the majority of the meeting's attendees. One of the most shocking statements came from a former town councilman named Sam Brown, husband of Mayor Joyce Brown, who claimed: 'We've already been raped, now they want us to be prostitutes.' Mayor Brown said she 'can't comment.' Despite the mayor barring access, Berlinger managed to shoot a few interviews with Burkittsville residents in the town sometime in the late spring.
Linda Prior Millard appears in the film telling the true story of making profits selling rocks and sticks from her house. Deb Burgoyne, no longer offering up her bathroom, tells a story about always having makeup on when she leaves her house because she's being 'video'd' all the time.That October, Mayor Joyce Brown issued another letter to Burkittsville residents, alerting them that, again, a horror movie was coming out that would use the town's name in advertising. Audrey Stadnick, Larry Ott's postmaster successor, started getting about a dozen visitors a day, again asking if the Blair Witch legend was true. The 'Welcome to Burkittsville' signs went into storage again (in Blair Witch 2, the character played by Jeffrey Donovan is shown to have been the one to steal the first wooden sign as an Easter egg). The Frederick County Sheriff's Office assigned two deputies to the town for extra security the week of Halloween again. 'The only times we'd have anyone specifically assigned to Burkittsville is, well, when we're doing this,' said Sgt. Tom Winebrenner of the Sheriff’s Office.Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 was a critical failure in October 2000, and Burkittsville let out a collective sigh of relief.
The only real scare: cease-and-desist letters from Artisan Entertainment. According to a later, anyone creating Blair Witch merchandise without a license, including local artist Margaret Kennedy (who had been selling T-shirts), received a slap on the wrist. 'It scared her so much, she gave all the shirts away,' said Deb Burgoyne, the woman who is actually in Book of Shadows.Eleven years after The Blair Witch Project’s release, the town voted to auction off the metal Burkittsville signs that Artisan had bought for it in 1999. Since, the town signs have been redesigned twice, both times trying to not resemble any sign appearing in any Blair Witch film.
Breaking from historyOver the summer, director Adam Wingard, a favorite of the indie-horror community, unveiled his new film The Woods at San Diego Comic-Con. When the lights went down a surprise lit up the screen: The Woods. Years after Burkittsville made its own reparations by auctioning off studio-bought signs (for much more than the $1,500 they were worth), the fake legend of the Blair Witch looked to surge interest in the community once again.Much has changed since 1999. The internet is an endless source of hazy truths and debunkery: Paranormal Activity made 'found footage' a household genre, and 'viral campaigns,' movie marketing masquerading as blips of reality, arrive with every new blockbuster. Burkittsville holds strong, vying to be as peaceful as possible. A few horror-film fans still pass through each year. Mayor Joyce Brown is gone, replaced by Mayor Deb Burgoyne (yes, the lady in the big sun hat in Book of Shadows is the mayor now).
Most cultural phenomena pass by town; you lurking around Burkittsville. The nearest screening of Blair Witch is an hour away. Judging from the movie's underwhelming $9.5 million weekend box office, few people made the trip.That doesn't mean the residents didn't prepare. In the days leading up to Blair Witch, 'Welcome' signs in Burkittsville were, and side streets connecting to Main were chained off. Mayor Burgoyne directed people to book hotel rooms in nearby Middletown and Brunswick to escape potential frenzy. There's an unwillingness to engage with even the slightest uptick in Blair Witch fandom - I left multiple messages on the town office answering machine, looking for insight into the post-movie plans.
No one responded. Burkittsville was in a minor lockdown. It could be exhaustion. Rebecca Remaley, a resident who lives near the cemetery, was of the new movie. 'We're a welcoming community,' she told the Frederick News-Post. 'There was just those instances where people seemed to forget that actual people lived here.' And a witch, some say.
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