The Blair Witch Project continues to be a legitimately eerie, purposefully annoying, and unforgettable movie 17 years after it initially came to theatres. It also sets a high standard for found footage horror movies in general. The movie’s legacy, nevertheless, extended beyond theatres and into the field of movie promotion, where it had a profound influence. The movie’s marketing effort took use of the early internet era by creating a comprehensive and persuasive mythos that could, at first glance, appear to be the genuine thing. The end product was a scary film that many viewers mistakenly believed was a documentary showing true events. There were sown the seeds of all viral marketing and the online distribution of movies.
But in 2016, viewers are more intelligent. They have noses that are more adept at detecting BS. Nobody would ever think that the new sequel, simply titled Blair Witch, was a representation of reality; what worked in 1999 simply won’t work now. So how can you continue the absurd PR stunt legacy of the Blair Witch? Simple: to give the impression that the witch herself visited Austin, Texas, hang many hundred of those eerie stick figures all down South Congress Street.
A mysterious shrine filled with dozens of handcrafted stick figures made of wood and rope hangs from the trees in one of The Blair Witch Project’s creepiest sequences. The three inexperienced documentarians were trying to produce a movie about a local legend when they got lost in the woods. Not only are they poorly built, but they are also merely uncomfortable. Other, um, items of interest appear in and around their tent in the middle of the night later on in the film. Naturally, these spooky stick figures—who have come to represent a film franchise that purposefully hides its villain—play a part in the latest film.
Hanging 200 of these stick figures across a major street in the middle of the night and letting the locals awake to this sight is therefore successful on a visceral level and thematically acceptable as far as wacky promotional stunts go! Imagine seeing The Blair Witch Project in 1999, which terrified the snot out of you, and then coming across the images in the gallery below on your way to work. If only all movie marketing was this enthusiastic and playful. I can support William Castle-style hucksterism like this.
Although reviews for the movie Blair Witch have been mixed, I thought it was really good. The Blair Witch legend is used to create a visceral, nonstop thrill rush; it is not the first movie and never aspires to be. It’s not a psychological slow-burn, but it’s a fantastic Friday-night horror movie for a big audience.
Here is the entire photo collection, courtesy of FonsPR, who planned and executed the entire event:
