This movie is one of the most financially successful films of all time based on how much it cost to make it. It made more than $200 million off of an incredibly small budget. It is one of the most successful independent films of all time.

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Chris Rock said something along the lines of “it is rumored that The Blair Witch Project cost 60,000 dollars to make… I saw the movie, and I think someone is walking around with about 58,000 dollars in their pocket.”

That is the way I felt about this movie. I don’t think it was filmed well, I don’t think it is scary, I do think that it should have come with a motion sickness warning though.

I will say this: The way in which the promoted this film was absolutely brilliant. They had a bunch of “documentaries” that appeared on TV that seemed like real documentaries talking about the Blair Witch and how a bunch of people disappeared and their tapes were found later (which is the entire premise of the movie – watching these found tapes.) The public’s inability to discern whether or not this was fact or fiction resulted in a huge amount of interest in going to see this movie in theaters.

I think a bit part of the reason why this worked is because the internet was sill in its beginning stages back in the late 90's so for the most part, fact-checking wasn’t terribly possible as the internet was used almost entirely for hotmail and porn at that point (today, almost no one uses hotmail)

I saw the Blair Witch Project in a theater that was oversold and I actually had to watch the film from the stairs. A seat that is most likely not allowed by the fire code. I am surprised that I stayed there for the entire film and the people I went there with also thought the movie was dumb – The fact that we had to sit on the stairs may have influenced our overall opinion but I think only to a certain degree.

I do not think this movie was good, nor do I think the acting was terribly inspired. The only thing I can really give these guys credit for is the fact that their marketing plan was pure genius.

3 / 10

Name: The Blair Witch Project (film): don’t understand its success
Item: The Blair Witch Project
Rating: 30
Author: @gooddream

Comments · 7

@mydivathings(67)· 2845d

As someone who gobble up anything in the horror genre and with a very low bar set for this genre, I waiting till the end hoping something to turn up that justified the hype for this.

@mango-juice(82)· 2845d

You gave it 3? I would give it -3/10 ! I will not talk about this movie. Rather than I want to tell my best horror movie ehich I believe you also saw. It was The Ring! The movie is my definition of what actually is Terrifying! In the whole movie the ghost came out only once from a tv and that scene is no longer than 40 seconds I think. But I still can remember clearly the scene even after seeing it many years ago. I have a special request for you @gooddream . if you have seen the mocie or done a review of it... I wanna know the score and I am eager to know it.

stay well and keep posting.

U r Awesome!

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@moghul(65)· 2845d

This movie gave me terrible headache as the camera was constantly moving and the lighting was awful.

@drakos(70)· 2845d

The only reason I went to see it was to "follow the crowd", my friends were so raving about it, I figured I'd accompany them. My verdict: overhyped, cheap filming, boring and not that scary.

@nuthman(74)· 2845d

I blame this movie for about 5 or 6 movies that I have accidentally gone to see where the whole thing is filmed on a shaky home movie camera. I really don't like this sort of thing.

I mean, I appreciate that people want to do things differently but it's not my bag. But I do agree, the marketing was genius! These guys made a ton a money for not much effort.

@kaminchan(76)· 2845d

Never like this film! I didn’t understand the why it was such a talk of the town then! I guess people were bored with predictably and familiarity, they just wanted something new!

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@empress-eremmy(76)· 2845d

Right time, right kind of marketing. I also feel the feel was awful but like I said before - It made 200m so what do I know