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The directors Daniel Myrick, left, and Eduardo Sanchez, in 1999. They made “The Blair Witch Project” for only $60,000; it went on to earn $248.6 million at the global box office.Credit...Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
This article written by Nathan Pilling originally appeared on Oct. 29, 2021 in the Kitsap Sun
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – Now living on Bainbridge Island, Dan and Julia Myrick laugh about a tiny apartment in Orlando where they watched the box office numbers — life-changing figures — climb. A little over two decades ago, “The Blair Witch Project,” the iconic horror film they had helped to develop early on in their film careers, was on its way to becoming one of the most successful independent films ever made.
The 1999 movie tells the story of three students who set out into the woods in Maryland to film a documentary on the Blair Witch, a local legend. The flick’s opening screen is simple and ominous: “In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found.”
Hand-held camera footage relays the story of the three getting lost in the woods, of their encounter with … something.