The Science of Monsters

Kelly:“Did you do any research on witch legends when developing Blair Witch?”

Simon Barrett: “I didn’t research any real-world witch legends during the development of Blair Witch, because the existing Blair Witch mythology created by the directors, cast, and crew of the original film was so rich and complex. My goal was to just focus on that. Especially once you dig into later materials, like Ben Rock’s accompanying fake documentaries and all the Blair Witch books that were published, of which there were at least a dozen in varying formats, there were already so many ideas to explore. So honestly, aside from some research into the actual history of Western Maryland to make sure my story additions were as realistic as possible, all of my Blair Witch research focused on thoroughly exploring the fictional world built by the original Blair Witch Project itself.”

Meg:“Why do you think the original The Blair Witch Project resonated with audiences? And how did you make certain to capture some of that same sensibility in Blair Witch?”

Simon Barrett: “The genius of The Blair Witch Project is that, to this day, I think it’s the most realistic found footage horror film. The experiment of the film’s making, having the actors improvise their characters and performances while experiencing the staged events of the film, led to footage that always feels spontaneous and credible. Part of that isn’t just the great acting, but the fact that the film was originally intended to be part of a larger whole, so it constantly hints at a deeper mythology than what you’re seeing. That feels like real life, where actual history is endlessly deep and unknowable, and people can’t just speak in expository monologues that fully explain it. The Blair Witch Project feels real because its filmmakers created a massive, complicated mythology, and then barely referenced it at all. The viewer is left feeling like they’re missing most of the puzzle, but if they want to research more, the filmmakers also created these amazing ancillary materials for that, like the website and so on. I knew following Paranormal Activity (2009) and a glut of found footage films in the past two decades that we never had any chance of imitating the verisimilitude of The Blair Witch Project; that’s the kind of cultural phenomenon that can really only happen once. But I did want to continue the tradition of revealing only part of a mythology, to create the sense of a deeper mystery. I tried to provide answers to some of the questions posed by the original Blair Witch Project, but I also wanted to create new questions for our audience, and new mysteries. Not fully understanding the horror is part of the uniqueness of The Blair Witch Project; the film has a lot of ambiguity to it, and fans of the film continue to debate various interpretations of its onscreen events. It was important to me that, while we were intentionally making a less realistic film, our movie’s mythology held up to that level of scrutiny.”

Meg:“Tell us about how you developed the creature, or the witch. How did you describe it in the script? Was it based on any real or imagined creature that came before?”