At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, one of the biggest reveals at the event was the announcement of a sequel to arguably one of the most feared horror films to ever hit the big screen: The Blair Witch Project.
The sequel, which has been dubbed Blair Witch, is the follow-up to the highly acclaimed 1999 horror classic The Blair Witch Project. Based on shown footage from San Diego Comic-Con, the movie centers on the character of James Allen McCune, the brother of Heather Donahue’s character from the previous film, as he seeks to discover the truth about what came of his long-lost sister.
The movie is being directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett, who both collaborated on the 2013 horror-comedy You’re Next and the 2014 action-thriller The Guest, which starred Dan Stevens. But what makes this reveal such a big deal is the fact that the concept of a sequel was hidden from the public until it debuted on Friday. The movie, which up to this point had been titled The Woods, had released a trailer back in May, but important details regarding the plot and its characters remained murky. There was little to no talk of it potentially being a sequel to The Blair Witch Project.
But now, it’s clear that director Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett cleverly hid the sequel in plain sight and simultaneously built excitement and anticipation for the movie once they revealed their ruse. Regardless of their intent to turn it into a marketing tool, Wingard gives credit to Lionsgate Studios to make clever use of the name in their marketing campaign.
“The Woods was our working title,” says director Wingard. “When we signed on to it, we knew that [the name] was eventually going to be changed. To us, it wasn’t even going to be part of the marketing. But I think Lionsgate made a really smart decision, using that.”
This intriguing bit of marketing on the studio’s part was very similar to The Blair Witch Project, which followed the increasingly frightening foray of three student filmmakers (portrayed by Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard) making a documentary about a local Burkittsville, Maryland legend known simply as “The Blair Witch.” The marketing campaign for the film centered around depictions of “compromised video footage” that allowed them to sell the events within the movie being based on true events. In addition, despite being made on a paltry budget of $60,000, the movie cashed in $140 million nationwide and ushered in an era of “found footage” films that set the stage for films like the Paranormal Activity series. The sequel looks to recapture its found footage format that made its predecessor into a nationally acclaimed phenomenon.
Blair Witch is set to be released in theaters on September 16.
[EW]
