Simon Barrett: “If you’re writing supernatural horror that has any kind of technological element, I think you just need to make sure that your science isn’t distractingly impossible. I’m willing to entirely buy the science in many horror films as long as the story is good; I don’t watch supernatural horror films for an education, normally, so if the film is fun and scary, that’s most of what matters. So, my answer is, I try to avoid anything that would take any hypothetical viewer out of the movie, regardless of their expertise. Which sometimes means a fair amount of research to make sure I thoroughly understand any subject about which I’m writing, but often just means just trying to avoid doing anything obviously stupid.”
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?”
Simon Barrett: “The creature you’re talking about, which was played by Breanna Watkins in the film, was originally referenced in a lot of various, ambiguous ways in the script; I believe I called it the “tall figure” a lot. Eventually, before production began, I had to put together a draft where all of the onscreen supernatural elements were referenced by exact names, just so that our crew would know which one I was talking about in any given scene. That’s the problem with writing mysterious horror; it doesn’t quite work on a script level. You need to let the crew know exactly what they need to create. So, from that point forward I referenced it as the “Ellie Kedward thing,” basing it on the Blair Witch Dossier story that Ellie Kedward—who was not the original Blair Witch, of course, but someone who got caught up in the haunting and was later blamed for it—was tortured to death by being stretched, which I embellished quite a lot, I think. So, this kind of elongated body we’re seeing in the woods is what’s left of her. That’s pretty clearly hinted at within the film, but of course we’re also hinting at other possibilities of what that thing in the woods might be, other victims past and future, with other scenes. The figure has tree-like elements, and we see Ashley go through the early stages of what could be a similar transformation with what could be a tree root entering her skin, to cite another obvious example. Adam was bothered by that Ellie Kedward name being in the script in that context, as he felt Ellie Kedward was only a vague possibility for what we were seeing; he always just called it the creature, or whatever. And I made sure to not use Ellie Kedward as a character name on our production documents, so that name wouldn’t be listed in the credits and spoil the mystery. But then I didn’t come up with a new name for the creature either. I should have called her “The Shape” or something, it just didn’t occur to me, so whoever created our end credits not unreasonably ended up labeling the tall figure in the woods as the Blair Witch, so I think Breanna got like, a “Blair Witch stunt performer” credit for one of her scenes or something explicit like that. Which made a lot of viewers justifiably annoyed, thinking we were trying to show them the actual Blair Witch. Whoops. I’ve become a lot more communicative about my intentionally ambiguous ideas like that since that experience.”
Kelly: “Regardless of the character name, she was terrifying!”
The trio in The Blair Witch Project may have been influenced by evil forces when they got lost on their expedition, but what should you do if you lose your way in the woods? The National Forest Service urges hikers and campers to prepare in advance for the unexpected. They recommend you pack enough food and water for the activity you plan as well as a compass that you know how to use. These items may have come in handy for the travelers in The Blair Witch Project, but then again, the witch may have corrupted them anyway. Ultimately a GPS is ideal for going into the woods but is not foolproof. Sometimes they don’t receive a signal or the battery dies. As we saw in the sequel Blair Witch (2016), even a GPS can fail. Cell phones may also not work because of a lack of signal so they shouldn’t be relied on too heavily. Knowing your terrain and studying accurate maps is important before taking off into the woods.