I can easily say that THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez is one of my favorite horror movies, much to the teasing from my peers. Hell, my very first hard copy of Rue Morgue magazine was the 10th anniversary issue and it caught my eye for that very reason. For what it was, it was seamlessly done and I can and have watched it dozens of times. It brought new life to the found footage genre and has since been imitated an uncountable number of times. Most horror fans and fans of the first movie severely disliked the sequel, BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2, and I was immensely skeptical of the movie BLAIR WITCH when it came out. It was better than BOOK OF SHADOWS and had that found footage gritty feel that was missing from before. I wasn’t its biggest fan but it was far more enjoyable than its predecessor. Now, according to Nerdist, there’s going to be a BLAIR WITCH series and I’m not sure how I feel about this.
During an interview on the Diminishing Returns podcast, Sanchez expressed his interest in making a series based on the franchise he helped to create. It is in the works by Studio L, one of the digital initiatives under the Lionsgate umbrella.
I’m curious to know which movie’s story line it will follow, if any, and how the show will be structured. Overall, I would hope it would continue in the vein of the fictional legend about Elly Kedword, a woman in the 1700’s who was exiled for witchcraft in the town of Burkittsville, Maryland formerly Blair. It was from that idea that sprung a whole franchise, including the first internet marketing campaign, mockumetaries and companion books. It was a masterpiece of low budget improvising, unknown actors and real interactions and reactions from the actors.
If they go all the way through with the BLAIR WITCH series, here’s hoping they do the franchise some much needed justice after all these years.
