The Blair Witch Project (15)
Directors: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez.
USA, 1999, 87 mins
Cast: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard
Directors: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez.
USA, 1999, 87 mins
Cast: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard
In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage is found.
So begins The Blair Witch Project, the mockumentary that reinvigorated the found footage genre, terrifying audiences and launching a horror phenomenon as one of the most successful independent films of all time.
Through footage shot by the actors themselves and authentic looking websites – a novelty in 1999 – we follow the intrepid student filmmakers as they interview local residents and go in search of the Blair Witch. As they lose their way, eerie sightings and haunting noises make them question their senses and succumb to their fears.
25 years on from its initial release, it’s time to return to the forests of Burkittsville and face the legend of the Blair Witch once again...
| “A ground-breaker in fright that reinvents scary for the new millennium. Better yet, it does the job without guns or a glimpse of a naked, screaming coed... It’s what you don’t see in The Blair Witch Project that pumps your adrenaline and, in the best Hitchcock tradition, keeps you hanging on.” - Rolling Stone
The film will be introduced by Aled Griffiths, Tally Shotton, and Charlotte Williams of PsySoc, the University’s student society for everyone interested in psychology. PsySoc aims to create a larger community inside of the university by hosting many different events across the academic year. The team will talk about the work that they do, and will introduce the film by discussing themes that include fear of the unseen and imagined mental decline.
This screening is part of our
Celluloid Psychology
series, devised by
Dr Alastair Smith
as an antidote to the usual depictions of psychology in cinema. This season, we have selected two films that explore the influence of folk imagery and storytelling, following the theme of our
Musica Viva
concert series, celebrating the work of Béla Bartók. ‘The Blair Witch Project’ was chosen to illustrate how traditional ideas around folk mythology and storytelling can be hugely influential in creating new ways of looking at Horror cinema.
Date: Monday 21 March 2025
Time: 19:00 – 21:10
Venue: Jill Craigie Cinema, Roland Levinsky Building
Ticket information: £6, £4 concessions, Free to University of Plymouth students
Age Restriction: Certificate 15
Time: 19:00 – 21:10
Venue: Jill Craigie Cinema, Roland Levinsky Building
Ticket information: £6, £4 concessions, Free to University of Plymouth students
Age Restriction: Certificate 15
