With Maddy Sheehy, Emma Youndtsmith, Abbie Phelps, and Natalie Marlin!

How did YOU come across THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT? Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s found footage horror film kicked off a genre before the turn of the millennium, and it still holds a freaky deaky power over audiences today. Four voices are distinctly absent from this episode of Trylove, but the four who’ve replaced them have a lot to say about its provenance, use of negative space, and missing baddie.

Find Maddy…

- On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/corndogmaddy/

- On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kaijumaddy/

Find Emma…

- On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/quiltedquads/

- Volunteering at the Trylon every other Friday

- On Trylove Episode 220: WATERSHIP DOWN (1978)

Find Abbie…

- On Twitter at https://twitter.com/goodhunterabbie

- On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/goodhunterabbie/

- On Trylove Episode 184: DRIVE ANGRY (2011), Episode 209: WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)

Find Natalie…

- On Twitter at https://twitter.com/NataliesNotInIt

- On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/framingthepic/

- On Trylove Episode 162: THE THIRD MAN (1949), Episode 182: CHESS OF THE WIND (1979), Episode 197: RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985), Episode 210: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015), Episode 239: MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001)

Get tickets to “The Nightmarish Nineties” (October 2023 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/the-nightmarish-nineties/

“Horror without Borders: My Blair Witch Project” by Chris Ryba-Tures for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2023/10/13/horror-without-borders-my-blair-witch-project/

“From Sundance to Box Office Gold: The Story of The Blair Witch Project” by Kevin Maher for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2023/10/14/from-sundance-to-box-office-gold-the-story-of-the-blair-witch-project/

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "Draining Faces" by Skinny Puppy from Josh's Blair Witch Mix, the official soundtrack accompaniment to the release of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 249: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)

2:36 - The Patented Abbie Phelps Summary

4:18 - Maddy’s thoughts

5:47 - Emma’s thoughts

6:55 - Natalie’s thoughts

9:28 - Abbie’s thoughts

11:16 - The use of negative space and avant garde framing choices

17:36 - Learning – and breaking – the rules of filmmaking

19:13 - Daytime sequences

27:22 - The performances and building tension through conflict

37:25 - What makes Heather a complicated female character

40:47 - Comparing THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT to other found footage horror movies

46:23 - The BLAIR WITCH version of reality

54:46 - CURSE OF THE BLAIR WITCH and the moral implications of lying to your audience

1:02:00 - Where the cast is today

1:04:21 - Final thoughts