The Blair Witch Project (AKA... The Greatest Movie Marketing Campaign of ALL TIME)

In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkettsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary... A year later their footage was found.

AND EVERYBODY LOST THEIR DAMN MINDS.

The Blair Witch Project was a horror film that gripped the world because everybody (Rosie included) was convinced it was a real 'documentary'. It was a mania that could only have happened at that one point in time - the internet was new, 'found footage' horror movies weren't around yet, and we were all JUST SO NAIVE. But how did the creators actually do it? How did they make millions of people believe they were watching actual footage of missing students being murdered? Rosie gives Jacob Just The Gist on exactly how The Blair Witch Project was pulled off - from auditioning the actors to (whose parents got condolence cards from friends who thought they had died) to faking entire newspaper articles to pull people in.

Story starts at approx 18:34

We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's this:

Ben Rock's 8 detailed blog posts about working on the film: https://www.dreadcentral.com/author/ben-rock/

The 1999 Blair Witch website:https://www.blairwitch.com/main.html

Article about the marketing strategy of the film: https://web.archive.org/web/20170130094758/https://mwpdigitalmedia.com/blog/the-blair-witch-project-the-best-viral-marketing-campaign-of-all-time/

Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blair_Witch_Project

American Hysteria podcast mini-episode about The Blair Witch Project mania of 1999: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/13-believing-in-the-blair-witch/id1441348407?i=1000437303993

This week's RECCOS:

Watch Seduced (the other NXIVM documentary besides 'The Vow'): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmogBLEhbjY

(Available to watch in Australia on Stan)

Listen to the 'wellness debunking' podcast Rosie mentioned called 'Maintenance Phase':

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/maintenance-phase/id1535408667

Reply All episode about QAnon 'A Country of Liars': https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/llhe5nm/166-country-of-liars

Rabbit Hole podcast:https://www.nytimes.com/column/rabbit-hole

Follow us on Insta! @jacobwilliamstanley@rosiewaterland@justthegistpodcast

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