It's devastating that Heather didn't have a career in horror after this. This movie was such an important part of my childhood. Hope it has a resurgence
Acting careers are extra hard on women especially horror movies, actresses are either sexualized or hated. It’s really annoying and dehumanizing to see.
@@epictubegamer explain to me how, because from where I’m standing I think it’s extremely evident that women have it hard in acting careers. My point in my comment before stands well and is the whole truth. Look at interviews, articles, videos, etc. actresses are always sexualized or hated and the only reason you think they aren’t is because you are one of the people who do the sexualization and hating.
The "oh my god what the fuck is that" moment is one of my favorites in horror. They knew that nothing they could possibly show would be scarier than what we imagine Heather is seeing.
@@planesrkool2727It was a tall thin man in long johns who the director paid to walk through the woods at a distance. She really had no idea what she was seeing but it wasn't captured on camera.
Fun fact: my mom was watching this movie 9 months pregnant with me and it induced labour. I was always told how terrifying it was my entire childhood and to this day I never watched it because I was too scared 😂
My mum watched this movie on video when I was a newborn and told me I started growling and making weird gurgling noises in my crib halfway through. She was convinced the film was cursed and had to call my uncle (her brother) to spend the night because she was too scared.
That’s so cool to hear! Horror movies are great for burning calories, heart problems, and anxiety. Glad to hear it helped your mom lol. I love horror movies and metal. Surprisingly from both my parents lol I got the interest/love from! ❤️
The fact that the backlash of Heather Donahue in this movie caused her to change her name and get rid of her history with it is truly saddening... I really enjoyed her performance in the movie, and to see how it effected her afterwards makes me feel so bad for her. But I'm glad she's doing well for herself
Her getting a Razzie is an absolute travesty. As James put it, she nails that type of film student character and does a fantastic job of going from the fearlessly overconfident "I know EXACTLY where we're going" leader to a sobbing terrified wreck who realizes she's never leaving those woods alive.
Same. I didn't know about the backlash until this video. I thought she was phenomenal. All three were fantastic and I really appreciated how real they felt.
I like the decision to have Josh be taken first. Heather and Mike having to work together after having so much animosity really increases the tension of the film. It also made both of them more sympathetic to me
seriously, i loved seeing them come together as their situation passed from annoying to horrifying. particularly heather's decision not to tell mike what she saw of josh really made me respect her more
When the movie came out, my mother said she and her friends were terrified. No one wanted to even go by the woods and they always stayed inside when it got dark. I was born a year later and I just never felt as scared as other people when they watched it. I really wish I had gotten to experience that feeling my mother had.
I think all of us thought the movie was real when we first seen it. Even after finding out the Blair witch was fake, I was still scared of the woods at night. Ngl the woods look creepy asf at night when you only have flashlights
@@LazyLizzy706 I never understood that. I was 17 and neither me nor anyone I knew believed it for a second, like it wasn't up to debate. Of course no snuff film is going to be put into movie theaters by a big studio. Also it needs every tv channel, magazine etc. that writes about the movie to basically play along (and treating it like it was a documentary instead of a feature film). Which also didn't happen here (= Germany). (that being said, I do figure that believing it to be an actual documentary obviously turns it into a much crazier experience)
fun fact: the actors were limited in how much food they could eat. the directors provided their food while in the woods and day by day, the actors ate less and less. this made them very hangry and put them in permanent bad moods, further enhancing the fighting scenes and making them look tired and scared
The ending with him facing the wall is so much better than the alternatives. It's the subtle reincorporation of putting one kid in the corner to beat the other, it implies that she's dying first. The others honestly just made me laugh
"Woman scream a lot and no make pp hard" - the Razzies Worst Actress award. They got the shit they deserved recently for nominating a girl who was like, 8 years old
@@abrahammesrajecorrea2349The very first Razzie awards nominated Kubrick forThe Shining as director and Friday the 13th for movie. They've always been bullshit.
@@skittlemilks1614 true, but at the same time it was also because her character is pretty unlikeable and since the actor and character were treated as one in the same due to the whole schtick surrounding the film. She's great in the film
I remember working at a movie theater when this first came out. They actually let the staff have a free screening the night before its opening, meaning we got out well after midnight with the parking lot entirely empty and everything around us dark and very very quiet. It was the longest short walk to my car I had ever taken in my life.
@hurricane3241 oh i mean the experience of watching the blair witch project the first time it came out. It wasn't that immersive with gonjiam because one of the actors is already estabilished.
That "I bought myself a giant hunting knife" interview is absolutely electric, It's fun when an interviewer can catch an interviewee off guard but the other way around is absolutely hilarious
I truly cannot describe how vivid and memorable the experience of seeing this in theaters as a 10-year-old on Long Island was. When you walked into the theater they handed us MISSING flyers for the cast and everyone in the audience was totally bought in and freaked the hell out. One of the most unique theater showings of my life and something we'll never quite see again in a post-Internet world.
I wish I was more older to appreciate the film and go watch it with someone (I was 4 at the time). This experience where everyone believed this was real will never repeat itself with Internet as it is keeping us connected to a point where sometimes a movie is spoiled to you days before the screening. This was like a modern version of the people who took listening to an enactment of the War of the Worlds on radio as real and it sounds just magical
@@abrahammesrajecorrea2349 - No one actually believed that the War of Worlds was real, why would they? The show was a regularly scheduled and announced episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio program dedicated to presenting dramatizations of literary works. The whole "massive hysteria" story has been debunked as a hoax. Almost no one even listened to the original program, since the much more popular "Chase and Sanborn Hour" was on, so only 2% of radio listenners tuned in to Orson Welles' story, and they knew it was a story. But hey, I wasn't there, I can only report what has been concluded since then... On the other hand, I was there for the Blair Witch Project, and at least in my theater, everyone understood that the missing posters were part of the show, it was all _VERY_ tongue-in-cheek, wink-wink nudge-nudge, type of setting. There were probably a couple of slack jawed hillbillies hopped up on moonshine who didn't get the joke, but OP's claim that *"everyone in the audience was totally bought in and freaked the hell out"* sounds rather suspicious.
The clever marketing, the dedication to keeping the found footage feel and building suspense, it's that kind of effort that makes this really feel like a passion project, and why it's had such staying power even almost 25 years later. I love this film, as an aspiring director, it gives me confidence that I too can make something great with enough passion. My first time watching it is still one of my scariest memories, and Heather's scream is still horrifying.
It's also a great example of how timing can be crucial to the success of a project. The confluence of the early internet, the found footage genre, and viral marketing (really almost a proto-ARG) at a time before all of those things were run into the ground, especially when released in the pre-Scream mid-90s (arguably the lowest point of the genre). It really had everything working for it, so for it to also be a solid film in its own right really cements BWP as a true classic.
Eh. I think without the powerful marketing machine, it really doesn't hold up as a horror film on its own in a 2020+ landscape where we have way better, more effective horror movies. Imo it perfectly used the marketing machine of "oh is this real" which 2020+ audiences simply wouldn't buy and the advent of this kind of found footage movie becoming a novel concept (and not as played out as in 2020+) to be a great movie for its time. But oh boy it perfectly capturing the zeitgeist of back then just really backfires when it tries to stand on its own, aside the hype, marketing machine, just as a movie. It's simply one of those movies that took advantage of the landscape it was in, but that landscape just poorly translates into it being a great movie unlike many classic horror films. There's a reason why many people say blair witch was "the right horror film at the right time" because outside of that time capsule (let's be honest, no one will even be inclined to believe that nonsense is true in the 10s/20s, which was such a stupidly strong point for its marketing), it just... won't hold up.
Found footage is such a scary sub-genre to me because of how real and scary it feels. This movie and REC are a few of the times you’re not just looking through a camera catching action and instead through the eyes of someone else. You’re seeing what someone apparently went through and the cameraman actually dies.
cloverfield is an awesome spectacle for sure, americas answer to Godzilla, the same way it mimics the atomic bomb, cloverfield mirrors 9/11 @@patrikjurica2326
I remember when this was first advertised. Everyone was freaking out and people were genuinely concerned believing these 3 kids did go missing. I walked by a magazine rack with pictures of the three actors posing together talking about the film. The whole illusion fell apart right there, but it was a heck of a ride!
The marketing was brilliant. I remember going to that website and being so scared with my older cousins. Early internet days were amazing and look back on them so fondly. This movie capitalized on the internet in its infancy and truly did pioneer the sub-genre.
I SO envy the people who got to see the website and all the promo for the movie before it released in theaters! Oh, to have been a teenager in the 90s! 😭
This was early days of the internet and my BFF and I were completely suckered into the lore on the website. We saw the movie opening night and we. were. terrified. I didn’t sleep for a couple of nights until we figured out it was all part of the marketing. It’s commonplace now, but it was genius at the time.
to really be a part of the illusion you had to watch the film as a copied VHS tape that was viral.. I saw this film with friends at a house thinking it was real and it was some random VHS tape copy that no one new whether it was real or not... it finally became a release in the theater a year later... but everyone was arguing whether it was real or not and whether it was fake... it was a huge mystery for awhile...
I love this movie. Spent a lot of time reading everything on that website as a kid and bought the books when they came out, still have them. The fact that Heathers career suffered and that she has felt it necessary to distance herself so hard makes me feel really bad for her though. Her performance is amazing and I hope she knows that countless people all over the world are in awe of the part she played in this movie.
I found this more psychological than scary. Seeing these people loose their minds lost in the woods. It can get annoying watching them yell at each other all the time, but I think it still holds up too
It's actually some of the scariest scenes of the movie, watching them gradually fall apart and turn on each other as they realize how screwed they are. Particularly when Mike admits he kicked the map into the creek. Heather turns absolutely feral in her rage. Previously she'd been putting on the act of "it's all okay, I know exactly where we're going, we'll be fine", but when Mike admits that about the map, she just goes absolutely volcanic as all of her hidden fear and anger at herself gets directed at another target she can blame for their situation.
That's what was so scary about it. It felt too real in how alone they were and their performances were incredibly realistic. Never got annoying one bit for me.
To me it works, the fact they can no longer stand one another and some even laugh out of the madness is what sells the movie to me. It makes it feel more real. Heather being the scream queen at the end of the movie is another seller for the film
I watched this movie for the first time in years recently, and it still terrified me as much as it did before. It’s not about jump scares or thrills - it’s the way the movie stays with you afterwards; it seeps inside you. One of the best American horror movies ever made.
I just love the love hate relationship played in these vids between the two. It sounds like Zoran is the hyper employee that sometimes messes things up and James is the boss already fed up with having him around but has already got used to him over the years lmao
The way that them just being lost in the woods scared me the most. They portrayed it so realistically- the fear and hopelessness of being turned around
I actually know Mike in real life, after recording this he worked as a guidance counselor for a school near me and taught improv classes for kids on the side. I took his class for about 6 or 7 years and then went on to assistant teach the class along side him at a summer camp for two years. The dude taught me literally everything I know about filmmaking and acting and is the reason I am now in film school. Man even wrote one of my letters of recommendation for Brooklyn College. The dude is super nice, and I’ve been waiting for you guys to cover this movie for about four years so I could tell this story. It’s one of my favorite films of all time. So much so that it inspired me to make my own found footage film in honor of the original that I got aid from him and his son on 😂. I don’t have it out yet but if it makes even a fraction of the success that this work of art made I’d consider myself incredibly lucky. (Trailer is on my channel for anyone interested but this ain’t a self promo) Thanks for finally covering it James!
The greatest found footage movie of all time. Myrick and Sánchez gave us so much with so little and it absolutely payed off. I've rarely been as unnerved by the big budget professionally shot movies. As an aspiring filmmaker, it's a it's a major source of encouragement for me.
I love the ending of this movie. You never see the entity. You leave the viewing wanting more and the conversation left the theatre with you. Great movie!!
Living as a young child in Maryland when this movie released was a whole different experience. I never saw the film but any time you went to a movie theater, the amount of warning signs posted around was terrifying in itself.
I wasn’t born when this movie came out but my parents would always tell me not to watch it because it was “cursed”. I guess it really did affect people in Maryland back then. But it’s always been a cool film to look at and think about how it was made and based in Maryland.
The Blair Witch Project is a well created movie. The way how they made the "found footage" is really effective in selling this movie completely. The acting is great and actually knowing that instead of just some shooting some acting, putting the scenes together and calling it a wrap the director actually made the actors camp out and just gave them basic directions such as "go this way" or "be here at this certain time," and some food and water to really sell the lost and natural feel to the movie. So I hope that somehow intrigues you to watch or gives you some satisfaction for knowing a little bit of the making of this movie.
I also think if the cameraman actor knew how to operate a camera better it wouldn't have been as good either. Him lying on his resume literally helped make this movie so great.
Living in Maryland when this movie came out was an honest trip, I recall a lot of people believing this was a snuff film, a lot of people saying to not go out into the woods at all, etc. An iconic film that I still enjoy for what it accomplished to this day.
I love Heather and I'm sad this movie wasn't a positive experience for her. I think she's fabulous and I always have. One of the scariest movies ever made.
The rock pile that Josh knocked over is what is known as a cairn. Cairns typically are used as markers for navigation and burial mounds, so Josh accidentally knocked over what is essentially a grave. Also the writings on the walls in the abandoned house are backwards Futhark runes. Reversed runes brings a bad fate to the person who reads them. 18:00 I fucking laughed so hard I ended up coughing that was perfectly timed.
How have they never covered this before, wow and how did I never notice it's never been covered. I remember seeing this in theaters as a kid, and the ending gave me literal chills with that final shot sticking with me.
Damn near a crime that Heather didn't get to go on acting I find her performance so dang good in this. Literally would have not been the same film without her as it's leading force. Dope as hell she's a medicinal marijuana grower now. Shame about the merch but that is one hell of a hat I'd keep that as well.
I still remember watching the BWP as a kid for the first time at a sleepover. That ending was probably the first time I ever felt legit shook from a horror movie. It’s the perfect example of how ‘less is more’ can be extremely effective in horror.
The ending is iconic. Showing him dead or strung up would have been an easy way to plainly show the evil of the witch. But having him just standing there and looking in the corner, after previously scrambling throughout the house, is terrifying in just how abnormally unexpected it is. It tells you in a simple and instinctive way that he's under some supernatural influence without having to say anything obvious at all. It's perfect.
Probably one of the most influential horror movies of all time and I’m so glad when I heard James was gonna cover this it felt like Christmas!! Thank you so much James
Honestly, the Blair witch project is terrifying. If you’ve ever been in the woods at night, alone, in the dark, you’ll experience a deep primal fear unlike anything else you’ve ever experienced, even if nothing is even happening. Sounds you hear, lights or lack thereof, it’s haunting and terrifying.
Those cries for help at the 18:17 mark will ALWAYS send chills down my spine. The first time I saw that scene, I wanted to shrivel up into a ball and die. 😭💀 I think I would have a full blown panic attack if I heard that in the forest at night.
I'm excited to see how you guys do graphic novel coverage. It's been really cool to see you guys experiment these last few months. I know it was out of necessity, and it was probably kind of stressful for you trying to figure out how to make things work, but from a viewer perspective, it's been awesome. Great work, you guys.
Stop making them think we want this type of stuff and that it’s enjoyable, it’s not. Why tf do we want stage plays and graphic novels on the kill count makes no sense
I don't normally like Found Footage horror films, but this is definitely the best one I've seen. Everything is built up so well and you're just left with your imagination.
Absolutely Rec as number 1, and then As Above, So Below after it. I do like BWP, but it just doesn't have nearly enough story for it to be my number one@@lb9612
I really like the fan theory, that Mike and Josh lured Heather into the woods and killed her. No paranormal activities, just the ingenuity of two murderers
It is a fun theory, though it requires you to ignore the canon of the sequels, especially Blair Witch 2016. It sounds like disowning the sequels isn't a big ask for a lot of people though.😅
The thing I love about this channel is learning about the sheer EFFORT it took to make some of the most famous pieces of cinematic history. The low budget, immersive conditions, and online marketing being used to sell the fear factor is all ingenious.
Finding out what happened to the actress really breaks my heart. I always loved her performance and it's sad how it impacted her so negatively that she burned all the merch and changed her name especially. People are horrible. On a lighter note I absolutely LOVED the ad block and to the numbers bit this time around. 8'D
Yeah it is really sad, even after the sequal (where they made sure to not name her even when the plot revolved around her brother looking for her) she felt pretty suicidal over it all. It is a shame because it works *so well*
@@KentuckyKaiju why? What does this have to do with anything? Or are you one of these people, who think every bad situation for a woman happens just because of here gender?
@@dawnderhenker I don't mean to be rude but you're missing the point. Most people, including James, are aware that most women will harsher criticism for the same things men have done. The whole reason why Heather Donahue was hated was because she was a headstrong woman who couldn't accept her mistakes. This idea annoys men immensely and you can look at many comments hating on Heather around the time of the movie mentioning the fact that she was worse because she was a woman. Pretending that the world doesn't hate on women for simply existing is ignorant.
How did heather get worst actress...the film would not be half as good without her. Her performance is what ties it all together. Her acting gave me literal chills the first time i saw the movie.
I remember watching this in theaters with my dad and sister. No real jumpscares at all, but the constant dread and atmosphere keeps you on edge the whole time. I remember that once they find the house, I was holding my breath the entire time and almost passed out.
Going from watching the "I'll always know what you did last summer" Count to this one is honestly a trip. To see the difference in your attitude from THAT to something you love.
ill never forget the extremely brief "summary" for that movie. just "today we're looking at _i'll always know what you did last summer,_ released in 2006. this movie fuckin' sucks. [THE KILLS]" iconic
I decided to go hiking at the state park a couple years ago. The trail was badly marked, and seemed a lot longer than they said it was. After about four hours I couldn’t tell if I was lost, it started raining, it was cold, and started getting dark. I started to get scared and saw some people around a camp fire through the trees. I climbed through the forest to get to their campsite, and was able to walk to a main road from there, and had to walk several miles down this road in the pitch dark with not street lights or anything until I thankfully finally found the parks parking area again. I will NEVER go into woods again. Ever.
The woods are like the ocean. You have an idea of how vast it is but you don't comprehend how insanely easy it is to get lost in there. Even moving just dozens of yards away, you start to get absorbed into the background in other people's vision.
Honestly the creepiest thing is hearing someone else get tortured and cry for help because all you can do is let your imagination go wild on what is happening to the person. They also did this effectively in "Annihilation" with the mimicking bear.
Apparently, during the running scene, Heather was supposed to point her camera to the side revealing the witch, prompting the scream, but the directors removed this from the final cut. (If anybody is wondering, it's at 16:09)
When this movie first came out, I was actually scared to go home. I thought this was real footage of real people. I’ll never forget the opening night screening of this movie. Phenomenal but horrifying
What was even more frightening to me was the faux documentary "Curse of the Blair Witch" that showed on the Sci-Fi Channel around the time the film was released. What a brilliant bit of marketing that was. That really did a number on me as far as the realism of the film.
One of my favorite things about dead meat is their sponsor ads. Every single one is unique to the movie that day, and I think that just really shows the effort they put in every aspect of the channel.
In the immortal words of Tom Scott ranting about wealthy youtubers not captioning their videos - _"Oh I bought a Lamborghini,_ well, buy some damn subtitles!"
I’ve seen this movie so much I know the dialogue but it will never not be absolutely terrifying. The acting is incredible. I always feel like I’m in it experiencing everything along with the characters. I’m very sorry to hear that it had such a negative impact on Heather’s career.
this is one of those movies that made me just fall in love with horror. there wasn’t even that much shown besides the characters interactions and reactions to things, and it still was utterly scary as hell!
The thing that makes this so scary is the ideas that simple things they find conjure up. Like the rocks outside their tent - it's not the pile of rocks themselves that is scary, it's that it means someone or something was outside their tent within arm's reach placing them there while they were asleep.
I loved James shot at Coleen Ballinger 😂 I saw this film when I was 15 and I was terrified. My imagination ran overtime with what you cannot see. I remember looking up the website & wondering if it was real. Loved it.
Blair witch and Lake Mungo are two films that give me the same sense of dread and emptiness that you so deeply want to avoid in real life, and I was shocked to find I felt them at the end of both of these
I still remember when I saw this in the theater. My buddy kept getting motion sick and had to keep going to the bathroom. The entire audience was constantly getting scared, and it was AWESOME. Never really been in a movie where the audience was that invested. Good times.
Michael revealing that he lost the map and the characters reactions was the scene that freaked me out the most. Its so simple and mundane making it the most realistic for me.
One theory I've seen about this movie is that maybe there was nothing supernatural about it and the boys made it all up to torture Heather while luring her out to seclusion to kill her. This idea is just as scary as the supernatural stuff, to me.
Isn’t that a episode of film theory I always wondered why they would want to kill her though they have no reason to go through all this effort to kill her
montgomery county, maryland native here. i’m so happy that we got to have a movie filmed here, and i’m so excited that james gets to talk about one of the most popular movies made in my state.
Stopped watching this channel about 4 years ago, really for no reason at all, I loved it! Just came across this video, and it really makes me happy seeing this channel still alive and thriving! All the best moving forward!!!
This movie really helped pioneer both found footage and mockumentaries. I was obsessed with this film as a child and I remember the absolute fear and fascination of believing this was real.
James, I just want to thank you for making a Kill Count on my favorite horror movie, this movie means the world to me since it was the first one I enjoyed. I'm very glad you made this, thank you James.
@ethanfullerton1620 it will always be my favorite horror film. It's fine if you don't like it just don't say my fav horror movie should be something different. Let's all respect each other
I love the film itself, but I also love the backstory and history and entire world they've created. Robin Weaver, Rustin Parr, Eileen Treacle, those stories are so interesting and creepy.
Dead Meat never ceases to amaze me. Each and every video they upload is pure entertainment. I’ve seen a lot of great horror movies all because of Kill Count.
James I started watching you as a curious small child that watched you to see some horror but you grew into my comfort channel and have been watching you ever since thanks man and keep it up
Apparently there is a small fan theory that circulates the internet, that this entire movie was the two guys wanting to kill Heather and came up with this idea in order to cover their tracks. And all the “supernatural” stuff was the guys pranking Heather.
Still the GOAT of found footage movies. The escalation, the extremely realistic arguing and making up, and that perfect ending. Hearing the children laughing outside the tent is still one of the greatest hair raising moments in horror history 🙌
As someone who grew up in the county where this was made, I'm extremely grateful that you covered this film. This film feels like a piece of Maryland history, along with the days of John Waters covering our home in earnest with his work. People love or hate this movie, but it had an undeniable impact. I'm always afraid to look at the woods next to me every time I watch it. The woods themselves are always unique when you walk in them every day and know how they look. It's why I was kind of taken out of the Blair Witch 2016 film, because they felt more like the Canadian woods they were shot in rather than the Maryland woods they were set in. Amazing video and due diligence on research. I also would've given anything to visit the Griggs' house.
This is one of my favorite horror flicks I don't care what people say about it not being scary. They clearly have never been in the woods at night... This movie caught me just the right way. I heard about it online in those early days of the internet (miss those days sometimes...) I then watched the "documentary" about the missing students that was shown on the Sci-Fi channel. When it was released it wasn't playing in any of the big theatres near me. Only at our local "art house" cinema which is where I saw it and it was a great experience. Once in a life time and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Great work as always on this video and I can't wait to see more!
It was so awesome meeting James & Chelsea at Silver Scream Con, talk to you guys was the highlight of my weekend, probably the year. Please come to more cons in the Boston area, we welcome you!!
Seeing James make these videos over the years and become more and more famous and even become friends with people who write and make horror movies has really made me wish I could write or atleast act in a horror movie that James could cover one day.
Fun fact: The scene where Heather screams “what the f*ck is that??!!!” The camera man was supposed to pan to his left and you were to see a woman in white following them, but he simply forgot to lmao
So glad to see you guys covering this one. My mom and dad saw this right before a trip to Michigan, and my mom usually doesn't get spooked about anything. Supposedly, she wouldn't step foot outside the trailer after dark
I love that the dead meat team are covering over media like games and comics. In the darkest times there are glimmers of hope ❤😂. Appreciate the work you guys do.
I always wondered if Deadmeat was ever going to make this. I’m so glad I’m up and was able to catch this. Amazing video without having to see it bc the videos are always amazing. Can’t wait for this💜🖤
One of my all time favorites. Remember my Mom taking me to see it in the theater. It also started me on the path of having to see every found footage movie that comes out.
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NICE!!!! A bonus Kill Count! THANKS!!!!!!
LETS GO BLAIR WITCH
Do saw X
James are you going to see ice nine in Detroit on nov 12
Are you ever gonna do a mk1 kill count
It's devastating that Heather didn't have a career in horror after this. This movie was such an important part of my childhood. Hope it has a resurgence
Acting careers are extra hard on women especially horror movies, actresses are either sexualized or hated. It’s really annoying and dehumanizing to see.
@@Mushessnot at all true.
@@epictubegamerare you an actress
@@epictubegamer explain to me how, because from where I’m standing I think it’s extremely evident that women have it hard in acting careers. My point in my comment before stands well and is the whole truth. Look at interviews, articles, videos, etc. actresses are always sexualized or hated and the only reason you think they aren’t is because you are one of the people who do the sexualization and hating.
@@epictubegamersource
The "oh my god what the fuck is that" moment is one of my favorites in horror. They knew that nothing they could possibly show would be scarier than what we imagine Heather is seeing.
Apparently Donahue was supposed to catch a glimpse of the source of fear but she forgot to while running
@@planesrkool2727 well 💀 still works
@@planesrkool2727It was a tall thin man in long johns who the director paid to walk through the woods at a distance. She really had no idea what she was seeing but it wasn't captured on camera.
the movie was released on 4:3, once it was adapted to 16:9 you can see your mom is the creature
@@fyoutube2294 😭
the fact James managed to get in a colleen bash in the apology ukulele made me laugh so bad
Me toooo I just got to that part and CACKLED like a VVitch 😂
Shots fired
Credit the writers!
@@oliverhughes610he did credit the writer.
@@SuicideBreezy I was, clearly, addressing op.
Them being told that they had to open the bundle of sticks is literally like a dm telling the players that they have to do something for the plot.
Fun fact: my mom was watching this movie 9 months pregnant with me and it induced labour. I was always told how terrifying it was my entire childhood and to this day I never watched it because I was too scared 😂
My mum watched this movie on video when I was a newborn and told me I started growling and making weird gurgling noises in my crib halfway through. She was convinced the film was cursed and had to call my uncle (her brother) to spend the night because she was too scared.
Having a scary movie induce your labor is pretty cool tho
That’s so cool to hear! Horror movies are great for burning calories, heart problems, and anxiety. Glad to hear it helped your mom lol. I love horror movies and metal. Surprisingly from both my parents lol I got the interest/love from! ❤️
@@biksit4095cool story!
@@yuck_me1451he should check out the movie black Sabbath which inspired the name of the band
The fact that the backlash of Heather Donahue in this movie caused her to change her name and get rid of her history with it is truly saddening... I really enjoyed her performance in the movie, and to see how it effected her afterwards makes me feel so bad for her. But I'm glad she's doing well for herself
Her getting a Razzie is an absolute travesty. As James put it, she nails that type of film student character and does a fantastic job of going from the fearlessly overconfident "I know EXACTLY where we're going" leader to a sobbing terrified wreck who realizes she's never leaving those woods alive.
I didn't know that about her until this video however it's crazy to me that the guys didn't get any backlash from this film. Sexism at it's finest.
@@homelesshannah50 lmao. K. Sure because she wasn't cast as that. Either way a guy wouldn't be getting the criticism she got for that film.
@@homelesshannah50keyword being Character, not actress, not her fault
Same. I didn't know about the backlash until this video. I thought she was phenomenal. All three were fantastic and I really appreciated how real they felt.
I like the decision to have Josh be taken first. Heather and Mike having to work together after having so much animosity really increases the tension of the film. It also made both of them more sympathetic to me
seriously, i loved seeing them come together as their situation passed from annoying to horrifying. particularly heather's decision not to tell mike what she saw of josh really made me respect her more
When the movie came out, my mother said she and her friends were terrified. No one wanted to even go by the woods and they always stayed inside when it got dark. I was born a year later and I just never felt as scared as other people when they watched it. I really wish I had gotten to experience that feeling my mother had.
Good luck with that.
Check out “Devils Forest” from paranormal files. That probably gives a good feeling of what it is like. More real
I think all of us thought the movie was real when we first seen it. Even after finding out the Blair witch was fake, I was still scared of the woods at night. Ngl the woods look creepy asf at night when you only have flashlights
@@LazyLizzy706 I never understood that. I was 17 and neither me nor anyone I knew believed it for a second, like it wasn't up to debate. Of course no snuff film is going to be put into movie theaters by a big studio.
Also it needs every tv channel, magazine etc. that writes about the movie to basically play along (and treating it like it was a documentary instead of a feature film). Which also didn't happen here (= Germany).
(that being said, I do figure that believing it to be an actual documentary obviously turns it into a much crazier experience)
the movie never scared me either. i watched it when i was really young though, so i don't know if it would scare me now
fun fact: the actors were limited in how much food they could eat. the directors provided their food while in the woods and day by day, the actors ate less and less. this made them very hangry and put them in permanent bad moods, further enhancing the fighting scenes and making them look tired and scared
Also interesting fun fact: the actress believed the film to be a snuff film, so she had a knife on standby in case anything happened
@@maneoj46that’s not a very fun fact :/
@sewerwater2595 its more of a production fun fact. If anything wrong happened, they had a safe word: Taco
The more about this movie, i think the directors just wanted to make an physcological experiment
Being people into the middle of nowhere and starving them and probably scaring them shouldn’t be a fun fact and shouldn’t be encouraged
The ending with him facing the wall is so much better than the alternatives. It's the subtle reincorporation of putting one kid in the corner to beat the other, it implies that she's dying first.
The others honestly just made me laugh
it also connects the murderer to the blair witch, showing how strong her influence is
I've heard a theory that there is actually no witch and the guys were the ones to kill Healther because they'd gotten sick of her
Mike just standing there facing Hesther looks like a kid telling his mom at 1am that he had an accident
@@user-df1ns1ob8y “I frew up”
Heather won a Razzie?? That is insane to me. She sells the fear so well, especially the "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT??" line.
"Woman scream a lot and no make pp hard" - the Razzies Worst Actress award. They got the shit they deserved recently for nominating a girl who was like, 8 years old
Not the first time a great horror movie earns a Razzie. The Thing did as well, yet overtime these movies grow more popular and with a huge culture
Razzies are mostly just movie makers goofing around. Halle Berry even makes speeches for it 😂
@@abrahammesrajecorrea2349The very first Razzie awards nominated Kubrick forThe Shining as director and Friday the 13th for movie. They've always been bullshit.
@@abrahammesrajecorrea2349 Shelley Duvalle famously got roasted for her performance in the Shining, I've always been baffled by that
Heathers acting was so real, I can’t believe she got so much hate for her role in the movie
*cough* misogyny *cough*
@@skittlemilks1614 yes I'm sure only men were that idiotic, women are all knowing smarty smart smarts that do no wrong.
@@skittlemilks1614she was so annoying, and this is coming from a girl 💀
@@skittlemilks1614 true, but at the same time it was also because her character is pretty unlikeable and since the actor and character were treated as one in the same due to the whole schtick surrounding the film. She's great in the film
When you get people hating you over a character yk you made it as an actor
I remember working at a movie theater when this first came out. They actually let the staff have a free screening the night before its opening, meaning we got out well after midnight with the parking lot entirely empty and everything around us dark and very very quiet.
It was the longest short walk to my car I had ever taken in my life.
ooh what I would trade to experience this myself
@@Kaastengelsdon’t. Trade nothing for that experience.
@hurricane3241 oh i mean the experience of watching the blair witch project the first time it came out. It wasn't that immersive with gonjiam because one of the actors is already estabilished.
That "I bought myself a giant hunting knife" interview is absolutely electric, It's fun when an interviewer can catch an interviewee off guard but the other way around is absolutely hilarious
Timestamp?
@@victoriapulcifer6218 6:34
I truly cannot describe how vivid and memorable the experience of seeing this in theaters as a 10-year-old on Long Island was. When you walked into the theater they handed us MISSING flyers for the cast and everyone in the audience was totally bought in and freaked the hell out. One of the most unique theater showings of my life and something we'll never quite see again in a post-Internet world.
I wish I was more older to appreciate the film and go watch it with someone (I was 4 at the time). This experience where everyone believed this was real will never repeat itself with Internet as it is keeping us connected to a point where sometimes a movie is spoiled to you days before the screening.
This was like a modern version of the people who took listening to an enactment of the War of the Worlds on radio as real and it sounds just magical
wait, they let 10 year olds into the theater?
@@oddjobplayzps4314My friend’s parents took us, so yes.
@@abrahammesrajecorrea2349 - No one actually believed that the War of Worlds was real, why would they? The show was a regularly scheduled and announced episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio program dedicated to presenting dramatizations of literary works.
The whole "massive hysteria" story has been debunked as a hoax. Almost no one even listened to the original program, since the much more popular "Chase and Sanborn Hour" was on, so only 2% of radio listenners tuned in to Orson Welles' story, and they knew it was a story.
But hey, I wasn't there, I can only report what has been concluded since then...
On the other hand, I was there for the Blair Witch Project, and at least in my theater, everyone understood that the missing posters were part of the show, it was all _VERY_ tongue-in-cheek, wink-wink nudge-nudge, type of setting.
There were probably a couple of slack jawed hillbillies hopped up on moonshine who didn't get the joke, but OP's claim that *"everyone in the audience was totally bought in and freaked the hell out"* sounds rather suspicious.
Bro ten year olds shouldn't be watching this 💀
“Yeah but like do you even mean it if you’re not playing a ukelele?” Had me rolling!! Love your jokes James 💀
Haha I came to say the same! 😂😂
KELLIN QUINN MENTIONED
😂
The clever marketing, the dedication to keeping the found footage feel and building suspense, it's that kind of effort that makes this really feel like a passion project, and why it's had such staying power even almost 25 years later. I love this film, as an aspiring director, it gives me confidence that I too can make something great with enough passion. My first time watching it is still one of my scariest memories, and Heather's scream is still horrifying.
Agreed. Weird that it gets so much hate these days.
It always makes me tense.
You've got that right.
It's also a great example of how timing can be crucial to the success of a project. The confluence of the early internet, the found footage genre, and viral marketing (really almost a proto-ARG) at a time before all of those things were run into the ground, especially when released in the pre-Scream mid-90s (arguably the lowest point of the genre). It really had everything working for it, so for it to also be a solid film in its own right really cements BWP as a true classic.
Eh. I think without the powerful marketing machine, it really doesn't hold up as a horror film on its own in a 2020+ landscape where we have way better, more effective horror movies.
Imo it perfectly used the marketing machine of "oh is this real" which 2020+ audiences simply wouldn't buy and the advent of this kind of found footage movie becoming a novel concept (and not as played out as in 2020+) to be a great movie for its time. But oh boy it perfectly capturing the zeitgeist of back then just really backfires when it tries to stand on its own, aside the hype, marketing machine, just as a movie.
It's simply one of those movies that took advantage of the landscape it was in, but that landscape just poorly translates into it being a great movie unlike many classic horror films.
There's a reason why many people say blair witch was "the right horror film at the right time" because outside of that time capsule (let's be honest, no one will even be inclined to believe that nonsense is true in the 10s/20s, which was such a stupidly strong point for its marketing), it just... won't hold up.
Found footage is such a scary sub-genre to me because of how real and scary it feels. This movie and REC are a few of the times you’re not just looking through a camera catching action and instead through the eyes of someone else. You’re seeing what someone apparently went through and the cameraman actually dies.
Have you ever seen Hell House LLC. It's the only movie that's ever scared me.
Cloverfield IS Also cool
cloverfield is an awesome spectacle for sure, americas answer to Godzilla, the same way it mimics the atomic bomb, cloverfield mirrors 9/11 @@patrikjurica2326
Cloverfield always freaks me out
As above so below is also pretty good
I remember when this was first advertised. Everyone was freaking out and people were genuinely concerned believing these 3 kids did go missing. I walked by a magazine rack with pictures of the three actors posing together talking about the film. The whole illusion fell apart right there, but it was a heck of a ride!
The marketing was brilliant. I remember going to that website and being so scared with my older cousins. Early internet days were amazing and look back on them so fondly. This movie capitalized on the internet in its infancy and truly did pioneer the sub-genre.
Months before it’s theater release it was a VHS being passed around campus! It scared the hell out of everyone!
I SO envy the people who got to see the website and all the promo for the movie before it released in theaters! Oh, to have been a teenager in the 90s! 😭
This was early days of the internet and my BFF and I were completely suckered into the lore on the website. We saw the movie opening night and we. were. terrified. I didn’t sleep for a couple of nights until we figured out it was all part of the marketing. It’s commonplace now, but it was genius at the time.
to really be a part of the illusion you had to watch the film as a copied VHS tape that was viral.. I saw this film with friends at a house thinking it was real and it was some random VHS tape copy that no one new whether it was real or not... it finally became a release in the theater a year later... but everyone was arguing whether it was real or not and whether it was fake... it was a huge mystery for awhile...
I love this movie. Spent a lot of time reading everything on that website as a kid and bought the books when they came out, still have them.
The fact that Heathers career suffered and that she has felt it necessary to distance herself so hard makes me feel really bad for her though. Her performance is amazing and I hope she knows that countless people all over the world are in awe of the part she played in this movie.
I found this more psychological than scary. Seeing these people loose their minds lost in the woods. It can get annoying watching them yell at each other all the time, but I think it still holds up too
It's actually some of the scariest scenes of the movie, watching them gradually fall apart and turn on each other as they realize how screwed they are. Particularly when Mike admits he kicked the map into the creek. Heather turns absolutely feral in her rage. Previously she'd been putting on the act of "it's all okay, I know exactly where we're going, we'll be fine", but when Mike admits that about the map, she just goes absolutely volcanic as all of her hidden fear and anger at herself gets directed at another target she can blame for their situation.
Thank god they just loosened their minds, not lost
It always baffles me how many people don’t know the word lose
That's what was so scary about it. It felt too real in how alone they were and their performances were incredibly realistic. Never got annoying one bit for me.
To me it works, the fact they can no longer stand one another and some even laugh out of the madness is what sells the movie to me. It makes it feel more real. Heather being the scream queen at the end of the movie is another seller for the film
I watched this movie for the first time in years recently, and it still terrified me as much as it did before. It’s not about jump scares or thrills - it’s the way the movie stays with you afterwards; it seeps inside you. One of the best American horror movies ever made.
“Not Zoran, but the rest of the Dead Meat team” is one of the best moments in this episode
It’s like they don’t like each other
@@axelnilsson5124never bantered before? Sad
I just love the love hate relationship played in these vids between the two. It sounds like Zoran is the hyper employee that sometimes messes things up and James is the boss already fed up with having him around but has already got used to him over the years lmao
The less Zoran, the better.
@@CSC52698 You know Zoran does passes on Kill Count scripts, right? Some of his humor is in each modern Kill Count video even if he himself isn't
The way that them just being lost in the woods scared me the most. They portrayed it so realistically- the fear and hopelessness of being turned around
I actually know Mike in real life, after recording this he worked as a guidance counselor for a school near me and taught improv classes for kids on the side. I took his class for about 6 or 7 years and then went on to assistant teach the class along side him at a summer camp for two years. The dude taught me literally everything I know about filmmaking and acting and is the reason I am now in film school. Man even wrote one of my letters of recommendation for Brooklyn College.
The dude is super nice, and I’ve been waiting for you guys to cover this movie for about four years so I could tell this story. It’s one of my favorite films of all time. So much so that it inspired me to make my own found footage film in honor of the original that I got aid from him and his son on 😂. I don’t have it out yet but if it makes even a fraction of the success that this work of art made I’d consider myself incredibly lucky. (Trailer is on my channel for anyone interested but this ain’t a self promo)
Thanks for finally covering it James!
Thats awesome thanks for sharing brother ill be sure to check out the trailer
That’s awesome! If you need an actor for a student film, I can do it!
dude this is SO COOL
Congratulations! That's truly a neat story.
he was my sister guidance in middle school
These sponsor segments just keep getting more creative. Really the only sponsor reads I can actually sit through.
Fr it's actually fun to see what he does that's why he's the 🐐
If you want more funny ad reads, I recommend Some More News! They really invoke the "I am only doing this because I'm getting paid" vibe.
The greatest found footage movie of all time. Myrick and Sánchez gave us so much with so little and it absolutely payed off. I've rarely been as unnerved by the big budget professionally shot movies. As an aspiring filmmaker, it's a it's a major source of encouragement for me.
Agreed
The McPherson Tape gives it a run for its money imo but yeah, I love The Blair Witch Project.
This movie sucks
one of the worst*
little baby scared?@@ethanfullerton1620
I love the ending of this movie. You never see the entity. You leave the viewing wanting more and the conversation left the theatre with you. Great movie!!
My mom was a 911 dispatcher in Frederick county when this movie came out. Let’s just say she got tired of telling people the Blair witch wasn’t real 😂
I’ve been to the “Blair witch house” and it’s creepy asf. Even knowing it’s not real, I wouldn’t dare go inside.
🤣
Living as a young child in Maryland when this movie released was a whole different experience. I never saw the film but any time you went to a movie theater, the amount of warning signs posted around was terrifying in itself.
I wasn’t born when this movie came out but my parents would always tell me not to watch it because it was “cursed”. I guess it really did affect people in Maryland back then. But it’s always been a cool film to look at and think about how it was made and based in Maryland.
What did the warning signs say?
The Blair Witch Project is a well created movie. The way how they made the "found footage" is really effective in selling this movie completely. The acting is great and actually knowing that instead of just some shooting some acting, putting the scenes together and calling it a wrap the director actually made the actors camp out and just gave them basic directions such as "go this way" or "be here at this certain time," and some food and water to really sell the lost and natural feel to the movie. So I hope that somehow intrigues you to watch or gives you some satisfaction for knowing a little bit of the making of this movie.
I agree with this statement
I also think if the cameraman actor knew how to operate a camera better it wouldn't have been as good either. Him lying on his resume literally helped make this movie so great.
Living in Maryland when this movie came out was an honest trip, I recall a lot of people believing this was a snuff film, a lot of people saying to not go out into the woods at all, etc. An iconic film that I still enjoy for what it accomplished to this day.
I love Heather and I'm sad this movie wasn't a positive experience for her. I think she's fabulous and I always have. One of the scariest movies ever made.
i love how even if the kills are low he covers it because he enjoys telling us about things
The rock pile that Josh knocked over is what is known as a cairn. Cairns typically are used as markers for navigation and burial mounds, so Josh accidentally knocked over what is essentially a grave.
Also the writings on the walls in the abandoned house are backwards Futhark runes. Reversed runes brings a bad fate to the person who reads them.
18:00 I fucking laughed so hard I ended up coughing that was perfectly timed.
Oh that’s awesome!
reversed elder furthark runes dont necessarily mean bad fate, just an opposite effect
Found footage horror is probably the only type of horror that can actually get me scared- there’s something terrifying about how real it feels
How have they never covered this before, wow and how did I never notice it's never been covered. I remember seeing this in theaters as a kid, and the ending gave me literal chills with that final shot sticking with me.
I just rewatched all 3 last week and I asked the same thing.. Then it hit me.. Theres barley any kills to count in any of them
I mean there’s not really many kills to count xD
Damn near a crime that Heather didn't get to go on acting I find her performance so dang good in this. Literally would have not been the same film without her as it's leading force. Dope as hell she's a medicinal marijuana grower now. Shame about the merch but that is one hell of a hat I'd keep that as well.
I still remember watching the BWP as a kid for the first time at a sleepover. That ending was probably the first time I ever felt legit shook from a horror movie. It’s the perfect example of how ‘less is more’ can be extremely effective in horror.
The ending is iconic. Showing him dead or strung up would have been an easy way to plainly show the evil of the witch. But having him just standing there and looking in the corner, after previously scrambling throughout the house, is terrifying in just how abnormally unexpected it is. It tells you in a simple and instinctive way that he's under some supernatural influence without having to say anything obvious at all. It's perfect.
Probably one of the most influential horror movies of all time and I’m so glad when I heard James was gonna cover this it felt like Christmas!! Thank you so much James
Honestly, the Blair witch project is terrifying. If you’ve ever been in the woods at night, alone, in the dark, you’ll experience a deep primal fear unlike anything else you’ve ever experienced, even if nothing is even happening. Sounds you hear, lights or lack thereof, it’s haunting and terrifying.
Those cries for help at the 18:17 mark will ALWAYS send chills down my spine. The first time I saw that scene, I wanted to shrivel up into a ball and die. 😭💀 I think I would have a full blown panic attack if I heard that in the forest at night.
You didn’t have to see anything to be scared , the actors sold it really well
Ehh it was kind of boring even as a kid watching it
Very boring movie😒
19:15 "yeah but like do you even mean it if you're not playing a ukele" this joke went over everybody's heads😂😂
frr i dont see any comments about it LMAO
Please explain.
@@kerrajohnson3203colleen ballenger groomed some kids and played the ukulele in her apology
@@kerrajohnson3203ok..
*gets guitar* "ALL ABOARD-"
@@heartracing4youthe toxic gossip train😍
I'm excited to see how you guys do graphic novel coverage. It's been really cool to see you guys experiment these last few months. I know it was out of necessity, and it was probably kind of stressful for you trying to figure out how to make things work, but from a viewer perspective, it's been awesome. Great work, you guys.
Thank you!
Stop making them think we want this type of stuff and that it’s enjoyable, it’s not. Why tf do we want stage plays and graphic novels on the kill count makes no sense
@@DWeaver speak for yourself kid lol
@@Zyzarda you’re obviously new to this channel
@@DWeaverif you don't like the unstruck videos just don't watch until the strikes are over instead of bitching and whining in the comments
I don't normally like Found Footage horror films, but this is definitely the best one I've seen. Everything is built up so well and you're just left with your imagination.
For me it is Rec.
Absolutely Rec as number 1, and then As Above, So Below after it. I do like BWP, but it just doesn't have nearly enough story for it to be my number one@@lb9612
@@lb9612 Man rec hits even closer if you speak spanish or close to it, to this day best improv realistic dialogue i've seen
@@iago110 yeah that is true. I didnt understand everything but most of it. It is pretty damn good. I really love it.
Same here except Cloverfield is the only one I like, there’s just so much crazy stuff going on and it actually feels like the end of the world
I really like the fan theory, that Mike and Josh lured Heather into the woods and killed her. No paranormal activities, just the ingenuity of two murderers
Me too!! It makes sense.
I think it makes the movie so much scarier as well
It is a fun theory, though it requires you to ignore the canon of the sequels, especially Blair Witch 2016. It sounds like disowning the sequels isn't a big ask for a lot of people though.😅
@@aidanrfleming agreed!!
@@Vaajraath I will gladly disown those 😅
The thing I love about this channel is learning about the sheer EFFORT it took to make some of the most famous pieces of cinematic history. The low budget, immersive conditions, and online marketing being used to sell the fear factor is all ingenious.
Finding out what happened to the actress really breaks my heart. I always loved her performance and it's sad how it impacted her so negatively that she burned all the merch and changed her name especially. People are horrible.
On a lighter note I absolutely LOVED the ad block and to the numbers bit this time around. 8'D
Yeah it is really sad, even after the sequal (where they made sure to not name her even when the plot revolved around her brother looking for her) she felt pretty suicidal over it all. It is a shame because it works *so well*
Especially when it's likely that, had her role been cast with a man as originally intended, the character wouldn't have caught nearly as much shit.
@@KentuckyKaiju why? What does this have to do with anything? Or are you one of these people, who think every bad situation for a woman happens just because of here gender?
@@dawnderhenker I don't mean to be rude but you're missing the point. Most people, including James, are aware that most women will harsher criticism for the same things men have done. The whole reason why Heather Donahue was hated was because she was a headstrong woman who couldn't accept her mistakes. This idea annoys men immensely and you can look at many comments hating on Heather around the time of the movie mentioning the fact that she was worse because she was a woman. Pretending that the world doesn't hate on women for simply existing is ignorant.
How did heather get worst actress...the film would not be half as good without her.
Her performance is what ties it all together. Her acting gave me literal chills the first time i saw the movie.
That’s how women are treated in careers
Oh man,i've been waiting all my life for this kill count.Phenomenally pioneer movie.
Paranormal activity should take notes from this one.
@@mintycooper PA tried taking notes from Blair Witch, they just failed the assignment anyway lol
@@LadyUndeath Paranormal Activity is one of the most successful horror franchises of all time?
So that'd mean you're 6 years old??
@@goobleron eh... so so
I remember watching this in theaters with my dad and sister. No real jumpscares at all, but the constant dread and atmosphere keeps you on edge the whole time. I remember that once they find the house, I was holding my breath the entire time and almost passed out.
My only regret about this movie is I didn't get the chance to watch it in a theater
Going from watching the "I'll always know what you did last summer" Count to this one is honestly a trip. To see the difference in your attitude from THAT to something you love.
ill never forget the extremely brief "summary" for that movie. just "today we're looking at _i'll always know what you did last summer,_ released in 2006. this movie fuckin' sucks. [THE KILLS]" iconic
I literally also watched "I'll always know what you did last summer" prior to this
I decided to go hiking at the state park a couple years ago. The trail was badly marked, and seemed a lot longer than they said it was. After about four hours I couldn’t tell if I was lost, it started raining, it was cold, and started getting dark. I started to get scared and saw some people around a camp fire through the trees. I climbed through the forest to get to their campsite, and was able to walk to a main road from there, and had to walk several miles down this road in the pitch dark with not street lights or anything until I thankfully finally found the parks parking area again. I will NEVER go into woods again. Ever.
The woods are like the ocean. You have an idea of how vast it is but you don't comprehend how insanely easy it is to get lost in there. Even moving just dozens of yards away, you start to get absorbed into the background in other people's vision.
Honestly the creepiest thing is hearing someone else get tortured and cry for help because all you can do is let your imagination go wild on what is happening to the person. They also did this effectively in "Annihilation" with the mimicking bear.
The bear was great. Best thing about that movie.
Apparently, during the running scene, Heather was supposed to point her camera to the side revealing the witch, prompting the scream, but the directors removed this from the final cut. (If anybody is wondering, it's at 16:09)
When this movie first came out, I was actually scared to go home. I thought this was real footage of real people. I’ll never forget the opening night screening of this movie. Phenomenal but horrifying
Me too! And once I got home I slept with every light on!
What was even more frightening to me was the faux documentary "Curse of the Blair Witch" that showed on the Sci-Fi Channel around the time the film was released. What a brilliant bit of marketing that was. That really did a number on me as far as the realism of the film.
One of my favorite things about dead meat is their sponsor ads. Every single one is unique to the movie that day, and I think that just really shows the effort they put in every aspect of the channel.
THANK YOU for having subtitles included instead of just the automatic ones. wish more creators would bother
Respect
In the immortal words of Tom Scott ranting about wealthy youtubers not captioning their videos - _"Oh I bought a Lamborghini,_ well, buy some damn subtitles!"
I’ve seen this movie so much I know the dialogue but it will never not be absolutely terrifying. The acting is incredible. I always feel like I’m in it experiencing everything along with the characters. I’m very sorry to hear that it had such a negative impact on Heather’s career.
Same
this is one of those movies that made me just fall in love with horror. there wasn’t even that much shown besides the characters interactions and reactions to things, and it still was utterly scary as hell!
The thing that makes this so scary is the ideas that simple things they find conjure up. Like the rocks outside their tent - it's not the pile of rocks themselves that is scary, it's that it means someone or something was outside their tent within arm's reach placing them there while they were asleep.
I loved James shot at Coleen Ballinger 😂
I saw this film when I was 15 and I was terrified. My imagination ran overtime with what you cannot see. I remember looking up the website & wondering if it was real. Loved it.
Blair witch and Lake Mungo are two films that give me the same sense of dread and emptiness that you so deeply want to avoid in real life, and I was shocked to find I felt them at the end of both of these
I’m actually shocked that this hadn’t been covered yet. Appreciate the Dead Meat crew so much! ❤
I still remember when I saw this in the theater. My buddy kept getting motion sick and had to keep going to the bathroom. The entire audience was constantly getting scared, and it was AWESOME. Never really been in a movie where the audience was that invested. Good times.
I'm glad they covered this movie. Its super interesting because we don't actually know if there were any kills.
Michael revealing that he lost the map and the characters reactions was the scene that freaked me out the most. Its so simple and mundane making it the most realistic for me.
Heather Donahue did a fantastic job in this movie and its really sad that she wasnt appreciated enough to feel pride in the work she did
I like how James and his team did this Kill Count. The intertwining of the behind the scenes mixed with the recap of the movie blended very well.
One theory I've seen about this movie is that maybe there was nothing supernatural about it and the boys made it all up to torture Heather while luring her out to seclusion to kill her. This idea is just as scary as the supernatural stuff, to me.
That theory makes no sense since the official meaning of the story is the witch.
Isn’t that a episode of film theory I always wondered why they would want to kill her though they have no reason to go through all this effort to kill her
@@pufferfancyfishThey legit had no reason to kill her so the theory falls flat.
@@darklight1611 I mean, I don't agree with that theory but "they're crazy" has been more than enough of a reason for someone to kill in a horror film.
@@thingthang2904Heather would have been considered crazy too, that still does not make that theory make sense one bit.
montgomery county, maryland native here. i’m so happy that we got to have a movie filmed here, and i’m so excited that james gets to talk about one of the most popular movies made in my state.
Maryland native here as well I never knew this was made here I’m so happy
Stopped watching this channel about 4 years ago, really for no reason at all, I loved it! Just came across this video, and it really makes me happy seeing this channel still alive and thriving! All the best moving forward!!!
19:15 James, that was extremely out of pocket.
Well done.
Nah, the original person is the one who is outta pocket, what’s her name, I can’t even remember 😅
@@silver7215Miranda Sings. She's a nonce.
This movie really helped pioneer both found footage and mockumentaries. I was obsessed with this film as a child and I remember the absolute fear and fascination of believing this was real.
James, I just want to thank you for making a Kill Count on my favorite horror movie, this movie means the world to me since it was the first one I enjoyed. I'm very glad you made this, thank you James.
Yeah this movie actually got me. Always thought it was real footage after they all went insane and never came back. This is real horror.
I'm so happy you all finally covered this. This is my favorite horror movie of all time.
You should a different favorite horror movie because this movie sucks
@ethanfullerton1620 it will always be my favorite horror film. It's fine if you don't like it just don't say my fav horror movie should be something different. Let's all respect each other
@@siahtheswordsmen1777 it's bad movie and I have no idea why people like this piece of garbage movie
@@ethanfullerton1620 that's just your opinion
@@siahtheswordsmen1777 it's a fact
One of my first exposures to horror as a kid !
I love the film itself, but I also love the backstory and history and entire world they've created. Robin Weaver, Rustin Parr, Eileen Treacle, those stories are so interesting and creepy.
I genuinely appreciate the recurring jabs at Zoran. I love that style of comedy. And I like Zoran as a host, so it’s even funnier to me.
Dead Meat never ceases to amaze me. Each and every video they upload is pure entertainment. I’ve seen a lot of great horror movies all because of Kill Count.
I would never hear any of these movies if it wasn't for Dead Meat
@@djalexander7723 yeah same. Thanks to Dead Meat I’ve seen Happy Death Day, The Babysitter, and You’re Next.
James I started watching you as a curious small child that watched you to see some horror but you grew into my comfort channel and have been watching you ever since thanks man and keep it up
Love your hard work james.Every kill count is an amazing journey.
Agree
Apparently there is a small fan theory that circulates the internet, that this entire movie was the two guys wanting to kill Heather and came up with this idea in order to cover their tracks.
And all the “supernatural” stuff was the guys pranking Heather.
The sequel says differently.
@@shiftybea yeah I know that, I’m just talking about the very small fan theory that I came a ross
Still the GOAT of found footage movies. The escalation, the extremely realistic arguing and making up, and that perfect ending. Hearing the children laughing outside the tent is still one of the greatest hair raising moments in horror history 🙌
rec is definetly a solid second place for this genre, but like the blair witch, its sequels kinda sucked.
As someone who grew up in the county where this was made, I'm extremely grateful that you covered this film. This film feels like a piece of Maryland history, along with the days of John Waters covering our home in earnest with his work. People love or hate this movie, but it had an undeniable impact. I'm always afraid to look at the woods next to me every time I watch it. The woods themselves are always unique when you walk in them every day and know how they look. It's why I was kind of taken out of the Blair Witch 2016 film, because they felt more like the Canadian woods they were shot in rather than the Maryland woods they were set in. Amazing video and due diligence on research. I also would've given anything to visit the Griggs' house.
Seminal. This is a big one.
It’s crazy to think I’ve been watching this channel grow since the beginning and here we are finally covering this beauty.
Great vocab word, but it's spelled "Seminal" in the context you're using. Seminole is a tribe of Native Americans.
@@Mhill08 lol as they say ‘fucking autocorrect…’
@@Mhill08 I’m changing it now!
This is one of my favorite horror flicks I don't care what people say about it not being scary. They clearly have never been in the woods at night... This movie caught me just the right way. I heard about it online in those early days of the internet (miss those days sometimes...) I then watched the "documentary" about the missing students that was shown on the Sci-Fi channel. When it was released it wasn't playing in any of the big theatres near me. Only at our local "art house" cinema which is where I saw it and it was a great experience. Once in a life time and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Great work as always on this video and I can't wait to see more!
As someone who grew up in Maryland right next to the woods, this movie definitely touches that old childhood fear of shit hiding in the trees at night
It was so awesome meeting James & Chelsea at Silver Scream Con, talk to you guys was the highlight of my weekend, probably the year. Please come to more cons in the Boston area, we welcome you!!
Seeing James make these videos over the years and become more and more famous and even become friends with people who write and make horror movies has really made me wish I could write or atleast act in a horror movie that James could cover one day.
i love how you guys give the intro regarding the history of this movie, easily one of my favorite parts of this movie
Fun fact: The scene where Heather screams “what the f*ck is that??!!!” The camera man was supposed to pan to his left and you were to see a woman in white following them, but he simply forgot to lmao
another fun fact: at the end of the movie we could’ve seen the witch after Heather died but it was another mistake and that’s why people this was real
22:43 i love this "to the numbers" bit. Especially when James apologies to everyone BUT Zoran 😂
One of my favorite movies ever! Much love to the whole dead meat team. Thanks for another great kill count!
This is one of your favorite movies? What a giant waste
This is possibly my favorite horror movie ever. I’m glad you finally made this one
So glad to see you guys covering this one. My mom and dad saw this right before a trip to Michigan, and my mom usually doesn't get spooked about anything. Supposedly, she wouldn't step foot outside the trailer after dark
I love that the dead meat team are covering over media like games and comics. In the darkest times there are glimmers of hope ❤😂. Appreciate the work you guys do.
I always wondered if Deadmeat was ever going to make this. I’m so glad I’m up and was able to catch this. Amazing video without having to see it bc the videos are always amazing. Can’t wait for this💜🖤
One of my all time favorites. Remember my Mom taking me to see it in the theater. It also started me on the path of having to see every found footage movie that comes out.