It boggles my mind that her career never took off. She was my generations scream queen. Gorgeous and a great actress and the fact she even worked with Spielberg, it didn’t make sense that her career never fully took off. She’ll make a comeback one day
It’s also a testament to the true grit and determination of the independent filmmaker, a film made outside the studio system was the most talked about thing the year of its release and made an amazing amount of money. They knew how to capitalize on that early internet craze.
I think a lot of the reactions in the movie are genuine. Like when Heather unwrap the bundle of sticks to find a severed tongue, I don't think she knew what she was going to see and that genuinely horrified her. I would love to see all the raw footage available for this movie. There's got to be hours and hours of unused footage sitting on a hard drive somewhere.
@@DontStopCornPop i like that story its like VERONICA cartwright in Alien when John Hurts stomach exploded, that was supposedly done with the fake alien jump scare and then Scott captured the reactions
she made the film work, she held the camera and if she weren't so great at that role then it would have collapsed because she was not just the "final girl" but she was the interviewer setting the tone, well that's the way I see it, and also you gotta have a great scream and she had it, her personality was great to, like she's the type that would be down for that
@@DontStopCornPop it's true that it was improvised in character, however when you're acting you don't just break character to have a genuine reaction. She knew it was all fake, so while it would have surprised her she reacted in character rather than being genuinely horrified. That's a weird misconception people have about improvisation, that they're really scared
@@Samantha_Lee I don't know, I'm not sure she actually knew it was all fake. The directors were Hollywood outsiders that, as far as I know, hadn't done anything previous to TBWP. The two directors could have been actual psychopath killers that were making a snuff film for all they really knew. Obviously that wasn't the case here but they had no way of knowing they weren't actually going to be stalked and killed in the woods. That's why I'm really interested in the production history of this movie and would love to see all the raw footage that was shot for this movie. I wonder if there was a crew that showed up at their campsite mornings and nights to give them directions/food/supplies. I wish there was behind the scenes footage of those as well.
I loved the movie. I watch it all the time...however, I found her character extremely annoying. How we gonna get thr dat across ......can we find a place to sit and check the map......
@@norakennedy4670 she starts out as very annoying but slowly becomes nice to follow. The annoying traits comes from the naive egotistical director side of her.
@jamesmorrison2055 it was because they were outsider nobody's that showed up and completely smashed the industry with the film and their believability...they showed them how its done and they crucified them for it.
The acting from Heather, Josh, and Mike is one reason why i believed it was real back then. "Worst actress"? Um, no. They all three did an incredible job. It didn't feel forced or anything of the sort. It was very raw and felt very real. Still love the movie after all this time.
I find it incredibly ironic that three people who pulled off some of the most incredible and convincing performances I have ever seen, never went on to do another movie again...
I just saw Joshua Leonard in a movie that was actually really good and creepy. He was amazing in the role too. Its called Unsane by Steven Soderbergh. I would check it out! But I agree all 3 should have gotten an acting award for this one. Realest acting I ever seen
Internet then was a pretty new thing. And I really give credit to the marketing strategy of this film.. and I mean AMAZINGLY DONE!! This film really scared the hell out of me during its time because the timing was just really perfect. I bet 100% if any reboots or sequels are not as successful as this one. The only time I realised it was not real was when I saw the characters presenting an award. Their budget vs box office was staggering. NO EFFECTS, NO OSCAR AWARDS TYPE OF ACTING... JUST MARKETING. It was pure film brilliance. :)
This movie scared the (insert bad word) out of me.the actors did such a compelling job. Bravo. I watch it every labor day before I decorate for Halloween.
there was a few weeks where everyone thought it was real but then they showed up on MTV the weekend of the movies release... So it was a good thing I saw it on release day.... because it was really different and it was more scary
forget about "making it big", she's not the kind of actress to become a julia roberts, but instead, she should have become an employed character-actress like the kidnapped girl from Silence of the Lambs despite Heather being prettier.
She was wonderful in BWP and Taken and seems so self-assured and confident in interviews from this time. It's such a loss that she didn't get the quality scripts she deserved. Glad she's happy with her 'growing' though!
yeah she's great, I remember seeing her in a silly sci-fi channel film and the second episode of it's always sunny...which was very unexpected, she nailed that
I think Josh did a really good job in his role too. Like he really had me feeling for him. Like you watching a guy slowly losing it and going through hell mentally. Obviously Heather nailed the terror acting. She really made her being terrified believable. Her screaming, especially when she’s running and says “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!!” was so believable
In a weird way, I'm really glad Heather Donahue only played this one role as an actress and became a legend for the millennial generation! There are so many actresses that have dozens of famous films and are fabulously wealthy beyond their dreams, but I would bet anyone that none of their works evokes such feelings of nostalgia and sense of creativity and all around fun as Heather Donahue's performance, along with her co-actors, in The Blair Witch Project. It was literally a community event, the "Woodstock" moment of our age, that only comes once in a generation. There will never be another Heather Donahue or The Blair Witch Project, at least with the same magical spell and social phenomena serving as the backdrop for what essentially was a chance at some exposure and minimum financial success. Yet here we all are nearly three decades later...love this movie til the day I die!
Honestly, her performance is Oscar-worthy. And I appreciate that she's really transparent about how difficult and un-glamorous it is for most working actors to get by.
That footage should have stayed lost. Three idiots wandering around in circles wondering what to do. Best comedy I've ever seen. Absolutely laughable. It should have won an award for worst improvisation ever filmed. 😀😄😆
I'm watching this again and I don't know if standards have slipped but the 3 of them did a phenomenal job. Really brilliant actors and all of them deserved great careers.
It’s so funny hearing her say “global positioning system” instead of just GPS. Just like how people in this time would sometimes say “World Wide Web.” Haha!
It was terrifying in the cinema, with the surround sound. That scene when they're running in the woods was terrifying with the surround sound and I ended up curling up next to this random guy sitting next to me. I hadn't heard much of the film before going to watch it, as I was working in a pub during the rugby world cup in 1999, and before watching the film I dreamed about the scene in the film and woke up terrified. The Book of Shadows I was also terrified
This movie will always be one of my favorites. Being 11-12 years old when it came out and thinking it was real was the best movie experience I ever gotten and will ever get. The internet wasn’t anywhere near what it is today. Mike Williams should have went into comedy, go watch the Blair witch reunions….dude is hilarious.
It feels like the climax of that era. Like they took what they knew what we felt spooky in early 90s and finally produced it right before 2000 to remind us what we felt as kids
Wow! 1st time seeing this . She had me for 18 years believing THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was a true documentary. I really thought that she was dead..🥴🥴 omg thank goodness shes alive !!!! AMAZING MOVIE !!!
It adds to the lasting impact of the movie that even today people watching for the first time won't be taken out of it by recognizing an actor from other movies.
Just the difference in acting and surrealism is what makes this the number 1 horror movie to me let alone found footage. A film from 99 portraying 93. This was so ahead of its time. The suspense felt until the end. Even the 2016 sequel doesn't compare because of the actors and how the witch looked like a skin walker rather than this paranormal figure. I've seen this movie probably 6 times in the last 4 years. And I see something new ever time upon viewing it. This film really pierced through the walls of reality and entertainment especially at a time the internet was still in its infancy. This movie will always stick with me. The woods alone is a character in itself. Comparing the woods from the 99 version to 2016 version is a night and day difference. The woods in 99 feels haunted where the woods in 2016 version feels like some camp area from Florida just by looking at the trees alone that's how much I paid attention. I hear blumhouse is doing a remake or reboots but there will never be another blair witch project like 99s
You know, they just always feel so phony and calculated. Blair Witch purposefully left the cast in the dark so a lot of the surprise and confusion you're seeing is real, or at least somewhat authentic. A little more chaos, unpredictability, using the medium of video to its strengths (the terror of blurry pixelated images is best caught in David Lynch's Inland Empire, but that's not a found footage film, but would be a strong inspiration for a good one.)
@@jordancooperlalala it all really relies on the actors. They have to be believable. I watched inland empire way back in the day but I'll have to rewatch it. I'm directing a found footage movie next week about a couple who goes on vacation in Tahoe and is never seen from again, loosely based on true events which is why I'm asking hah! Thanks for the input!
Funny story from Heather Donahue later on, she said that the woman who played Mary Brown was an actual mentally ill woman, besides thw few lines about the witch, all the other shit she said was just stuff the actress told them. She really did think she was a ballerina she really did think she worked for the department of nuclear energy and a scientist. And apparently they deleted footage of the actress taking the characters inside her trailer because it wasn't in the script, but Heather and her crew just thought Mary Brown's actress was doing her job so they followed her lmao. Heather said she didn't know what to do so she just recorded things like this woman's bedroom and her medicine cabinet 😂
The way the film was structured and the amount of improv moments warranted these actors/actress Oscar nominations. I first went to see this when the hype was just building and I thought I was watching a real found footage movie. Then I later saw Heather in an interview, and realized it was just a movie Scared the hell out of me.
One of the most profitable films of all time...and one of the most terrifying. Few films transcend into a cultural phenomenon (for its time). I remember watching it in the theater on opening night. I also remember the brilliant marketing by the studio prior to release.
@@rudy8176 I have family that live near the woods in Northern California and we go camping and it’s fun but sooo scary sometimes. There’s crack heads that walk around so you’ll hear footsteps and sticks crunching in the middle of the night and look up a mountain lion screaming, it sounds just like a woman screeching it’s horrifying.
Why the heck they gave her worst actress award? It was their acting that made me believe everything was real back then. She could have made it big if given the chance.
She should've won awards for This movie. I know when it came out I was 11-12 and watched it. The way they marketed it, I thought it was real. Now looking back I feel so dumb, but the marketing was genius. You didn't see the actors anywhere else, or in any movies, making it appear to be real. The ending was what got me. To this day, it still creeps me out, and that's hard to do now as I feel I've become desensitized because of the way horror movies have evolved...or it could just be me lol. I did have an argument with my best friend at the time about the movie. We believed it was real. However I saw heather years later on an awards show and told my friend and she didn't believe me. I was like that proves it was fake. This was before cell phones and googling everything like we can do now. I finally proved it to her one day and she didn't talk to me for a while after that oh the 90s and 00s lol
When i first learned of the blair witch movie, i went to see the movie, i later met the camera person that filmed the movie and he was a very kind gentleman. there are many interviews of the blair witch cast and crew on youtube and all over the internet. however, when i watch a movie like the original mcpherson tapes, and i see no interviews with anyone in the movie, this strongly indicates that something is unusual about the movie. and further indicates that there is a possibility that the tapes are something other than a movie. but possibly more of a document. what i am grateful for, is that at least such footage as the original mcpherson tapes are made public, even if the story is supposed to be that its just a movie. to me, this just means that we are going to be seeing lots of potentially real footage that will be categorized as movies, and in my viewpoint, if none of the cast and crew or most of the cast and crew, are not interviewing after the success of their film, then this could be an indication of actual authenticity of actual experience, rather than a movie experience. but even if the original mcpherson tapes were a movie, the obvious thing is that these experiences have been happening throughout time. in actuality. and i still think we need a department of extraterrestrial visitation where peaceful visitations can be met with public meet and greet experiences. the blair witch movie in my experience, was the first of its kind, in movie theaters. and has changed history. Great work!
I was actually surprised how shocked and appalled Americans were when they realized this "documentary" wasn't real. I watched this movie when I was like 11, before the studio admitted it was all fictional. I didn't need the studios admission to know these were improv actors. Also, the PR campaign that was pushed before this movie was released was so blatant. It was over the top. Any time ALL media is talking about the same thing, you should know something is up. And if you don't, you're ignorant. I loved it tho. Nothing has come close to replicating this film, to this day. Because the high budgets in Hollywood expose the manipulations outright.
@@jordancooperlalala Because everything else, even outside of film, is scripted. Mockingbird media isn't just the various corporate "news" networks. It's nearly everything at this point. That's my perspective anyway. Blair Witch Project had a general outline, goals, but the actors weren't repeating pre-written scripts. Which is why it was so effective. People REALLY hated it tho, when they realized they were tricked. Expect more of this in the coming years. All lies have an expiration date.
Heather got the Pet Rock style backlash, after a fad wares off and people get mad for "falling for it" despite the fact that she and the movie are brilliant... there is still anger involved with audiences, and she got the brunt of it... meanwhile, Michael, who is the character everyone loved, got no love for the movie either, and Josh got a handful of small roles, so...
I think the Blair witch is more of a psychological cuz maybe the witch became the focus of their delirium cuz the got lost and didn't have food or water or comfort. they really just were lost
Improv is where the actor truly gets to show off their talent as a performance ARTIST. She is truly a talented artist and it breaks my heart that the film negatively affected her career. I would have loved to see much more work from her, but she no longer acts at all.
Was soo good! I remember watching it in my room alone with a ceiling to floor mirror. Thats was unsettling at the time 😅😅 I remember sweating and not wanting to move haha
I remember camping with a mate, in her parents garden, after watching this film, and when going outside to do my business I was scared shit less by an owl hooting, it still scares me and its sequels. I nearly walked out on the most recent film, cos I thought I'd be the only one at the auditorium luckily another 5 people entered just before the film started
Is it just me or she couldve easily played a role on the tv show Friends as Rachel's long lost sister at the time cause to me she favored Jennifer Aniston a good bit back at this time.thats just my opinion lol
@@pppupu936 I know, the Blair witch project is a "found footage" horror movie released in 1999. Both written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Edwardo Sanchez. But in the intro it says no bodies were found only their filming equipment was discovered
Based on these comments I’m learning that some people truly thought this was a real girl in a real self filmed documentary who really went missing. 🤦🏼♀️
