Look me in the eye: did anyone really, REALLY believe the Blair Witch film was a real documentary?
Posted by Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 635 comments
People keep saying that it was a common belief but not only did I never actually meet anyone who fell for it, I found everyone on TV talking about how it was only fictitious maybe from the very first day. I’m not too sure it hadn’t become common knowledge in advance, before the film’s release. I don’t mean to put anyone down if they did in fact fall for it, I’m only trying to confirm those people’s genuine existence. It remains a widespread belief to this day that there was a mass panic when “War of the Worlds” aired on the radio, for instance: common misconceptions like that can reach their tendrils in deep and never let go. Come to think of it, do we ever really know any of these things?
Rough-Marionberry991@reddit
Uh, no.
DDChristi@reddit
That was the first movie that gave me motion sickness from all the bouncing around. I still haven’t finished it!
QuietCelery@reddit
I remember learning about it from friends and others months before I finally saw the movie. And from what people told me, they weren't sure if it was real or not. And I lived in Maryland at the time. People found a way to kind of make excuses for why we had never heard of the Blair Witch before the movie.
Lopsided-Day-3782@reddit
Yeah, I 100% know the people in my small town debated whether it was real or not. You gotta remember, this was before internet access was common place for everyone. We all thought that we knew a friend of friend that fell in a pool with a sheet of acid and thinks he's a glass of orange juice because we didn't know better.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
You mind if I put that up on r/BrandNewSentence?
Lopsided-Day-3782@reddit
sure lol
Clear_Fee_4318@reddit
Yes, but to be fair I was 11 and dumb lol
believe_in_claude@reddit
I didn't believe it while I was watching the film in the theater but I did believe it when the buzz started long before that. I was in high school. I think a lot of people who saw the fake documentary before the film were fooled for a little bit.
Even if you knew it couldn't be absolutely real there was an authenticity to it that you can't replicate now. Found footage wasn't a thing. It was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that the people hired to be in the movie were actors and not having a genuine experience. I knew the witch stuff had to be fake and no one could really have died but it didn't feel like watching a performance. It felt like some new hybrid style of film where there was a core of reality, it felt so much more real than any horror movie up until that point had to me.
XenaBard@reddit
Absolutely not. American believe in all kinds of crazy things that have no basis in reality.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
Hypothetically the same footage might have been real in the sense of being a real hoax instead of outright fiction. Let’s be charitable.
Resident_Map4534@reddit
I was so disappointed by Blair Witch because I kept reading that it was "so scary that people were throwing up in the theater."
But then when I saw it (in a packed theater, it was an event), I realized people were actually just getting motion sickness from the super-shaky cam.
LavishnessUnited1274@reddit
I never finished watching it. It took so long to build up I got bored.
Rough_Squirrel_423@reddit
I saw a preview screening believed it all and was totally terrified
dosassembler@reddit
More people thought Schwarzenegger was still the bad guy in T2. But there will always be people who manage to go in blind.
galumphix@reddit
Yeah my friend Jenny saw it at Sundance and told all her friends that there was this super scary documentary about a haunted plant, etc etc. We all were like "nah" and she was like "yeah!" and then we all finally saw it and knew we were right and to this day I have never asked Jenny about it.
thisplateoffood@reddit
In the fall of 98, someone sent me the link. I was in the dorms and I had a really fast LAN connection.
We discussed it like: is this real or not? It’s a mystery!
I remember feeling like it was definitely marketing because they did want attention brought to the film, but it did feel novel that someone would go to such great lengths to deceive.
Southern_Ear_6462@reddit
Yes. It was advertised as a real found footage and you never saw anything supernatural.
I remember coming out of the cinema with friends and we where all in silence. We went at that time in the evening walk a friends dog all silent ...
Until someone finally said it... they died then... he was in the corner while someone killed her.
It took a few days/weeks to realize it was a movie and not real footage
Appropriate-County46@reddit
*sheepishly* Kind of.
WalkerTimothyFaulkes@reddit
I was way too old to be so naive, but yes, I admit, I fell for it. The internet was new to me, and I found their website and read everything I could. I was sure it was real. Maybe a few days before the movie came out, someone told me it was fake. Heart broken. Mostly because I was an absolute fool that believed it.
So yes, I was one of the dumb ones. Part of my growing up, I guess. I was, I believe, 28 years old at the time. I should have known better, but I had always grown up taking people at their word and the Blair Witch was just one of the many times it took for me to realize people actually lie. I was very naive. I'm not anymore. I want proof in triplicate nowadays before I'll fall for something like this. But then? Yeah. I fell for it.
spooninthepudding@reddit
Not the film, but before the film came out, there was a "documentary" that treated the film as a real artifact, and that did fool me. I think it was on the SciFi channel
zendetta@reddit
Same.
By the time the movie came out, word about the gag had reached most people— where were and saw the movie anyway.
I read later that the documentary stuff was originally intended for the movie. But the director and movie team found the fake “found footage” so compelling that they decided to make that the whole movie.
The faux documentary was very much like any ghost-style documentary you’ve seen.
TomMFingBombadil@reddit
Hot take: that documentary is better than the movie. I saw it back then too and it scared me.
eeeek-a-mouse@reddit
I've been telling my kids about BW periodically. I even showed them a missing poster last Halloween and mentioned the documentary. Said it all went down close to where we live.... Lol I'm waiting for the day they realize that I pulled their legs this whole time!
Gorpno@reddit
Agree
MonkeyTraumaCenter@reddit
Yeah, and I own the double-tape VHS that has this documentary on the second tape. It's great.
chamrockblarneystone@reddit
Ooo you could transfer that to Jpeg if it isn’t available in any other form.
lilspydermunkey@reddit
Happy Cake Day!
MonkeyTraumaCenter@reddit
Thanks!
Jdojcmm@reddit
The doc was really well done. That and the fact that IFC did a couple of "news" bits mentioning it long before release? Yeah. For a minute I kinda bought it.
I dropped the fact it was staged on my whole Chevy Blazer full of like 7 people on the way home. Never heard such disappointment.
OfficiousJ@reddit
I thought it was real when I saw it at the theater due to that documentary, found out like a month later it was fake
dottie_petunia@reddit
They also had a website out- that made it seem as though these people went missing doing their documentary.
chaosmanager@reddit
The website was creepy AF. I honestly have to give credit to their entire marketing team, because they really amped up the weird.
Badger_Terp@reddit
Yeah I remember the website. Which made me think it was real, but growing up in the area I thought to myself “three missing students from the community college would have been all over the local news.” Which is what made me immediately question it and tell my friends it wasn’t real.
Still think it was pretty clever though.
NinjaBilly55@reddit
Another cool thing about it was all the places were real and you could see them for yourself.. Although the house is long gone the cemetery in Burkittsville is exactly as it was in the movie..
GrandMoffFartin@reddit
We randomly stumbled onto this documentary while on vacation on a rainy night and totally believed it was true until the actual movie came out. So in many ways it did a better job of being believable.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
That I can easily understand.
Responsible-Kale2352@reddit
Back in 1999, the internet was not like today. It was new to many (most?) average people.
You see the tv documentary, you see some websites and read them with considerably less skepticism than we would today, partly because of things like Blair Witch that blended fiction and reality into a zeitgeist of believability that was greater than the sum of its parts.
Potential_Anxiety_76@reddit
It wasn’t just poorly made geocities websites either. It was one of the first, most effective grassroots, street team marketing that had existed on a global scale. I remember seeing stickers or posters on light poles in the city of Brisbane in Australia, before the film came out. There were newspaper ‘articles’ (ads) that unless you read some very fine print, came across as totally believable. Because no one had (within the last few decades) been duped by marketing like this, and the internet generally wasn’t a cynical cesspool of media content (this was before Web 2.0, remember) it was a very intriguing mystery that was spread only by whispers and unverifiable news.
With hindsight yeah it’s easy to say this was an obvious fake out, but at the time, months before the movies release, there was certainly a sense of ‘yeah but… maybe?’
spooninthepudding@reddit
That's how it happened for me as well. I was home alone one night and stumbled on it.
its_raining_scotch@reddit
I miss the old SciFi channel, damnit
BlueSnaggleTooth359@reddit
all the old cable channels in the 90s were so much, often insanely, better like TLC, History, etc.
its_raining_scotch@reddit
The Learning Channel used to have serious shows about space and physics. Now it couldn’t be further from those days.
BlueSnaggleTooth359@reddit
Honey boo-boo city now
NeverBeNormalnbn@reddit
The different Top 10 shows were so great.
Clear-Concern2247@reddit
Seriously. It was so good.
superluminal@reddit
I fell for that "documentary". I was a 20ish something girl with limited life experience and no real frame of reference for anything like a hoax on that level.
FreddyNoodles@reddit
Well, the actors were dropped in the woods with some supplies but no script, etc. So, I DO believe some of the reactions are 100% real.
The film-maker talked about in in an interview not so long ago. Talked about making the creepy dolls and shaking their tent at without getting caught.
So, no- the story is not true. But I think most of the emotions are.
thegreatbrah@reddit
People really don't understand how guerilla/viral marketing didn't really exist back then.
I was fooled by it. Movie scared the shit out of me. I was terrified of ghosts and demons back then
BrashPop@reddit
Yeah, I was in high school and it 100% was talked about among teenagers like it was a real urban legend. That it was American lent credence to it as well - it was far enough away that it wasn’t something we would have heard about in the paper or on the news, yet close enough that it was believable as something that COULD have happened and so people ran with it.
Even after the movie came out some folks still insisted it was real, or that the Blair Witch was a real thing and not just made up for the movie, etc.
ClockworkJim@reddit
The documentary was scarier than the movie.
And that one woman they interviewed for the documentary is proof that a random local community actor can really knock it out of the park when improving and make something so believable people think it's true.
BrashPop@reddit
One thing the BWP did phenomenally well was the “Locals” interviews. It honestly feels like real on-the-street documentary footage and almost zero found footage movies have ever lived up to it.
_Internet_Hugs_@reddit
Yeah, that documentary got me pretty convinced too. I've never actually seen the movie, shaky cam makes me motion sick.
Carcosa504@reddit
It sure got my 14 year old ass. Hook, line & sinker.
Olelander@reddit
Yep this was my experience too. I think there was maybe a week or so before I figured out it wasn’t real. The actual movie was honestly a let down after the suspense that ‘documentary’ had built up
GrumpyKaeKae@reddit
Yup! The marketing for this film was top notch. And as someone who tends to believe ghosts were real, especially back then, I ate it up. I went to that movie thinking it was real. Saw it opening weekend and everything.
WoofinLoofahs@reddit
Yep. I’d heard rumors the movie was fake but I watched the documentary and bought in even more to story of the movie. I was not a young child, either. I was like 16. A really dumb 16.
Enxer@reddit
Here it is: https://vimeo.com/114798394
PurpleBrief697@reddit
Same. I was maybe 14 or 15 and totally believed the "documentary" and the website. Then they revealed it was a lie and I've hated them and the film ever since. I did give it chance eventually, but it wasn't scary at all. Still can't understand how anyone can find it scary.
thor_barley@reddit
Nah the BBC got me with Ghost Watch in ‘92. Can’t get fooled again.
StaceyPfan@reddit
You can rent or buy it on Prime Video. Curse of the Blair Witch.
CharismaticAlbino@reddit
IDK what channel it was on, but my friend and I watched the documentary the day before or the day of seeing the movie, and we saw the movie opening night.
flamingknifepenis@reddit
Yeah, I think one of the reasons some people did believe it was real (I know a few who did) was because the guerrilla marketing about it was so ahead of its time. I hadn’t even heard of it until I saw a commercial for that documentary, and looked it up and found the webpage and whatnot.
IMO the movie turned out to be the least believable part of the whole experience. I was pretty sure it was fake going in, but the first ten minutes made me sure of it.
QualityParticular739@reddit
Yes! That "documentary" had me thinking it was actually a true story, then I was so disappointed at the theater. 🤦🏽♀️
lonerstoners@reddit
Yes!! This freaked my friend out so bad that she stayed at my house for like a week because she was scared to be alone!!
PickledPixie83@reddit
Yea this is how I found out about the movie.
AlilAwesome81@reddit
That documentary scared the shit out of me
Gorpno@reddit
Exactly! The movie didn’t fool anyone. The marketing campaign did, and that’s what deserves the mention in movie history!
inkbyio@reddit
Yes! I swore it was real but I was smallfry too 😆 Also I thought the fourth kind was real the first time I saw it so maybe not the best judge?
CheeseburgerLocker@reddit
Curse of the Blair Witch. It was great. Very convincing, and the fact they released it about a month before the movie worked out perfectly for them.
I was 13 when the movie came out. I certainly was fooled. Scared the shit outta me!
Successful_Sense_742@reddit
That's what fooled me too. I saw the missing posters on telephone poles. The only blood you saw was that stick case that had bloody teeth in it. Heather had no idea (as an actor) what was in the case. Her reaction was real. There was an interview when Josh (off camera) when he discussed to Mike and Heather, that what if they were participating in an actual snuff film. That they were all gonna die. I remember Heather saying that when he had said that, it really got her thinking. Josh didn't really like the fact that they were going into the woods blind, no script, just because it was different than other movies. Since I lived in Northern Virginia, just across the bridge, I went on a tour of Seneca Creek and saw the places they went to. Burkittsville was creepy, especially the union civil war cemetery. However, most of the dead there were soldiers, not kids. The overnight camping was crazy. Nobody slept in tents that night.
Throwaway_inSC_79@reddit
I remember that. Yeah that fooled me too.
Fourwindsgone@reddit
In the same vein, before Independence Day got released, Fox showed some fake news coverage of the “welcome wagons” approaching alien spacecraft.
I had been out playing and when my buddy and I went inside and saw that, we were both a little freaked out that it was real.
JSpitzRule@reddit
Same.
Princesscrowbar@reddit
YES because 1. I was in 8th grade. 2. I was gone at hockey camp for three straight weeks with no tv. I didn’t see any commercials for it myself. All I knew was what my brother told me which was “I dunno, they found a tape in the woods of these people that went missing or something”
My cousin and I went to see it right after I came back from camp and that was all the info we had. We were pretty freaked out. I was VERY relieved when I saw an ad saying “Heather” was actually an actress and alive and would be a guest on Oprah to discuss her experience.
demonmf@reddit
Yes, but only because horror movies always have hot females in them.
3DNZ@reddit
About 1 yrar prior to the films release there were papers posted on telephone poles throughout the city about a group of teens who went missing and to call a number if they were spotted. The number led to a recording about the story of the missing teens and it all seemed pretty real at the time. When the film was finally released it was so ambiguous we all felt it was a real doco. Pretty brilliant marketing I reckon
Jason_Andrew@reddit
The movie itself was advertised as a horror movie as I recall.
Amnion_@reddit
I don’t think so. It was creepy as hell though
CocoValentino@reddit
No
TheMeticulousNinja@reddit
Show me your eye first
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
https://media0.giphy.com/media/FPPRvJfeYEuHu/200w.gif?cid=6c09b9528j0adwqio1cw81pxeqrv4puevz1zak52ytbo7mif&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200w.gif&ct=g
SolitudeWeeks@reddit
I didn't and didn't know anyone who did. We all went to see it with the mythology that some people thought it was real footage at first but that just isn't logical.
iheartruiner@reddit
Me, it was me. I didn’t know till after I had seen it that it wasn’t real. And I felt really dumb.
monstereatspilot@reddit
I was so unbelievably high the first time I saw it…. Yes. It scared the everloving shit out of me
LunaSunset@reddit
I was a senior in high school when it came out and I believed it. I had a little bit of doubt but not much
megadethage@reddit
I knew it was fake before it started. No one would actually be playing the actual footage of dead people and making money in the theaters.
Oddlyenuff@reddit
You’re going to ask that question a few years after qanon had people believing wayfair was selling and shipping children, pizzagate and all that other nonsense, when people actually had a great internet and access to all kind of information?
Yes, some people did think it was real or could be real. I remember it has people being more on the fence. But a lot of that went away from people a few weeks afterwards.
karenobus@reddit
Maybe it's an age thing. I was a teenager and believed it was real. I also had never really seen a horror movie before, so I was probably more gullible about that kind of thing.
The_Somnambulist@reddit
It came out when I was in high school. I encountered exactly 1 person who genuinely thought it was authentic footage. He only thought that for about 20 minutes that first day of school after the movie came out in theaters - EVERYONE else knew it was fictional and was happy to have a chuckle at his expense.
The vast majority of people in my vicinity understood it was a fictional film.
um_ok_but_why@reddit
I worked at a library when it came out. I can't tell you the number of people I had to explain that it was just a movie to, when they couldn't find any info online.
Ethel_Marie@reddit
No. Everyone said it's real!! And I thought no, it's not. And.. It wasn't. The end.
Requilem@reddit
I didn't know anyone that 100% believed it was real (I only knew about 2 or 3 people that were into horror like me) so no there was no War of the World's hysteria. Personally though it did almost fool me. The whole set up from news stations playing along to the movies opening and ending credits definitely made me pause and question if it was authentic.
Psychological-Web134@reddit
I saw it the night it came out, and I tell you anyone who knew it was sure didn't say anything about it until much later.
Big_rizzy@reddit
I went to uni in the uk. A VHS tape of the movie was doing the rounds, I believe it had been leaked as an early viral campaign- but we all believed it. Was mega exciting and scary.
Basic-Pair8908@reddit
The last horror movie was excatly the same.
BoysenberryKind5599@reddit
I just posted something similar. I went to the University of Texas at the time and someone in a dorm got a copy in the mail. This was before the release and before any press. We believed it!
Big_rizzy@reddit
Interesting! I can’t actually remember if it was the whole movie or a trailer… but it turned up at our Student Union on an unmarked VHS tape. Brilliant marketing, way ahead of its time.
nonexistentnight@reddit
A friend of mine had a copy of it this way too. When he told me the premise I was like "Yeah that's bullshit" and never watched it. I was too busy watching artsy fartsy stuff.
Basic-Pair8908@reddit
What seriously??? Next you be telling me paranormal activity isnt real either. 😭😭
InLikeErrolFlynn@reddit
I was living in the part of Maryland where they shot most of the movie (Seneca State Park) so I had a sense that it might have been based on a local legend, but it was still a fictional movie.
ronin_cse@reddit
I was like 12 I think and I absolutely did. I watched all the extra online stuff and absolutely went into the theater to see it with the belief that it was really found footage and it made the movie absolutely TERRIFYING to me.
Found out pretty quick after that it was all just marketing and was a little disappointed. Still worth it for that first viewing.
the_BoneChurch@reddit
I was always very skeptical, but the documentary that others are referencing was very influential. My cousin absolutely believed it was real up to and after we went to the movie.
Strict-Farmer904@reddit
Dude. I went and saw it with my buddy. He was a senior, I was a freshman (this was high school, I was a decent musician so I was in bands with older kids). I swear to god this guy 100% believed it was real. I go “But there are credits, there was a commercial for this movie…it just doesn’t add up…” but he was sure sure it was real.
I remember seeing that lead actress in an ad for steak and shake not long after. He still didn’t believe me
tellerwoes@reddit
Before the movie premiered I totally did. However that belief disappeared 25 minutes into the movie lol
just_the____tip@reddit
Yes - young teen when it released, whole heartedly believed it was real. Then I saw the actors on Leno and realized the truth
PamPooveyPacmanJones@reddit
yup. I was a sophomore and there was really no way to research it.
1block@reddit
My recollection was that right when it came out some people did. Then everyone was aware that it wasn't. And the people who initially did pretended like they knew that from the start.
olshfski@reddit
In your brain, you knew it was a film. You knew that these were actors playing a role that was written by somebody. In your gut, you had only ever seen documentaries in this format so it felt so much more real than anything you’ve seen before and that made it much scarier.
SmallRocks@reddit
Yep. It was the “found footage” aspect that made it so immersive and believable.
Truly a first of its kind kind.
buffysmanycoats@reddit
I still love found footage horror. Possibly my favorite horror sub-genre.
Mata187@reddit
Rec is another good one (if you know spanish).
buffysmanycoats@reddit
I don’t speak Spanish but I watched the original Spanish film and the American remake. The Spanish one is better.
defective_toaster@reddit
Grave Encounters was sufficiently terrifying for me.
commandantskip@reddit
Grave Encounters was the first found footage I didn't finish because it was genuinely scary.
Vendevende@reddit
Sequel is unwatchable
commandantskip@reddit
Yeah, I didn't finish the sequel for a different reason. It sucked.
Vendevende@reddit
The Korean original is excellent at least
AllyLB@reddit
It was more of a first of its kind to be mainstream. There were others before but those were limited to more specific audiences. I can’t think of another one that was so widespread that even non-horror fans went to see (maybe there is but I can’t think of one).
loptopandbingo@reddit
Not a movie, but Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast in the 1930s ought to be somewhere in the list of those fake found footage productions that fooled and panicked large audiences.
atomicsnark@reddit
I don't think that counts as found footage. That was more of a nationwide prank lol. I mean, the core concept of found footage is the found part, after the events have transpired. WotW was meant to be believed to be presently occurring, right?
deanereaner@reddit
Truly?
It wasn't the first found footage horror movie.
SmallRocks@reddit
Well since you didn’t give an example I’ll admit that it could be true. However, it was the first big hit of its kind and the first introduction of the “found footage” format for literally 10’s of millions of people.
Pawneewafflesarelife@reddit
Threads was a fake documentary, but not really found footage.
deanereaner@reddit
Cannibal Holocaust. That's the one when I was a kid that people like to try and tell you was real. That wasn't even the first one in the genre, but the first one people our age we're talking about.
D-ouble-D-utch@reddit
It didn't have anywhere near the exposure Blair Witch had.
deanereaner@reddit
Of course. But I was never responding to a comment about exposure. I was responding to "Truly a first of its kind."
SmallRocks@reddit
I’ve never heard of it until now.
deanereaner@reddit
Ok. Well, anyway, I guarantee the makers of Blair Witch had heard about it.
Abyss_of_Dreams@reddit
The Last Broadcast came out a few years before. It was found footage, but more documentary style.
thegreatbrah@reddit
The 4th kind scared the shit out of me.
Its presented as a refilming of found footage if I recall correctly. There are parts with the "real" footage playing next to the "reenactments". Its an alien movie, but its pretty scary from what I remember.
Poughkeepsie tapes was pretty good imo. Lots of people dislike it, though.
Chaos_Sauce@reddit
Yeah, it was like somebody telling a ghost story. Deep down I was 99% sure it wasn't real, but that 1% of "maaaybe" was so much fun. I remember looking at the website and the IMDb page that said the actors were missing and presumed dead and thinking "This can't be real, but... what if it is"?
BlueSnaggleTooth359@reddit
The really crazy thing is that it is real. The later stories about it having just been a movie were created by the production team to deflect lawsuits and getting in trouble.
KittenaSmittena@reddit
Yuppppp.
Rare_Background8891@reddit
I went into it hearing it was fake, but then watching it your brain was like, “ok, but are you SURE?….”
FeralRubberDuckie@reddit
I was in this camp. I heard and saw enough promotional material that when I saw the movie I got more emotional than I normally would have. I was tearing up at the end thinking about the possibility that people might die or disappear that way.
I was fine the next day but was able to suspend by belief long enough to get the full experience I think.
adingo8urbaby@reddit
Well stated. I was looking for the right words to convey where that fear came from and you found them.
burf@reddit
I logically understand this, but for some reason it didn’t scare me at all in spite of the fact that I’m extremely easily scared by horror movies.
meateatingmama@reddit
Especially if you grew up in a place like where the story was set. Easily imagined it happening in my backyard.
jsteele2793@reddit
Yes this is my experience. I knew it wasn’t real, but your brain really was telling you it was.
kevlar51@reddit
Yup. And really all you needed to do was take a step back and think “if this was true, would they really use this footage to make a horror movie?” …but the brain resisted asking that question for a lot of people.
its_raining_scotch@reddit
There was also a powerful air of “wait, is this actually real or just like made to seem real?” happening in the beginning. I remember my friend who I’ve known since elementary school was telling me that it was actual found footage supposedly but she wasn’t sure and all she knew was that she was profoundly disturbed by the film.
That sort of intro to it really set me up for an intense experience and I’m sure tons of people had the exact thing happen like that. But as time went on cracks formed in the “is this real?” camp because we started seeing interviews with the actors etc. and then it was in that they had created a new genre of film that we weren’t used to.
-Disagreeable-@reddit
Bingo. This is exactly it.
BlackPhoenix1981@reddit
I did. I saw it in the theater and loved it. Spooky, creepy, no musical build up. I found out a few days later it was fictional but still a good movie imo.
ShiraPiano@reddit
I was 16 and fully believed it, even when I saw it in the theater. A week later I found out the truth.
Mata187@reddit
I was 14 and believed it was real. My mind kept playing tricks on me the next two nights that I couldn’t sleep easily.
Cold-Nefariousness25@reddit
I was never a big movie person, my boyfriend wanted to see it. I thought it was real and was freaked out over the ending. He then laughed at me for thinking it was real.
Shocking that things did it work out between the two of us.
prstele01@reddit
Same.
Ok-Inspector6622@reddit
I was 19 and I'm glad I'm not the only one who only found out after the movie. I was working at a summer camp at the time so had no access to TV or internet to hear the truth. And if the people I saw it with knew, they didn't tell me! I'm just grateful I found out quietly by picking up on other conversations, not by totally embarrassing myself. The second one would have been far more on-brand for me though!
SHES_A_WITCH@reddit
Holy crap me too! I was a counselor at a summer camp for two months and had no idea it wasn’t real. Saw it the day before we left to go home so only counselors were left and the huge camp was mostly empty. Had to sleep out in the woods in a rustic cabin. It was a long night.
nythroughthelens@reddit
Same!!!!!
prissyknickers@reddit
Same. I was too scared to understand it was fake.
cowboybluebird@reddit
I thought it was real and when I saw the actors at the MTV Video Music Awards I was très confused.
Tylerdurden389@reddit
Same here. 15 when I saw it in theaters (we snuck in), and didn't sleep much that night. It was summer and it would start getting light out around 5am so I just waited it out and then slept most of the morning lol.
Anxious-Shopping-430@reddit
My older cousin was the first to tell me about it, and we all were excited about it. I totally believed it. I think I was 13.
Dramatic-Side3650@reddit
My 14yo self was fully on board, too.
IpeeInclosets@reddit
Me too, but you're also in the same camp of someone who legitimately believe fire breathing dragons were real from the ages of 16 to 18--due to one of those discovery channel what if...shows.
ShiraPiano@reddit
Ooooh that is amazing and just made my day. I am pretty gullible so I get it.
Live_Trained_Seal@reddit
Same for me! It honestly kinda made it more fun, in a way. Like running around a cemetery at night 👻
pancakesausagestick@reddit
I spent a lot of time in cemeteries too. But in the end...it was just santa clause all over again.
Present-Tart4374@reddit
I was 15 and also totally, 100% believed it.
Sal_Paradise81@reddit
I mean…yeah dude. The online was brilliant for the time and the marketing/promotional team did a great job controlling the narrative as long as they could. Would it work now? Lord no.
Cak3Wa1k@reddit
Look, I didn't have internet. My bestie's mom was dating the owner of the theater. I saw it alone & had to go buy candy & visit with them in the booth about halfway through because it was intense. I acted like I was just saying hi but they totally made fun of me for being scared. 😱🤣
Cak3Wa1k@reddit
Also, I'm Gen x. I was 17 at the time. 👶🍼
Velvet_Samurai@reddit
I was never 100% convinced it was real, but I was also not 0% for a couple of years.
VoodooDonKnotts@reddit
When I saw it for the first time it was on a bootleg VHS BEFORE it was out in theaters and BEFORE anyone knew what it was. A friend gave me the tape and said, 'watch it at night alone'. There was more than one part where I thought to myself, "am I about to watch people die for real?"
I mean, it was bootleg VHS with no explanation, and no one had heard of the film yet. Internet was NOT what it is today at this point either, so I really did go in totally blind. It was the best and, imo ONLY way to see that film.
Miyagidog@reddit
That makes sense.
That campaign was perfect for that period in time when we didn’t have computers in our pockets and hadn’t been flooded with “reality” tv. They certainly got me.
Swamp_Donkey_7@reddit
No. By the time i saw it, it was well known it was fake.
I really wish I didn't know that as it would have made seeing the film much more interesting to me.
Dare2BeU420@reddit
I admittedly at least WANTED to believe it was real but then saw her brief role in Boys and Girls and was forced to let it go, lol.
Found footage is still such a guilty pleasure of mine thanks to this flick.
MargaerySchrute@reddit
When I first watched it I partially did. That movie was good at playing into two common fears: the dark and being lost. The movie still gives me the heebie jeebies.
Combatical@reddit
It got me and my friend. I remember going to the website and it was convincing enough. I'm so happy it did because there were a few scenes that scared the shit out of me because I thought it was real.
I'm a cynical asshole now and I dont believe in anything. I miss being naive.
Flawed-and-Clawed@reddit
I saw it on opening day. I was 16 or 17 maybe? I had seen the “documentary” I loved horror, the occult, and true crime so I wanted to believe it. Opening day the cat had not been let out of the bag and I while definitely questioned it, I ultimately fell for it. We were not alone. After the movie ended the whole theater crowd was silent. You could feel the shock everyone was feeling as they wondered out of the dark theater quietly trying to wrap their head around it.
The nineties, it was a different time.
RawAsparagus@reddit
I did, or almost did. My roommate got sneak preview passes, and I went in with zero prior knowledge. As I was walking out of the theater, I started to think maybe that wasn't real.
Electrical-Dig8570@reddit
Not the movie but the lead up. To be fair, I lived in a small Southern town with only spotty internet access. It was a simpler, dumber time.
Badger_Terp@reddit
I didn’t believe it but only because I grew up in the DC area. Local news would have had non-stop coverage about the disappearance of three students from the local community college, when they were supposed to have gone missing. That was the biggest thing that tipped me off.
scintillaient@reddit
Not at all
BackgroundPrompt3111@reddit
Some people did, for sure. Not most, but some.
Hindsight is 20/20
slappn_cappn@reddit
I was in middle school when I saw it, in the theatre. I have never been so scared in my life. I believed every second.
GeneralLoofah@reddit
I did not believe it was true, but I ran into people in the wild that did. People are gullible.
numbersev@reddit
They literally posted in the end-movie credits that they weren't actors and the three individuals were still missing.
https://fortune.com/2024/06/13/the-blair-witch-project-stars-say-they-couldnt-pay-for-groceries-after-executives-ran-away-with-their-profits-giant-corporations-dont-care-th/
https://movieweb.com/what-happened-to-blair-witch-project-cast/
CrustyTech-y@reddit
One of the first modern viral marketing campaigns.
Miyagidog@reddit
War of the Worlds: I’m I a joke to you?
CrustyTech-y@reddit
To be fair, War of the Worlds was viral, but it wasn’t marketing anything because it was already playing on the radio. Blair Witch made the rounds before the proper movie was released.
Erik500red@reddit
I saw the cast on ET (Entertainment Tonight) doing an interview telling everyone it wasn't real weeks before the movie was released
Maanzacorian@reddit
I don't think people necessarily believed that the move they were seeing was a documentary, but most of us grew up with some kind of haunted woods story so it seemed more like it was based on a true story. The faux-documentary that came out afterwards only helped fuel the fire. What ultimately mattered though, is how it affected people, and did it ever.
As far as I'm concerned, this claim is just part of the lore, like the apocryphal War of the Worlds history.
uberphaser@reddit
I went into it knowing NOTHING about the film, just that it was very popular and scary. I get very immersed in films so the whole time my brain was just like "whoa...this could be real. Whoa."
mastawyrm@reddit
I don't remember anyone believing it, more like it was just a fun thing to say.
GrauntChristie@reddit
Oh yeah. We used to joke that it was real. But nobody actually believed it was.
Horizontal_Bob@reddit
There are people who believe the world is flat…while using GPS on their phone, which is only possible because of satellites
Yeah. There were absolutely people who believed it was real
GrauntChristie@reddit
Omg you need to check out how they explain satellites and also time zones! It’s the most hilarious thing ever!
GrauntChristie@reddit
I didn’t. I don’t think anybody did.
AsparagusLive1644@reddit
Me. I did
BlueProcess@reddit
Literally everyone I knew for a solid month
Rosemadder19@reddit
Yep. I was a gullible 15 year old when it came out. I remember watching the part when they unroll the piece of the shirt with the teeth in it and thinking... "how can they actually SHOW this?!"
And also feeling like a huge idiot hearing an interview with the actors on the radio after I saw the movie.
shemague@reddit
YES
JoisChaoticWhatever@reddit
I did not, I think older people really believed it. There was so much hype and spectacle that the team didn't need to say whether it was fake or not. Media really helped create the "believe" train. BUT Humans mostly decided on their own. I remember watching it in theatres and being very let down.
Active-Eggplant06@reddit
I will admit i totally believed it was real. My best friend hyped it so much - she was on the website every day, she made sure we watched the documentary - which scared me.
I don’t think I realised it wasn’t real until well after it was finished at the cinema. I can’t remember when I found out.
I was 16.
dreamsonashelf@reddit
I always assumed that the fact that we already knew it wasn't real was because US films would usually take months to make it to France back then, but I just looked it up and it seems that we had nearly simultaneous release dates. Either way, the info had somehow reached us (at least my friend group) and it really felt like watching a rather boring mockumentary.
lordskulldragon@reddit
I'll admit, I did. Then again at 18 I was still naive. My gf at the time kept telling me Heather Donahue was in other programs, but I had no idea who she was.
Aeribous@reddit
No but I saw the movie before the doc. They should have just released the doc. Also Blair which 2 is better than 1 because it has an actual story.
donutseason@reddit
The first time I saw it, in the theater, YES. Upon walking out, my boyfriend was like are you kidding me lol and I felt very ripped off 🤣🤣🤣 I had been scared shitless for two hours 😂😂😂
Dang_Boy82@reddit
I watched it at the cinema the week it came out. Me and my friends had read an article in total film discussing the movie and directors so no, didn’t believe it was real. Still one of the scariest horror films I’d ever seen
naamingebruik@reddit
Never saw it, but did hear about it at the time from a friend who went to see it. And he absolutely believed it was real, living in the Netherlands at the time, both of us didn't have internet (heck I did own a pc until 3 years later) most of my friends didn't. You'd go to internet café or a print shop to do school related stuff that needed to be done on a pc and printed.
Viral/Guerilla marketing wasn't a known practice yet.
People tended to talk about it as if it was all real.
So until I read an article in a physycal magazine a month or so after the movie came out, I assumed it was all real.
kati8303@reddit
I think I was around freshman in high school and there was definitely talk wondering whether it was really real or not
GM_Jedi7@reddit
My girlfriend at the time worked at an indie video rental and got ahold of a vhs copy before the theatrical release. There was still a lot of debate if it was real or not so we were definitely freaked out by it thinking it was real.
Resident-Trouble4483@reddit
That marketing campaign had me believing some rando Witch was in the woods. What woods you ask? ALL of them. The marketing was so mentally menacing I can’t think of anything close to it. They also did a good job with the missing person posters and website creation so when you did look it up you got what appeared to be legitimate news articles and lore about this mysterious witch and the woods. I blame this movie for my Appalachian woods curiosity despite them being separate.
agentmkultra666@reddit
I was 14 but even then I knew it was a fake documentary.
lelskis@reddit
I was around that same age and literally our entire junior high thought it was real until a few days after it came out and word started getting around that it wasn't.
agentmkultra666@reddit
Honestly this post is now making me doubt my own memories now, hah.
lelskis@reddit
Maybe we were a crew of halfwits 🤷🏼♀️
agentmkultra666@reddit
I don’t know, I was pretty gullible at 14 myself
Emannuelle-in-space@reddit
Yeah until the last scene. I was 14 gimme a break
Potato2266@reddit
The movie was so overhyped that I had such high expectations. Then we watched the movie and yawned all the way through.
probablytrippy@reddit
I did. I was in Mauritius with negligible internet. Literally all I knew was that this was lost tapes found
Flimsy-Nature1122@reddit
I saw The Blair Witch Project (1999 documentary) on Opening Night when I was 15. So yeah, people were screaming in the theatre.
thatstwatshesays@reddit
I am/was an idiot and I 💯 believed it was be real. But I was one of the lucky college campuses that got an actual screener, and there was so much buzz. Everyone was talking about it, I fell for it hard.
I’m still not totally convinced it was fake (my logical brain knows it wasn’t real, but my emotional brain is still fucked up)
Designer_Emu_6518@reddit
The trailers yes but I was real young
ajaetay@reddit
I saw it in theater opening weekend at 16 and my friend and I definitely thought it was real. I think by the end of the weekend we realized it wasn't.
Sklibba@reddit
So when I was in college an acquaintance downloaded a leaked copy from an FTP server and showed it to some friends of mine before any promotional footage had come out and told them it was real and so they went into it thinking it was 100% actual found footage. That said, I don’t think very many people who saw it in the theater believed it was real.
limabeanseww@reddit
I was young enough to be kinda confused about at first but I think I kinda knew. I also saw it way too young. It was so scary
MikeRoykosGhost@reddit
Yes. Because if you lie to people they will believe you.
I worked at a video/record store 45 minutes north of Chicago. A mom and pop in a strip mall next to a Dominoes.
Months before the film had any kind of trailers a guy came in and asked he could hang up a flyer about some filmmakers that went missing. We said sure and put the missing persons flyer in the window. Later on when the trailers for a film about missing filmmakers came out I freaked out cause I recognized them from the flyer.
I think people forget that the marketing wasn't just some kind of found footage stuff like Paranormal Activity. They made it a point to lie to everyone for months, hide the actors, and pretend that it was a real missing person's case.
A great hoax, but incredibly unethical and likely wouldn't fly today from a major corporation for legal reasons.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
“If you lie to people they will believe you.” Oh, I learned that the hard way from the ol’ Laurel-Yanny hoax.
“Yanny”…sheesh!
gummylick@reddit
Yep, I was in college when it came out so really had no news or rumors. My sister only heard that there's this movie where they found this footage, there was a documentary and let's go see it! Only movie til this day I was so scared I almost walked out the theater.
SmCaudata@reddit
Marketing in the beginning involved missing person posters. That did seem legit at first. Once I learned it was advertising for a movie I realized what was going on.
Appropriate-Place-69@reddit
My older brother believed it was real - he was a fully grown adult by that time.
mudley801@reddit
When it premiered at Sundance it was presented as actual found footage.
People believed it to be real until a little after the theatrical release.
RTMSner@reddit
A few people in my school did.
altiuscitiusfortius@reddit
My 26 year old brother believed it was real. He was telling me all about it and was really freaked out after watching it and I had to tell him, as a 18 year old, I had seen the cast on the tobight show and it was definitely just a movie.
TheOttoMax@reddit
My mom did. And she wouldn't talk to me for seeing it. She was disgusted I had to explain it was fake.
dragonslayer137@reddit
I lived in the everglades. When visiting neighborhood friends one time they where charting a map rewashing the movie with plans to find the bodies. Even when I showed them the actors doing interviews they didn't believe me it was fake.
Neuvirths_Glove@reddit
No, but it still skeeved me out.
whythoyaho@reddit
Hell yeah I did. I was 17. That movie scared the fuck out of me.
Aint-no-preacher@reddit
There was a serious debate at my high school. I (mostly) believed it was fake.
Paige_Ann01@reddit
Yes. It was made to be a big deal.
johnvalley86@reddit
I know it gave me real amounts of nausea when I watched it in theaters
DummBee1805@reddit
Under very strange and unique circumstances, I did kinda believe. I quickly used internet to clear it up afterwards, but during the movie and an hour or so after, I was like 80% I’d seen a snuff film.
GroundbreakingWing48@reddit
I walked into the theater with a friend who wanted to see it. I had never even heard of it before. My friend, as we were sitting down was like “this is all real found footage.” I believed that until the end of the movie.
Fine-Position-3128@reddit
My friend saw some planned teaser on IFC that was engineered to make ppl think it was real/a documentary. She then made a group of us go see the film at the only theater that showed it. We all thought I was real until we talked to other ppl at the theater during the credits after we saw it on the way out. So yes? No? Kinda?
Fine-Position-3128@reddit
Ok other ppl are saying was Sci Fi channel * correction
space_wiener@reddit
Yep. I did.
No real way to fact check it back then. Well easy to access wide spread method anything
Admirable-Bar-3549@reddit
Oh, yes, some people definitely believed it. I remember driving to a limited-release showing in Philly, right after it came out and my friend swearing up and down it was real. Something about the actors listed as “missing” on IMDB - which I’m not sure if that was ever true. Now it definitely wasn’t a War of the Worlds-type thing. More of a rumor or controversy. It was just uncertain - nobody knew for sure.
elmoosh@reddit
I don’t believe it either, but only because I lived about an hour from where it “happened” and we for SURE would have heard about it.
Ippus_21@reddit
No. I never actually got around to watching it either, but I remember being absolutely dumbfounded to hear that some people were (apparently) taking it that seriously.
jojomecoco@reddit
The cast was on TRL the same day I saw the movie with my dad. When we walked out of the theater he said, "That's so sad what happened to those kids." I had to break it to him that it was all fake!
40_RoundsXV@reddit
We were dumb back then. I remember friends in college googling or yahooing if the police scene in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was found footage or not
rockyourfaceoff77@reddit
I was lucky enough to have seen it without knowing anything about it. I was right on the edge of believing it was real but also appreciating how easily it could be pulled off. It was so much fun & terrifying.
spaghoni@reddit
Yes, I thought it was real. I went into the theater knowing nothing about it. I was disturbed af otw home. Then I turned the TV on and Heather Donahue was the guest on The Tonight Show. Imagine how dumb I felt...
BullfrogComplete6985@reddit
Not for one second! Horrible acting
Super_Direction498@reddit
I saw it the theater and I don't think anyone left believing it was found footage.
eight13atnight@reddit
I did not believe it was a documentary. That is, until I saw it at the midnight showing BECAUSE I was on duty over night to check the farms irrigation system. So, after the showing at about 230am I drove a three wheeler atv deep into the pitch black woods to check on the equipment. Alone. With only a poorly wired, busted, front headlight that flickered off whenever I hit a decent bump.
That shit was freaky AF! Goosebumps were standing tall that night.
Sonny_1313@reddit
Best theater experience ever seeing this opening weekend.
Sonny_1313@reddit
Eh the girl I saw it with swore it was real.
SexyWampa@reddit
No, because the girl was doing steak and shake commercials at the same time.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
Could I have a link?
SonOfJokeExplainer@reddit
I saw it at the Rialto in Raleigh, NC on release day. It was marketed and presented as a true story and I can tell you, at least some people including myself left the theater that night scratching their head wondering if what they’d seen was real or not.
Brasticus@reddit
When I was younger, I saw a movie on public access that I thought was "found footage". It seemed like a documentary with footage taken with an imbedded journalist unit. I happened into the middle of it and it felt super real to young me. It was called "84C MoPic" or "84 Charlie MoPic". It's about a recon team in Vietnam on patrol. I thought I was seeing just raw combat footage and stuff.
When Blair Witch came out, I enjoyed it, but I was older by then so was skeptical as hell. Why would this be a theatrical release if it was footage found of people supposedly lost in the woods and they sure are hell aren't going to show a snuff film. So, I went into it thinking it was just some weird movie.
lukin5@reddit
Hear me out…. I came home from college—it’s late June 1999.
My brother is also home from San Francisco Academy of Art with a VHS copy of the movie (and it’s still a good month before it was released).
Somehow they got their hands on it, he gave it to me, I watched it with my cousin.
There was no press we had seen about it (yet) and the tape was just like any other dubbed movie you’d ever seen.
Scared the absolute shit out of us cuz Hell yea we thought it was real.
Lol
flowerodell@reddit
I did for a brief moment.
Mind-of-Jaxon@reddit
Yes when it first came out in limited release, people thought it was real
Wolf-Pack-2017@reddit
I’m from Normal, Illinois, so I unfortunately recognized the lead actress from Steak N Shake commercials.
I wish they had worked that bit in—like that she was an aspiring actress—because it would have been cool to believe it was real for a bit.
Shanntuckymuffin@reddit
Yes, but I was also 14. My stepsister and I had seen previews and used the ol internet machine to investigate if it was real or not. Because they had that damn missing person website promoting it, so we were thoroughly convinced it was real.
Ditzy_Davros@reddit
I knew it wasn't real. But I did go down a research rabbit hole to find out more about the original legend.
Krustylang@reddit
Absolutely! I saw it in a small independent movie theater before it was in wide theatrical release. I was convinced it was real!
monkeysknowledge@reddit
Went and saw it with a larger group of friends. There was at least one person who was traumatized by it. Definitely from the more sheltered and gullible side of things but yeah we had to assure her that it was fake afterwards. She was like shaking and everything. I’ve never seen someone that affected by a movie.
Pyrite13@reddit
When I saw it in the theater for the first time I had never heard of it. I just picked it at random out of the newspaper movie listings. Yes, this was before this info was online.
I was fairly well sucked in during the first half when it's just the main characters arguing and losing their supplies. That seemed very real. Once the supernatural elements kicked in the illusion began to fade. If it was real I believed I would've heard about it on the national news. A bit of investigation after I got back home led me to actor profiles and info about the studio which confirmed everything.
It was still a lot of fun that first time.
benkatejackwin@reddit
Not at all. I was 17 and my friend and I just sat there rolling our eyes at how fake it looked and all the people who either believed it was real or were going along with it. It wasn't even scary. I did get motion sickness trying to watch it in the theater, though.
quailfail666@reddit
No, but all I remember is snot. It was so bad I left.
Ltimbo@reddit
I knew it wasn’t real but I’m sure there were kids at school who thought it was real.
starcityguy@reddit
The trailer came out maybe 6 months before. And I thought it was real. By the time the movie came out, I knew it was fiction. It was still a huge deal when it came out.
HallucinogenicFish@reddit
No. I also thought it sucked. Laughably overhyped IMO.
intentionallybad@reddit
Probably some people, but I remember seeing opening weekend in the theatre and we all knew it was a marketing gimmick.
mmeliss39@reddit
I watched it the night it came out and I was so scared to even look into my backyard when I got home. I thought I would never be able to go outside in the dark again. Then by the end of the weekend I found out it was scripted. It took a while to believe it.
BasilCraigens@reddit
It came out in 1999, in a time before everything was instantly posted to the internet and accessible. Some of us hadn't had that glass break moment yet and/or chose to believe it.
Did I fall for it? Absolutely. Scared the shit out of me.
brokenman82@reddit
The first time I heard about it was an article explaining how they filmed it. So no I did not. I did know people that thought it was real at first. And one woman that swore that it was a true story but they recreated the footage because the police wouldn’t release it or some nonsense
CranberryMission9713@reddit
There was some rumor and I’m sure intentional confusion before the movie came out that it was found footage but I think most people realized after seeing it at least that it was just promotional hype. There had never been anything like that before though so it’s not like I think people felt disappointed. It was scary at the time.
DanDez@reddit
I had cousins who were convinced it was real, and did believe it.
It was not a myth that there were real believers.
123fro@reddit
I knew it as fake but they did such a good job with the whole thing it made me feel like it was real.
Wirklichx@reddit
No. But it was a different found footage style that people weren't used to at the time, so people were like, what, about that
LasersDayOne@reddit
Yes, but in my defense, I was 15
Geewhiz911@reddit
Yeah, it was not like today, we didn’t have Internet on our phones and the light confusion that was floated around this production made people talk: “I heard it’s a true story / yeah, me too, but how?” It was an amazing marketing scheme!
Mommy-Q@reddit
Yes. Shut up. Phhht.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
I really meant what I said about not judging you.
Mommy-Q@reddit
LOL. It's ok. I am pretty gullible.
Skipper0463@reddit
No, not at all. Despite that I did appreciate the filmmakers attempt to make it as legitimate looking as possible. I remember there was a whole website dedicated to the lore. Like, all sorts of urban legends and supposed eye witnesses and history and stuff. It was pretty cool. It was immersive and spooky.
Lumpy_Potential_789@reddit
Yes. My roommate. She was a certified idiot. Was expected.
JJHall_ID@reddit
A friend of mine was totally convinced it was real. It wasn’t until he saw an interview with the actress that he finally realized it was just a movie. He felt very dumb.
Brashear99@reddit
Nope. Dumbest movie ever. Went with the girl I was dating at the time & her friend. They’re both scared stupid & I’m sitting there wondering when it will mercifully be over so I can leave.
Angry_Auntie@reddit
I'm from the area. The hype was MASSIVE. Everyone old enough remembers them filming. Heres the thing. The Blair Witch is a real thing/mythology, but she was never called The Blair Witch, and the actual town and forest of exile are about 10 minutes up the road from where the first movie was filmed.
The second movie was basically just fan service and filmed in a Baltimore City warehouse.
Whatever the case, the actual area the "witch" was exiled to? It's......weird out there. Silent. No bugs, no birds, no wind. Compasses dont work right. Electronics go haywire. I've gone out there metal detecting and nothing. Not even iron deposits which would explain the compass issues and lack of active nature.
It's......eerie. I didn't even like being out there in broad daylight. Just..... Something off about the area. So I absolutely get the urge to make a movie about it all. And for the times, it was an interesting watch. I saw it in a private theater as part of a test group. Nothing like that had ever been in a theater here before. And A lot of Marylanders themselves, came out in droves to see for themselves after the film.
People really thought it was real for a bit, to the point that the local news stations started putting out disclaimer ads. Basically telling people to stop harassing the area. It was a whole thing.
Now we just get confused Europeans that end up lost and walking in circles for days.
The Blair Witch was never from Blair Maryland. Blair Maryland is basically a small neighborhood within the area the witch mythology stems from.
bobbykhaaan@reddit
My mom went to Montgomery Blair HS and talked about the woods and the 'witch' at length. We knew the movie was fake but know about those woods, no idea if there's a witch or not but there's definitely stories from people in the area
Biddy_Impeccadillo@reddit
I attended a screening with someone who did.
Redlady0227@reddit
Nope I never thought it was a real documentary from day one. Ppl have too much time on their hands nowadays.
EfficiencyWooden2116@reddit
I can’t watch hand held cameras-makes me nauseated.
Bubble_Lights@reddit
I know someone who saw it in the theater and thought it was real, bc the filmmakers said it was. When she told me about it she said “I’m never going into the woods again.”
People fell for War of the Worlds bc there was another program that ran over the start of it. So a lot of people tuned in late and it sounded like a news story. That’s why they freaked out. HG Wells wasn’t telling people specifically that it was real like they did with Blair Witch, the listeners just perceived it as real.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
Link: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/war-of-the-worlds/
Tpk08210@reddit
Yes the hype before it was released made it seem like a true story. They did a great job at the promotion of the film
UntilTheSilence@reddit
My first job was working at a movie theater when this movie came out. Can 100% confirm that more than half the people who saw this movie came out convinced that it was real. People of all ages! I can't tell you how many times I explained that the cast members were all alive and well.
Studio_Ambitious@reddit
Dude I talked to in a bar in 1999 was all in. "It's real, it's happening and you have been warned!" Still think it was guerilla marketing,
PowerfulStrike5664@reddit
No, and it wasn’t scary as many people made it seem.
mastap88@reddit
We watched a bootlegged copy a week or two before it hit theaters at a girls house whose parents were out of town. I still didn’t believe it but some of the people I watched it with seemed like they did. Buddy and I snuck down to their basement later and turned off the breaker to the house. Then later that night went outside and gathered sticks up and arranged them on their front porch and back deck.
unbalancedcentrifuge@reddit
By the time we went to the movie, we knew it wasn't real, but all the teasers were pretty convincing back then.
Ptown_Down@reddit
Despite my dumb friends insisting that it was 100% real, I didn't believe them even once. I'm not sure if they believed it, or just really wanted to believe it, but in any case I remember in the theater being about 2.5 minutes into the movie and already being certain it was "scripted reality" style.
Standard-Outcome9881@reddit
No.
furtyfive@reddit
i did, but i saw it at a screening a few weeks before it came out (so before all the reviews/movie promo). i wanted to leave the theater but my friend convinced me it was not real when he told me he was interviewing the actors. 😂
eclecticsheep75@reddit
I saw it a movie theater where the people full on BELIEVED. Crying and being consoled. I understood that these were not very bright people, but…
Eureka05@reddit
We didn't believe it was real when we went to see it. But there were girls behind us who did. When the movie started, it had a disclaimer that this "was real", and the girl behind us whispered to her friends "see I told you!!"
When I saw the cast presenting an award on "kids choice awards" or some other award show I wondered if that girl ever realized it wasn't real
I mean, they tried to market that movie as real as best they could. It was a trailblazing movie for sure. Spawned the popularity of found footage movies
iputmytrustinyou@reddit
I thought it was supposed to be real. I didn’t know it wasn’t until I watched it. I was so mad.
Case-Visible@reddit
Definitely understood it was fiction but the nausea I got while watching was real af
flumia@reddit
I live in Australia. Our movie releases were routinely delayed by several months back then. By the time it got to us, we'd all heard the news cycle of "US audiences shocked by found footage film" followed by "audiences fooled by disturbing movie, turns out to be fiction"
There was never any chance of it keeping the mystery for us. I still feel the disappointment that we never had the opportunity to be fooled
Yellowpickle23@reddit
2 years before BW, a movie came out on UPN called Alien Abduction: Incident In Lake County. My 12 year old self thought it was a real found footage movie and I had nightmares.
bobnifty76@reddit
Yeah I absolutely did at some point... Like others are saying, it wasn't the movie, it was the marketing campaign...I started hearing about it and was skeptical, but then you'd find these random web pages and stories and they did a great job of building the world and mythology that it seemed real. Plus I guess I was 17 and really into occult and spooky shit, so I wanted to believe. It was a lot of fun and a completely unique experience to that time of early Internet
mstrong73@reddit
The marketing before the movie was very compelling and there was definitely a window where I believed it was real found footage. It didn’t last long but it was still pretty early internet so there wasn’t much to fact check.
spanishpeanut@reddit
Don’t freaking judge me. I was so naive it hurts to think about now. My friends had all seen the trailers and had looked into it a bit. Me? Nope. I believed every word when they said it was lost film footage turned documentary.
Once they all saw I had fallen for it, they played along. I not only believed everything was legit, I CONTINUED to believe it for an ungodly long time afterward. Hell, I even defended it as being true. I only saw it the one time because I thought it was mean to go back to watch the fates of those people.
I’m still friends with those jerks. We regularly say “TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE, JOSH!”
Those were the days.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
I’m not judging you and I’ll defend you against anyone who does.
grumpywarner@reddit
I was a very gullible teen when it came out and I thought it was real footage for a little while.
Aeriila@reddit
Yes. I had a friend who was CONVINCED it was real... lol but we were young. So what did he know lol
3lydia5@reddit
I saw this with my cousins. They got in the BIGGEST argument over whether it was real. It was hilarious, one cousin knew it was just a movie, but he also did not really get angry or emotional. Just kept insisting it was just a movie. The other cousin, his older brother, kept getting more infuriated by the lack of response.
CapPrestigious8207@reddit
No, but I wanted to believe it was
throwawayfromPA1701@reddit
Went to HS with Heather Donohue so....no? Lol
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
Say WHAT???!!!
throwawayfromPA1701@reddit
She was a couple years ahead of me and her sister was a year behind me.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
Maybe I shouldn’t be so startled: I went to high school with the guy who played Taylor in “Crazy in Alabama”.
SteveEcks@reddit
I was 15. The Internet was new. Their marketing was pretty good.
Yes. Yes I did.
spanishpeanut@reddit
That’s just not right. You were given the gateway movie that makes you question everything
winniecooper73@reddit
I believed it. I was 14 and the marketing was so damn good. You could go online and look at scanned copies of letters and pictures. It was really well done for kids in jr high/high school
jamisonian123@reddit
Yes
jbmyre@reddit
My kids just watched it with me. I told them nothing. They argued about it and really had no idea. They googled it later that night.
spanishpeanut@reddit
Someone in here (or another Xennial group I’m in) did that to her son. She posted photos and it was nothing short of epic.
uprock@reddit
OMG first time im excited to be able to say “i was old enough to go opening night”. We totally thought it was real. We heard little rumors that maybe it was actors but yes, a bunch of us thought it was real.
thefuckfacewhisperer@reddit
I was stoned out of my gourd when I saw it at the movie theater and I knew it wasn't real
ZombieWinehouse@reddit
I was ten years old so … yes?
AZSharksFan@reddit
I was working a lot and didn't spend much time online at the time so I saw it at the theater with no knowledge of it. My friends were just like let's go see this movie and didn't spoil it or really give any info or anything and it was a wild ride. I wasn't 100% it was real as the acting was passable but seemed a little off. But the possibility was there as they were going through it and it was legit intense. By the end I was like, yeah, they got me but it was an experience. I'm glad I got to go in blind like that. It was fun
balthus1880@reddit
I was in NYC when it first was getting mentioned and it was getting talked about as a documentary so I did think it was a documentary because the internet didn't tell me it wasn't
JuicePick@reddit
I was a production assistant on the film and many of my friends were involved too. It was actually scary af out there in the woods (the last night was Halloween ‘97 to add to the creepy). Heather really did freak out/lose it after the final shot of the movie. She was hyperventilating and it took several minutes to calm her down. it may have been “fake” but they really were traumatized for several days.
Hot_Falcon8471@reddit
I did, but I was also only 15 when it came out.
john_the_quain@reddit
There was a whiff of authenticity that added to the theatre experience. Is it real? C’mon. But maybe?
Dramatic-Dark-4046@reddit
It was the idea that was around before its widespread release that it was found footage.
burnmp3s@reddit
Yeah by the time it was in wide release in theaters and people on TV were doing parodies of the close-up night vision crying monologue, everyone knew it was fake. Before that when there was just buzz about it from Sundance and there was no way to actually see the movie there was more of a question of if it was real or not, but even then most people were pretty skeptical given that it was picked up by a mainstream movie distributor. I vaguely remember there being some proof that the main cast were actors that was circulating online at the time, and I saw that before I watched the movie in the theater.
Remarkable_Year657@reddit
I saw it in the theater and the people sitting in front of me believed. The girl was so freaked out and her boyfriend was rubbing her back while she said, “I can’t believe they went through all that.”
EverybodyRelaxImHere@reddit
My dad worked for the state police in the Frederick county, md, where the film claimed all that happened in. I remember how frustrated he was at the time. I was in high school and they had people calling in to question them regularly when the film was first released. People would yell at them for not looking for the kids or something (it’s been a minute since high school and this is a little blurry) but man he was dumbfounded.
Ok_Wrap_214@reddit
How do we look you in the eye? Are we doing a Zoom call or something?
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x76BOQsOnws&t=50s&pp=2AEykAIB
DirtRight9309@reddit
👁️ 👁️ 👄
WolfLaBella@reddit
I fully believed, as a teenage girl, that it was real. Right before I went to see it in the theater,I read the Rolling Stone article. Was still scared shitless when I saw it, though.
hgwander@reddit
Actually 100 yes & it’s a fun story.
My friend in high school took us to see one of the very very first preview screenings in Central Florida. We got in because his cousin helped MAKE it & told him he’d been working on a documentary at school. We went in wide-eyed to watch our friend’s cousin’s documentary.
Needless to say we freaked the FUCK out. I still remember him frantically calling his cousin on an ancient cellphone outside the theatre. Like WTF DID WE JUST WATCH!
And I can’t really remember — but I’m pretty sure recessed up — or maybe he still fucked with us. But we knew either way it was a trick.
Brilliant move — unrepeatable experience
nythroughthelens@reddit
Yes. I was a teen. 100% believed it was real, saw it when it first released in a theater with others who believed too.
throwawayjoeyboots@reddit
I personally knew it was fake, but it was a different time man. We didn’t have 1,000 ways to fact check something. They really pushed this “found footage” before that was even a thing
HAL_9OOO_@reddit
Google existed in 1999. I remember fact checking it in 2 minutes.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
Sure, it existed—but I don’t remember 1999 Google being particularly good.
HAL_9OOO_@reddit
It was good enough that if you typed in "Blair Witch Project" the top result told you that it's a regular old movie.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
I can believe that but you see why we weren’t in the habit yet.
ExistingBathroom9742@reddit
Originally, yeah, kind of. I’m sure with huge grains of salt, but yeah, I remember the buzz at the time. I saw it a few weeks late and by then everyone knew it was fake, but there was a very good marketing campaign.
KieferMcNaughty@reddit
I saw it at a sneak preview in college more than 6 months before it was released. There had been no marketing for it yet at that point. All I knew about it was its title. I fell for it hook, line and sinker.
BadassSasquatch@reddit
Yes. 100%. What sold me was the documentary that was on Discovery. You have to remember, this was when Discovery had clout and they only aired educational shows
Cactus_shade@reddit
I thought it was common knowledge when it was released that it’s not real
chewbachaa@reddit
I did! I saw it in the theatre on opening night, the marketing got me so hyped
DirtRight9309@reddit
sameeee
DirtRight9309@reddit
i was 18 and i totally thought it was real 😂 my boyfriend and i saw it opening night and it was a vibe. i still have never seen the end 🤣
ChiefBroady@reddit
Nope.
JoeyBombsAll@reddit
We went into it wanting to believe. Made the experience worth it.
poopamurphy@reddit
It came out while I was in college, so not really following late night shows, but I don’t think any of the actors were making any late night interview rounds in advance of the release, and maybe even held off some days after actual release, not sure exactly.
But in my college town some kids got free tix to a premiere screening of an unknown movie later that day, just handing out tix to the first couple hundred students that would take them. I was not one of those kids, but lived next door to a couple guys that did get tix. And I will never forget their reaction when they came home and told us (slash didn’t exactly tell us) what they just saw. Definitely got us interested, the internet was not what it is today, but you could find some stuff on the web that seemed pretty real, probably due to the documentary that had already released.
So it had a bit of a moment of feeling pretty real. I do recall seeing it in a small theater when it finally released and was way more convincing of anything else being potentially “real” that I have ever seen before or since. They did an amazing job. The realness faded really fast (hours, a day?), but it was fun.
JOSHHHHH!!!!?!!!!
Hasudeva@reddit
I absolutely did, yes. Terrified the whole way through.
Mugshotguy@reddit
It was a masterful marketing strategy. Free advertising. It worked
spider1178@reddit
I worked at a Blockbuster when that movie came out on VHS. The amount of people who were completely sure it was real, and would get pissed if anyone said otherwise, explains a lot about the current state of a lot of other things.
Hecate_333@reddit
I didn't, but my friend's boyfriend absolutely did.
Lmf2359@reddit
My husband saw it in Berkeley, CA before it had a wide release and he said at that time people weren’t sure if it was real or not. Since there hadn’t been anything else like that ever it as very easy to believe it was real.
NorthernForestCrow@reddit
I heard that there were people who believed it, which left me incredulous, but I never met anyone who actually did.
I recall that my great grandmother said that she didn’t know anyone who thought the War of the Worlds broadcast was real and it just seemed like a radio show to her.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
If you listen to the recording, most of the broadcast does not take place in real time. The acting’s a little broad too.
ScaredOfTrolls32@reddit
I did for a while
DarthMech@reddit
Once I saw the film, no. The marketing was amazing though and played with your imagination even more than the movie. Even if you didn’t believe in ghosts, witches, whatever(which I did not)…it had the feeling that I was gonna see some creepy ass found footage and I was down for it. This general vibe carried over into the theater and probably made the movie much better than it actually was. It was one of those cultural touchstone moments that happened at just the right time and can never be replicated in the same way. People kind of shit on it now, but it remains an amazing piece of art in the context of its time and should be respected.
jamesmon@reddit
Before it came out in theaters, it was circulating on the torrent sites. We watched it in our dorm room in the dark, when it was just word of mouth. It seemed extremely fucked up. Definitely was a what the hell is happening
RedDawnWlvrines@reddit
I never saw it but I was in design school at the time it came out and I remember it was one of the first movies to really market online. All of the marketing played it off as real and was well done for the time. My wife said she saw it and was convinced it was real until she saw the disclaimer at the end of the credits
FrebTheRat@reddit
I saw it at an old drive in theater that had bushes growing up through the asphalt and was surrounded by trees. Didn't matter if it was real, it scared the crap out of me. Then I went with my girlfriend, now wife, to my aunt and uncle's converted farm/art commune in the middle of nowhere. Stayed in an old chicken hut that was "converted" to a guest house. May have been the most terrifying few days of my life. At one point I woke up in the middle of the night and opened the door to a massive deer. Did you know deer can scream? Neither did I.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
What does a deer scream sound like?
FrebTheRat@reddit
https://youtu.be/NVDjBGWYncY?si=41Gltlooc9K-c_fM
The_C0u5@reddit
Yes, I was in middle school and I remember arguing with my mom's boyfriend about how it was real and him calling me a dummy for it.
Zhjacko@reddit
I was like 7 when it came out, so yes
ringobob@reddit
So, I walked into the theater having seen none of the marketing. My friends wanted to go see this movie, I knew nothing about it, they were saying things I didn't really understand.
They seemed to be indicating that maybe? it was real? I couldn't quite wrap my head around why they thought that. It made at least slightly more sense when the movie started and presented itself that way. But I immediately thought, if this were actually real, and the "documentary" was made into a major theatrical release, I would have heard about it in the news. And I'd heard literally nothing about it.
I basically spent the entire movie trying to figure out why anyone believed it was real, and trying to figure out if I was missing something. Wasn't really into it.
I don't think it's that people believed it. I mean, I'm sure some people did, but I don't recall my friends being all in on it being real, after the movie. I think it's that people kept an open mind, and were willing to believe it. It was uncertain. And that itself is unusual, with movies.
TheBlueRacoon@reddit
I saw the film in a huge, old school, crowded theater (Kentucky Theater, Lexington, KY). At the anti-climactic finale, where you actually see nothing, the film ends to stunned silence. Waaay down in the front of the theater a lone hero shouted “You’ve got to be fucking shitting me!”
It got a huge laugh. Nobody with any sense believed this boring movie was real.
0peRightBehindYa@reddit
I did, but I've always been an easy mark. You see, I've always been the person who wondered why people kept telling me my picture was in the dictionary next to the word "gullible" in the dictionary...because I fuckin looked every time somebody told me that.
Turns out I'm probably autistic, but that's beside the point.
desiduolatito@reddit
I thought it was a doc. I was young and on a day off from summer camp. The only thing I had heard was that it was a doc of some sort. The other people in my group hadn’t heard anything and were led astray by me.
windycityc@reddit
It really depends with our gen. I'm on the older end and feel like this was one of the 1st successful viral ads. I didn't buy into the hype, I also didn't care much.
On the other hand, I know plenty on the younger end that believed it was real.
morganstark3000@reddit
I was 19 when this movie came out. I saw a pre-screening in a small theater in Atlanta before wide release. I left that movie thinking I’d just seen people die on screen. I could barely drive home, I was so scared. I cried and couldn’t sleep. My father made me drive to the library to use the internet and I found ONE article that admitted it was all for publicity. I 100% thought that shit was real.
sorrysofatagain@reddit
100% because my friend told me it was real and I was kind of stupid and didn’t think movies could “lie” to you. I was scared but in kind of a fun way.
From the responses on this thread, it seems you were more likely to think it was real if you were high school or younger.
MrsEmilyN@reddit
I honestly did, until I saw the movie in the theater.
ScaledFolkWisdom@reddit
Not anyone with any brains.
InterBeard@reddit
Yes. I saw it on the UW campus at a pre-screening and it was totally billed as a "found footage" film. Most surreal movie experience ever. At the end when the credits rolled I was so pumped full of adrenaline that it took a good while to realized what that meant.
biffbobfred@reddit
By the time I ever saw it it was known it was a movie. So I saw it as kinda a film student studying something new.
I don’t like scary films usually (I had enough real shit happen as a kid - they get me too elevated). But this one left me so flat. “Ermagehhhrd someone ….. put….. sticks there”.
kanekong@reddit
Not me nor my friends at the time.
Shot-Hotel-1880@reddit
I knew one person who was confused on the “found footage” aspect. Everyone else, knew it was just a movie.
philovax@reddit
I had a handful of dumbass friends that did. Half of us knew going in, half of us refused to believe the other half. A familiar concept unfortunately.
leviathankyou@reddit
I was like 14 or 15 when it came out and I saw it in theaters and I stayed until the end to see the "this is a fictional story, no one was harmed in the making of..." disclaimer in the credits at the end because part of me thought it was real. I could not verify ahead of time because I did not have the Internet in my household and I was a naive kid.
ianmoone1102@reddit
I knew people who did, and i could not convince them otherwise. I mean, it was pretty convincing.
shinbreaker@reddit
Yuuuup. My friend and I even had a scary moment after. We parked in the multi floor movie theater garage and when we came back, we must have just not paid attention to hurry out because we parked on the top floor but we sure as shit didn’t think we parked there and thought the witch was fucking with us.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
I think the Parking Deck Witch visits all of us at some point.
MrMurderthumbz@reddit
Yes. I heard nothing about it because i didnt have cable. My girlfriend brought me to the midnight opening and it said it was real and the front and the end credits. I was real skeptical at the end and searched “the web” when i got home and found the list of actors. My girlfriend and all her friends almost didnt believe me that it was fake so lots of people believed it was real.
jmac11281@reddit
I never believed it. I'll go as far as to say it may have been one of the least suspenseful and one of the most boring movies I have ever seen
blackhawksq@reddit
My GF and I argued this. I was firmly in the no way is this real it wouldn't be released stance, and she was in the "it's real!" stance. When we went to the movie I made her wait through the credits, "If it's real it'll say, if not it'll say something!" sure enough, "This is a work of fiction."
She wasn't happy. "You ruined it!"
Sure
ofTHEbattle@reddit
I remember seeing something on TV before the movie was released in theaters about the movie. I think it was an interview with one of the actors from the movie or something like that, it debunked the whole "documentary" thing.
I still went to see it opening weekend and actually really enjoyed it, it definitely scared the crap out of my best friend and me. Afterwards we had to walk home in the dark.. it was more of a 3/4 mile jog. Lol
bacillaryburden@reddit
I saw it the night it came out in Baltimore. Long lines to see it and we all definitely knew it wasn’t real. I can’t say that no one thought it was real but it definitely wasn’t a widespread misperception.
cenosillicaphobiac@reddit
Nobody in my group of friends thought it was anything other than what it was. A super low budget film written to look like "found footage". I can't speak for the whole world though.
Your_Pretty_Baby@reddit
I was 15 and fully believed it.
originalchaosinabox@reddit
Kevin Smith has told the story on several of his podcasts that he was at the film's premiere at Sundance. Smith said his wife was completely convinced that it was real. She was freaking out that no one did anything to save the kids, and the only way Smith could convince her it was just a movie was to get the film's producer on the phone.
Google tells me it premiered at Sundance in January of 1999, and it's wide release was in July. No doubt by July, the secret was out. But in January, when it was just a tiny little indie film no one had heard of, it was probably easier to get away with.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
His wife the smug uberskeptic who mocked him for praying by comparing it to “asking Santa for more presents”? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!
ZeldaHylia@reddit
This movie was so awful.
Illustrious-Roll7737@reddit
It was the first mass marketed "found footage" style horror film. There was a lot of Internet marketing and the case wasn't allowed to promote it until after it released.
Exciting_Piccolo_823@reddit
Did not think it was real, but I also did not go camping for many years after I saw it in the theater
idontknowhowaboutyou@reddit
I wasn’t sure until I saw it in theatre and then realized it couldn’t be real although very fun and scary to pretend it was.
TiesforTurtles@reddit
Yes, but I was 12
toasterb@reddit
What are you doing here then? You’re not a Xennial!
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
Gatekeeping is not the Xennial way. It’s non-non-non-non heinous.
toasterb@reddit
Oh totally, meant that to be more playful.
red286@reddit
Eh, 1987 is close enough to 1985.
TiesforTurtles@reddit
1986 actually! I also have a brother 16 years older than me who I looked up to a lot so I got some of his gen x cultural influences by proximity
midnight-dour@reddit
My mom. But, she also believed The Amityville Horror and When a Stranger Calls were also true stories.
OkCar7264@reddit
My cousin thought it was real.
looosyfur@reddit
what do you mean it's not a real documentary??
YankeeRacers42@reddit
No, but my old roommate saw the TV “documentary” they did to market the movie and bought it hook, line, and sinker. He later went on to believe that fluoride is put in city water as a mind control tool, so there’s that to consider.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
Peace on Earth.
Purity of essence.
YankeeRacers42@reddit
I tell you what, no one’s gonna impurify my precious bodily fluids.
deanereaner@reddit
They showed the preview on TRL. At that point in the marketing campaign you were a dunce if you entertained the idea it was "real."
Maybe there was a brief moment when it was only on the festival circuit that someone could have been persuaded by their website.
But overall, I had a harder time figuring out if Spinal Tap was real or fake.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
For all intents and purposes Spinal Tap was real. Didn’t they release at least three albums and do a whole lot of tours?
BEniceBAGECKA@reddit
My amp does go to 11… so
BTP_Art@reddit
I feel for it before it came out. I live in the area too. I later found out it was fake, I knew someone(one of fishermen) in the movie.
BTP_Art@reddit
And I found one before it came out it was fake.
Bitter_Ad5419@reddit
I totally fell for it! It was the beginning of the internet and I didn't really have the mindset of question everything. Plus they had that website and there was the documentary about the movie that made it just seem so much more real.
Strangest thing though. My friends and I went and saw it in the theater and part way through the movie the entire row of seats just started vibrating. It freaked us all out lol
SkyyRez@reddit
I heard a rumor it was not real, but I saw it opening weekend and you couldn’t just check stuff on the internet back in ‘99. I walked away assuming it was probably not real. Especially because they kept crossing the same section of that little river instead of following it downstream back to civilization. But it was still fun to think about how it might be real. My friends and i drove home from that listening to Marilyn Manson just to increase the spook factor.
nvmls@reddit
When it first came out, enough people had heard planted rumors about it that it seemed like it could have been about a real thing. So before seeing it, sure. As soon as you watched it you realized it was just a horror film though. Information wasn't as instantaneous as it is today so people had a vague idea of what the movie was about, it was marketed as a documentary.
tweek264@reddit
Yes, because I saw it the night it came out and didn’t know at the time it was fake til basically the next day.. good times
Fast-Blacksmith9534@reddit
I had a friend who saw it on a whim without ever even hearing about it. Went into the theater with no expectations and was totally freaked out. Later he said he felt pretty dumb after having a chance to think about it 😅
Longjumping-Pear-673@reddit
As a 14 year old yes I did lol
joshhupp@reddit
I was about 22 when it came out and me and my friends kind of believed it was real for about a week, then we saw the girl on Letterman. I don't remember if we fell for the whole thing. I didn't believe there was a real witch. I think I thought it was real footage of some kids who were lost in the forest and just started freaking out recorded it all. The end was just cut for effect. I know I didn't think they were hired actors.
suspiciousyeti@reddit
No because I went to UCF too.
therealpopkiller@reddit
hey, me too! Film program?
suspiciousyeti@reddit
Advertising/Public Relations
therealpopkiller@reddit
We were in the same building!
badger_breath@reddit
I'll admit, it has me at first
kcchiefscooper@reddit
i was married to an idiot.
yes, yes, people believed it. our basement kind of looked like the end of the movie, guess where the washer and dryer were? guess who started doing laundry after that movie because someone else was too scared?
Ok_Criticism7172@reddit
I was in college when it came out, and I did go see it with someone who thought it was real -- he actually ended up getting physically ill during the movie. It was an experience.
(I didn't realize until after he got sick that he thought it was real. I'm not sure how we didn't discuss it beforehand.)
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
You heard stories at the time about people getting nauseated by the camerawork specifically. My brother despised the film specifically for that exact reason.
PorkNJellyBeans@reddit
My brother got motion sickness during it. Had to sit there with his eyes closed til it was over bc our parents had dropped us off.
ChicagoRex@reddit
I had co-workers in their early 20s who thought it was real. I think they hadn't actually seen it, but had only heard about it in passing. I remember one guy saying he felt bad for the families whose kids' deaths were being used for entertainment.
No9No9No9No9@reddit
Absolutely not. I live in Frederick County. We laughed at all of you.
xx_deleted_x@reddit
I did... until the end
flipnitch@reddit
I didn’t believe it but I knew people that got caught in the viral way they advertised the movie and believed it as a result. They planted news stories and such to corroborate and the internet was new enough to most people that finding “articles” about missing kids in that area was enough confirmation
Artee5000@reddit
100% thought is was real. I was maybe 18ish. And high. Saw it the day it came out.
zeptillian@reddit
Not really. It was said at the time that some people did, but that itself was "news" because it was so unbelievable. A this movie is so scary people actually believe it's real kind of thing.
They sure hyped the shit out of that movie.
QkaHNk4O7b5xW6O5i4zG@reddit
Heaps of people
Stormy261@reddit
I lived in MD. I remember search parties going out in the woods looking for them. So yes, many people believed it was real.
ilovechedda@reddit
I did lol
VictoriaStan@reddit
I was in my middle school years and went to see it. I saw a lot of horror movies already at this point. Loved Scream, had Nightmare nightmares, loved the bad movie vibes that Halloween had turned into,etc. Had a Scary Movie Night every week with 3 other friends. We even filmed a not bad horror movie on my camcorder (should have won the Oscar that year). I felt like a pro.
However.
My young brain could not deal with the idea that a horror movie could ever have a documentary like The Blair Witch did. It was like an event on Sci Fi channel that I planned out watching with my cousin. I can't really remember 100%, but I'm very confident I had never watched a found footage movie before this. My youth, the documentary, the found footage that looked a lot like our camcorder's, all just stacked up to a terrifying opening night experience. When the tent got bashed in and they go running in the woods, I distinctly remember this moment of feeling so scared that I wanted to cry out of despair and hopelessness.
I didn't cry. I did not. After the movie, I told my cousin how I felt in that moment, and of course he turned it into I cried. For years.
Yes, I bought in. Way harder than I should have, considering.
No, I didn't cry.
_1457_@reddit
I did at first with all the buzz around the flick, but my mom and I were into true crime so it didn't take long to realize a real life horror show wouldn't be made into a movie released in theaters.
missionbells@reddit
My online friend was convinced it was real and even set up a “research group” on yahoo for it. He was 14 and I was 16, I didn’t want to burst his bubble so I just pretended to be surprised when he figured things out.
johnbburg@reddit
I admit, I totally did until the moment those kids went on stage at the MTV Awards.
DTDePalma@reddit
Never. And could never understand why anyone did. Garbage.
NieBer2020@reddit
Yeah.
Dumphdumph@reddit
We watched it on a friends computer a couple of months before it was even released. Yes we thought it was real and no we didn’t sleep until someone looked it up later on
implicatureSquanch@reddit
I couldn't finish it. That shaky ass camera ruined the murders and terror for me
capt7430@reddit
Hook... line...and sinker.
Hadn't heard a thing about it and my gf at the time thought it was a documentary. I went into it completely blind when it came to hearing or seeing anything about it besides what she told me.
FionaGoodeEnough@reddit
I went to the film knowing it was fiction, and I think I saw stuff on tv before it came out saying that “many people think it is real, but it is fiction.”
lone_star13@reddit
I did, lol 🫣
and I loved it!
ehfrehneh@reddit
We all stayed to the end of the credits where it says it's not real so we could shut up all the naysayers.
Delicious_Tea3999@reddit
I knew it was fake, but it was kinda like Santa Claus in that it was so fun to play along. The fake documentary on SciFi legit creeped me out, and I remember then going to the website (back when nothing had its own website,) and I got chills scrolling through it. It was clearly marketing, but it was so well done that it just felt like part of a game to go into the movie viewing it like it was real. Those were the days! I honestly think nobody has done it as well since them
GlenBaileyWalker@reddit
I believed I was 100% watching a mainstream snuff film until after the screening. I had been traveling internationally that whole summer. The day after I got back my friends took me to see it. I had no context, never heard of it, and only thing my friends said was it was a documentary made with videotapes found in the woods. The whole time I truly thought what I was seeing was real.
DrFluffpants@reddit
My boyfriend at the time definitely did, bless his heart. He watched it, believed it, then found out it wasn’t real before I had a chance to see it. When I finally watched it with him he was really obnoxious about how fake it was. Kind of ruined the fun for me.
JadedJared@reddit
I was in HS and saw it in the movie theater. I didn’t know anything about it and thought it was pretty scary and pretty convincing. Was I naive? Sure but it was fun at the time to think it might be real.
BalrogRuthenburg11@reddit
No
jediphoenix1976@reddit
Never believed that the movie was a real documentary. However, I will admit that I thought the Blair Witch was a real legend, like the Jersey Devil, and that the filmmakers just crafted a story around it.
InSonicBloom@reddit
going in, I knew that it was fake, going out I knew that I hated "found footage" movies.
toasterb@reddit
I do not remember that movie fondly at all. I went with my girlfriend and we both were disappointed that we had wasted our time/money on it.
InSonicBloom@reddit
I wish I had gotten to the point of being disappointed, I just felt seasick! I saw it with my girlfriend too, she didn't seem that impressed either.
jessek@reddit
Idiots did.
I did not. I could tell from the start that it was all hype. Sounded like an interesting premise but anyone who believed it was real and the last days of three people's lives were going to be shown at the cinema and not in a courtroom, etc. was a buffoon.
Unlucky-Pomegranate3@reddit
I’ll say that I didn’t really believe but I wanted to believe. It didn’t hurt that after I saw it with some friends at night, we went and got drunk in a nearby state park. That was creep AF.
Dangerous_Midnight91@reddit
I knew absolutely nothing about it before I decided it was a good idea to drop acid with a couple friends and go see a movie… I don’t remember if I thought it was real but… It scared the absolute shit out of us!
seabirdsong@reddit
My boyfriend at the time genuinely did. I had to make him watch a nighttime talk show with me when they were interviewing the actress who played Heather,talkimg about the move, before he believed me. He was a relatively sheltered Christian kid (we were like 16).
WheelOfFish@reddit
Not that I'm aware of. I appreciate the innovative approach but I recall thinking it was more unintentionally funny than anything else (but not in a good way like the og evil dead).
askthepoolboy@reddit
My niece and nephew believed it fully when I made them watch it a few months ago. They’re 12, so maybe that helped, but it freaked them out.
zeje@reddit
Yes, I had friends who insisted it was real.
theboyinthecards@reddit
I was a dumb 13 year old and totally bought into the hype right up until I saw it.
nin4nin@reddit
No. I saw it in the theaters while in college. We all knew it was fake but it felt real.
bmw_19812003@reddit
I’m sure this will get buried but I kind of had some special circumstances and 100% thought it was real; at least until the credits started rolling.
Let me explain.
The summer the film came out I was in boot camp. I saw zero promotion for it and did not even know the film existed.
Fast fwd to that fall and I’m out of boot camp in tech school; we had a lounge area where we would gather and watch movies or whatever. I walk in probably about 15 minutes after the move started. I was a little confused of what I was watching so I asked one of the guys what this was. He simply stated “I don’t know I guess this was some found footage someone got sent from home”.
I fell for it 100%. It was probably one of the most immersive experiences of my life up to that point.
At the films climax my mind was spinning at 100 mph. And the credits rolled and the illusion was instantly shattered.
Still pretty wild experience.
BigSquiby@reddit
i saw the movie in the theater probably the day or within a few days of it coming out. we did not go to the theater to see it, we were in a city we didn't live in and randomly went to see a movie.
the person at the ticket counter suggested it, we had never heard of it, read nothing about it and the ticket person provided no details about it, just said it was good.
seeing without context was a pretty neat experience. we were the only 2 in the theater and it was like a 11 am movie on a weekday.
when it was over, we looked at each other and asked the same question, "what the hell did we just watch?"
I would guess knowing anything about it would make it lose its appeal and vibe. But for the time and place it came out, it was a very different style of movie and very good. throughout most of the movie, we didn't know if we were watching actual documentary footage or not, we were sure if some kids were making a documentary on something and people with screwing with them or if it was just a fiction piece made to look like a documentary. As i said, this was a one off and as far as i know, never made style of movie.
Did i think it was real? err, maybe?
with that said, i also really liked the movie "signs" but i also watched it at a tiny drive in movie theater in the middle of a corn fields in the middle of the country, 200 miles from the nearest big city. Again, i had never heard of it, we saw it because that is what the drive in was playing.
YubNubYubNubYubNub@reddit
I was in bootcamp and then went straight overseas for a year when all of this came out. I had never heard of it. At all. When I got home my friends told me about a documentary and had me watch it on VHS. I was 100% convinced it was real until they told me it wasn't
platinumperineum@reddit
Yes i did at age 17 or whatever i was
mister2021@reddit
12-14 year olds maybe
Scary-Mission9698@reddit
When I watched it a week or so late and people were still saying it was true, after watching it I was like these people must be fucking with me.
TimToMakeTheDonuts@reddit
I was 15 when it came out. Going into it I really believed. Coming out, I couldn’t believe that 2 hour younger me fell for that shit.
SharMarali@reddit
I saw the fake documentary they made to promote the film before I saw or heard anything else about it. So yeah, I believed it was real for a day or two. I was really embarrassed when I found out I’d fallen for such a dumb stunt.
arcxjo@reddit
I saw all the kids on the talk show junket a month before the movie so no.
Hatameiwaku@reddit
People sitting next to me in the theatre did.
1track_mind@reddit
No, I fell asleep in the theater
Pinkkorn69@reddit
I was in high school, and documentaries were my favorite thing to watch, so I knew it was a fake. Given how documentaries were handled in that time frame, this is not something that would have been released if it had really been a real-life event.
ParsleyMostly@reddit
My dad thought the accompanying documentary on coffin rock was real. It was on history or sci-fi or one of those cable channels. I was all, “it’s not real, dad”, and he goes, “but the story they based it off on was!”
Ilikethngsnstf@reddit
Yes, I found out after the movie as I was going down the escalator to leave. I was telling my GF about how I couldn't believe that it really happened, and someone behind me laughed and told me it wasn't real.
ContactHonest2406@reddit
Not anyone that I knew. A big group of us went to see it opening night, and the like 20 of us all knew it was fake. Still thought it was hella cool the way they did it. I was 15.
thebozworth@reddit
I came late after the movie had started at the theater. It was standing room only. I had never heard anything about it. I sincerely believed that the film had been found and that the parents allowed it's release to a company. I thought it was very cool of them to share their lost kids' stories.
bulakenyo1980@reddit
Never believed it for a second. Hated the movie too, I got motion sickness watching it in a full theatre, front row, 20+ years ago.
FeralGinger@reddit
I was 17 when it came out.
No, not a single person i know didnt understand it was a movie.
It's weird to me that this is even a question
Fruscione@reddit
I saw the film opening night without any prior knowledge, high as a kite. So yeah, kinda
Jerkrollatex@reddit
I worked in a video store when it came out. A lady in her 60s was arguing with her kids that it was real after it was out for rent. This was after the actors had been on talk shows and everyone knew it was just a movie.
Glitterbug1128@reddit
We saw a special showing off it in NYC before it hit the theaters. We went in stoned as hell and fully believed it was real lol.
Lothium@reddit
No, i commented on a thread last year about how I couldn't believe anyone thought it was real and people were all up in arms about how they were fooled.
fiestybox246@reddit
I was completely convinced it was real, but I was also extremely gullible most of my life.
AmanDog2020@reddit
NGL, for a moment. I saw it in the theater on a rainy, fall Friday in New England. I've literally never felt so scared driving home alone. I was 17 at the time. I was also extremely disappointed when I learned I'd been duped.
Lcky22@reddit
I thought the fourth kind was real when I first watched it
BEniceBAGECKA@reddit
No. And it made me sick to watch it. Fucking shaky ass cam on a snot nose. No thank you.
Holmes221bBSt@reddit
Nope. Kids at school insisted it was but it just felt like bullshit to me. I mean, where are the news reports with the families of the missing people or one about these missing persons cold cases finally being closed?
staticvoidmainnull@reddit
i did. i grew up in a very superstitious culture. at a time where internet was still novel.
bizarre, thinking back about it.
Any_Juggernaut3040@reddit
The undergraduate student working for me at the time was convinced it was real until they met the actor at comicon. That clown falsified his way to a PhD too.
cityfireguy@reddit
My fucking college professor.
Only thing that died was my respect for the man.
treyb0mb1@reddit
Totally… went and saw it in a limited release at some small downtown theater when I was like 16. Literally knew nothing about it but my friend had heard about it. Totally thought it was real. No one freaked out though.
treyb0mb1@reddit
Maybe what I saw was this documentary everyone is talking about? That was a long time ago
OhTheHueManatee@reddit
I was open to the possibility of it being real until I saw it.
wolandjr@reddit
Kinda. I saw Blair Witch at a movie theater in Maryland at a packed preview screening, and knew nothing about it other than the initial hype that was spreading by word of mouth locally.
Logically I assumed it couldn't be real. But I wasn't 100% sure
crmom22@reddit
No.
karly21@reddit
If not, my suspension of disbelief was extremely hight...
But of course now me would say I knew it was fake fromthe beginning
sysaphiswaits@reddit
No. Not unless you REALLY wanted to. If this had been happening, at the time it, wouldn’t have been publicized like this. It would have been on the news, and there would have been police records, etc.
maggie320@reddit
I’ve never seen it. Wasn’t very interested when it first came out to be honest. That being said you couldn’t escape it and I feel like I’ve already seen it with all the promotional stuff and people talking about it at school.
Big_Monday4523@reddit
I've never seen it either. But, much like my large and unwanted knowledge of the never watched kardashians, I some how just knew about the movie.
Familiar_Site_8947@reddit
I knew it was fiction, and I don't think I know anyone who believed it was real. WotW, I've consistently heard that people thought it was real and my grandmother backed that up to me.
Adventurous-State940@reddit
Yup, I did
raezin@reddit
No. It would be really fucked up to monetize footage of people literally dying. Obviously no respectable film producers would try to turn someone's last moments and literal death into a popcorn experience.
HorrorAvatar@reddit
The news does that all the time.
camjvp@reddit
I did dude. I was fucking scared. My popcorn bucket was smashed from me hugging it. Ohhh how I miss that innocence
UnitedLink4545@reddit
My wife's brothers did. They refused to go camping after lol.
Successful_Sense_742@reddit
I did at first. Didn't think it was supernatural though. Just thought locals didn't want outlanders around. They tried scaring them out. They became lost due to fear, anger, and hunger.
noisemakermarie@reddit
We all knew it was fake before it came out but it still ended up feeling real
eatsleepdive@reddit
Apparently everyone in our generation is on the spectrum, so we don't look people in the eye.
NGinuity@reddit
I had friends who did. Notice I said "had". They're still idiots 😂
Cloud_Disconnected@reddit
I think it was mainly marketing for the film, although I did have one friend who wholeheartedly believed it was real right up until we saw it. Once you saw the movie you knew that it was fictional, but all the hype around it did make it easier to suspend disbelief, and made for a really fun experience. I didn't feel tricked or duped, I saw what they were doing, and thought it was really cool.
h0tel-rome0@reddit
At the time yeah, a lot of us young teens guessed it was. For us it was a new format/concept we’ve never seen before and we were naive kids
ShillinTheVillain@reddit
I was 16, and really bought into the hype before going. I left the theater thinking that was the dumbest movie I had ever seen.
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
I thought it was crap the day I heard of it and never watched it. I knew people who truly seemed to believe though.
pepbox@reddit
I watched it, thought it was crap, and never watched it again. 1978, btw.
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
Yeah my girlfriend at the time and her friends were really into it for a short time. Everyone late 70s.
NDMagoo@reddit
My mom believed it and argued with me about how it was real. She saw some mockumentary on TV that was playing up the lore, and like many Boomers still believed that the TV was the indisputable oracle of truth. She refused to change her mind until after seeing a different TV show that explained the whole thing.
slothbuddy@reddit
All I had to go on was what I was told and nothing in the movie was overtly supernatural. Then the cast was on the MTV Video Music awards, so that cleared it up
JoeSpic01@reddit
No, didn’t think it was real, but 8th grade me went with a girl to see it and ended up making out in the theater and then ended up “going out” the entire summer and got to go with her on her Dad’s boat all summer which was awesome!
christhomasburns@reddit
I saw it in a basement with a bunch of film students weeks before it came to theaters. It was just a film that a friend got from a friend who got it from a friend. It was a huge topic of debate whether it was real or not afterwards.
Smashingistrashing@reddit
Yeah but I was 14 and kind of sheltered.
It could be worse, at least I didn’t believe Garth Brooks was Chris Gaines.
adamempathy@reddit
I was 14 or 15. You bet your ass I thought it was real.
Neither_Ship_185@reddit
I remember I found out like the day, or week, before it hit theaters, that it was actually fake. I was in 10th grade and before that, I thought it was real from the commercials and so did my friend group 😅
ominous_squirrel@reddit
Bruh, people believe in flatearth, QAnon and Elon Musk. Of course there were people who believe in the Blair Witch
207Menace@reddit
No. But the Blair Thumb on the other hand
Repulsive-Fuel-5281@reddit
I had completely bought in to the hype tour. I remember them being on a tour of the late night shows and saying something to the effect of "we know it's not ghosts, but the producers were messing with us... Taking away our food... Making it harder to sleep.... And the reactions we had were real because we were food and sleep deprived" ....or something to that effect. So I 100% believed their reactions to stuff and was absolutely terrified in the theatre.
ikeif@reddit
Oh man. So I saw it at this little art theatre. Small group of friends. And one guy with us, the entire damn movie, “this is so fake, it’s not real. It’s not real, right? No, it’s not real… is it real?”
Definitely enhanced the experience.
thrwaway856642@reddit
I was 17 and convinced it was real.
cmgww@reddit
I knew a few people who initially thought it was real, however, I knew it was a work of fiction. By the time I went to see it. Still scared the heck out of me, especially since I had to return to working a summer camp deep in Indiana woods.... some of the counselors thought it would be funny to make those stick hanging things and put them outside of others cabins. They got into a good amount of trouble with the camp director for that... as it was a YMCA camp.
xts2500@reddit
I was 19 when the film came out and yes, probably 75% of the people I know who saw it in the theater thought it was real. There was quite the advertising campaign that hinted pretty heavily that it was "found footage" but never said exactly that. The actors didn't do a single interview before the film came out which added to the premise.
Additionally, the actors really did spend days in the woods even sleeping in the woods at night. The film crew would do things to scare the hell out of them, so the screams are real. No re-takes. The scene where they wake up in the morning and all the wooden thingys were hanging from the trees - that really happened. The actors had no idea they were going to see that when they woke up. That's why it was so believable that it was found footage - everything seemed so realistic. It wasn't Anne Hathaway screaming for her eleventh take of the day, it was a bunch of college kids truly screaming and being scared shitless. If I remember correctly, the actors never saw the crew. They essentially just camped in the woods with a handheld camcorder and as the crew messed with them and kept scaring them, their reactions were 100% real.
It was great when it first came out. The actors began doing interviews and appearances a few weeks after the films release and that's when people started realizing it was all fiction.
Training-Republic301@reddit
No. I went to the theatre aware that I was watching a new style of film art
SadAcanthocephala521@reddit
My friends and I completely believed it was real when we watched it in theater. It blew my mind and I really wanted to go camping after seeing it. It wasn't long till we found it was in fact not real lol.
Felt pretty duped.
evil-morty-is-rick@reddit
Yes. It was before it was so easy to disprove things there was internet but not in the palm of your hand. While you watched it you knew there was no way it was real but still you had that doubt that there was a chance it was real.
realfolkblues@reddit
Yeup.
Doormatty@reddit
No. It was just that the marketing was SO good around it.
I remember digging through the website looking for clues.
CorgiKnits@reddit
I fell for it until I really looked at the website.
Then it was the most boring movie ever, until the last 30 seconds.
Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit (OP)
An ARG before we even had the term?
hacksawomission@reddit
There were ARGs for "The Net" with Sandra Bullock, the original Bungie Marathon game series, the Matrix... They were quite popular in the 90s.
CharlieMoonMan@reddit
The first one I remember was the ARG about the Time Traveler in the mid-late 90s. John Titor. I was 13 or so. Same time frame as Blair Witch but messed me up so much more!
Calm-Tree-1369@reddit
Sort of, yeah. Nobody much actually believed it was real but it was fun to believe, and it was just plausible enough. A lot of effort went into the supplemental materials outside the movie. There was an in-universe documentary about the missing teens, the website, etc.
SweetCosmicPope@reddit
I was about to bring up the documentary that came out. That added another cool layer to the whole thing and added a lot of backstory and context to the movie.
LaikaSol@reddit
I didn’t know that it was fake before I watched it. I knew it was fake when I got home and found the website. But it scared the shit out of me at the time bc i thought it was real.
may_flowers@reddit
My husband's friend was connected to the production and had him go to a preview screening. He fully believed it was real. It was just a different time, and that kind of concept just wasn't a thing yet.
Possible-Tangelo9344@reddit
When I first heard of it everyone thought it was real.
Went to see it in the theater like a week or two after it came out and everyone in the theater was audibly disbelieving. Like when it ended there were a lot of "thank Christ" and "fucking finally" comments.
I've heard of people who like it. I've just never met one in person.
EnvironmentalPack451@reddit
I don't think i ever saw the film, but i saw the sci-fi channel "documentary" about it and i thought they were telling the truth
Pippin_the_parrot@reddit
lol, no.
orchestragravy@reddit
Depended on what age you were at the time. I was in my 20s so I didn't fall for it
red286@reddit
I did not, since the idea of found footage of three people who had been murdered winding up being screened internationally in theatres is absurd (I don't recall Faces of Death ever hitting theatres, do you?).
But I knew people who did at the time. I laughed at them for being morons, but there absolutely are some people who believe marketing bullshit.
Warrior-Cook@reddit
I went into it not knowing anything about it, blind. I don't know how long it took to realize it was a movie, but it sure wasn't that night.
WanderingSoul-7632@reddit
I totally thought it was real!! Seemed so authentic with the news casters reporting and all the bad filming! It was terrifying to me.
cmdrkyla@reddit
It was the first R rated movie I saw in theaters, snuck in at 16. I was very disappointed. Super boring and not scary at all.
Thamnophis660@reddit
I knew a handful of people who thought it was real, yeah. When it was first released it had some people fooled for a bit.
Appropriate-Food1757@reddit
No
ArachnidMother7211@reddit
When I was in acid I sure did
flux_capacitor3@reddit
I didn't, but a lot of people did. It was awesome. Also, a lot of people still think that Faces of Death was real. Haha.
Little_Plankton4001@reddit
Me and all my friends were juniors in high school at the time and there was significant debate. I thought it might be real before I saw it, but didn't believe it afterward.
But that just shows you how good the marketing was.
lsp2005@reddit
No and if people said that to me it was the last time I took anything out of their mouths seriously ever again.
Skadi_The_Huntress@reddit
I was having a fling with a fella from Ireland --who was over for the summer on work visa-- and he had not seen any marketing about the film leading up to us actually seeing it in theater. He absolutely believed it was real, and despite me and my friends telling him it wasn't, he couldn't be convinced otherwise. It really messed with his head. Sorry again, Owen (wherever you are)!
autochthonous@reddit
I stopped talking to an Uncle because he tried convincing everyone at Thanksgiving that his wife worked with someone that was related to one of the missing people in the movie.
The argument got extremely heated. I left early and didn’t speak to him again.
effitalll@reddit
I went to see it with a friend who thought it was real. In one of the first scenes, there was an IKEA bookshelf that I bought just before seeing the movie. It was was a relatively new introduction and didn’t match the timeline. It was what finally convinced her.
WhiskeyGirl223@reddit
I remember the actress doing an interview on one of the late night talk shows. She was talking about being the only woman in the woods with the rest of the cast and crew. When I would tell people this I was accused of lying.
punkrawkchick@reddit
I was 15-ish. Yes I believed it. I didn’t have internet(except at school) and had no way to “verify” what I was told by the marketing of the film. It seemed very real.
belunos@reddit
I never actually watched it, but no. I was surprised to find out that folks did
jayne-eerie@reddit
Maybe people who were kids when it came out? I can see a 12-year-old being aware of the film, but not knowing the backstory.
Roy_G_Biv_87@reddit
Yeah I did. I cried the whole way home.
snow-haywire@reddit
When I saw it in the theatre I still thought it was real. Found out afterwards it wasn’t.
RJRoyalRules@reddit
I remember when the film came out and a kid my age insisted it was real and then when I told him it wasn’t he said “well it’s based on a true story.”
I just think the marketing was super effective and it was a slightly less jaded time than now, so some low-information folks believed it was real, but nowhere near a War of the Worlds level.
Impressive_Owl3903@reddit
I knew it wasn’t real when I watched the first time because I waited until I could rent the VHS to watch it and had seen the actors on tv (I think Oprah?). That said, I’m not surprised at all that people who watched it when it was first released weren’t sure or thought it was real. Also, it’s interesting (to me at least) to think about whether a similar filmmaking and marketing approach would work today…I think probably not unless everyone involved was super disciplined about keeping the secret.
Top_Sherbet_8524@reddit
Nope
kingjamesporn@reddit
Yes. I caught half of some stupid mockumentary on Discovery or something that I didn't watch completely, but it made the film sound like an actual documentary, and we saw it in theater right after it opened. I was terrified. 🤷♂️
ailish@reddit
Lol I lived in Baltimore at the time and I loved making people think it was a real local legend that actually happened. More than one person believed me.
RetroBerner@reddit
Probably, I remember when a bunch of people tried to tell me that mermaids were real after they saw a mockumentary on TV
Stunning_Radio3160@reddit
I did ! I was 16
Nadathug@reddit
Me and my friends were 18-19 and smoked a lot of weed lol. We absolutely believed it could be true but had doubts. The marketing and hype made you was want to believe it. You also gotta understand that you didn’t see things made to look like found footage back then, this was before parody documentaries or reality shows took off. Like, people believed Jerry Springer was real. Anyway, after me and my friends saw the movie we were all freaked out, but the more we talked about it we realized there was multiple plot holes and kind of concluded it was fake.
LazyMathlete@reddit
I was In highschool and went with my mom who was oblivious to the hype. She totally believed it. I think that was probably the scenario for most believers (oblivious). I assumed she knew it was fake until she said "I feel so bad for their parents" on the way out of the theater (in the town that at least one of the actors in the film went to college).
DethByCow@reddit
I remember people saying it was so horrific that people left the theater puking….well that was because of motion sickness from shaky cam.
bikeonychus@reddit
I was slightly too young to see it at the cinema (UK - no way I could have snuck in because the nearest cinema was too far for a bus ride, so parent taxi, and they would flip their shit if i'd asked to go), but I remember the advertising and all the bluster that went with it.
I don't remember anyone believing it was actually real. Some kids at school tried to spin it, but no one actually believed it was a documentary or real. At art college a couple of years later, we had a lesson about filming methods, and we discussed it then, but again, everyone was on the same page about it absolutely not being real, and it was just a very good marketing campaign.
BoysenberryKind5599@reddit
I did, but I was lucky enough to be a college student in Austin at the time. That was one of the cities they dropped the fake vhs tapes in, and that's how I watched it, before it was released, as an actual underground tape that was being sent around via mail. I was scared shitless for years.
atx840@reddit
saw this in a drive thru with hundreds of people, a decent percentage of the audience were freaking out that it was real and concerned on why the rest of us were more chill and just vibing with film.
lechydda@reddit
No, but with how they marketed it with the website. Also there was no other reality tv or YouTube or anything like that where people would regularly post their home videos online, so Blair Witch was creepy AF and 100% convinced me I was watching some kids being stalked in the woods.
I showed it to my husband a few years ago (streaming to the TV) and he thought it was the most boring movie ever. He never watched it back in the day and was watching it brand new. I had to agree, it doesn’t stand the test of time.
But for when it was made, it was brilliant, especially with the online interaction people had.
BojukaBob@reddit
Not the film no. But I caught the tv documentary that was made to promote it like halfway through without having heard of the movie when I was like 18 and thought it was real.
spielleips@reddit
Oh man, I was completely primed for this film.
I had not heard of the film at all before I watched it. I had seen the last half of the fake documentary on TV sometime before, so I had a vague memory of the events (but not that it was a film).
A friend gave me a pirated copy on a cd with no label, and I watched it by myself at night, after ripping some cones.
I was hooked until they saw the same log twice.
Nipplasia2@reddit
No. Not at all
Atwood412@reddit
Was it supposed to be real?? It was so along ago.
I will say though, while we were watching it a fly landed on our tv screen, in the middle of winter. Freaked us out. Never watched the movie again.
esocharis@reddit
Yeah, I was in college when it came out. I knew a couple of girls that were convinced it was real. It wasn't super widespread in my experience, though.
Sudden-Motor-7794@reddit
Same. Friend of mine took me, I didn't know anything about it. He said it was a snuff film, more or less, and I believed him. It was really good with that kind of a setup.
SlapHappyDude@reddit
I had a couple coworkers who swore it was real. They... were not the brightest I've had.
InfidelZombie@reddit
I sort of did for a while since that's what the media made it out to be. None of my friends were interested so I didn't talk to anyone who'd seen it till I watched it myself 5+ years after it came out. It couldn't have been more obviously fictional if you actually watched the movie.
Floopydoopypoopy@reddit
If it was known to be scripted, no one would've known because information didn't travel as fast back then. We weren't nearly as connected as we are now, so it wouldn't surprise me if the movie went A LONG time without everyone knowing it wasn't real.
mom_bombadill@reddit
My best friend did! She was in college and her university had like, a sneak peek screening before it was officially released? She was So. Scared.
Searchlights@reddit
My friend and I walked in to the movie theater with no plan about what we wanted to see. We didn't even know what was playing.
So we went in to the Blair Witch completely cold and it was entirely unclear whether it was fiction or documentary.
Dry_Inspection_4583@reddit
Nah, by the time I saw it the ruse was up
DeadliftDingo@reddit
Howard Stern has a lot of callers that believed at the time. I don’t know why that has real estate in my brain.
This_Fkn_Guy_@reddit
Yes i watched the "documentary" before I knew what the movie was and talked about it with friends at work
MonkeyTraumaCenter@reddit
I believed it when I first heard about it and then learned that it was not a true story. However, I know that I went into the film with full suspension of disbelief and that resulted in it scaring the crap out of me.
lynxpoint@reddit
No, but I wasn’t 1000% sure. I also saw it in the theater and sat in the front row and had to run to the bathroom to throw up. That shaky camera made me so nauseous!!
YearofTheStallionpt1@reddit
After watching it in the theater I looked it up online. They made a website about how these people were missing. And it linked to news reports, but I am from Maryland and I didn’t recognize the anchors or even the channels from these reports. I knew then it was fake. But for like, 2 hours I thought maaaaybe it was real.
ToughOk4114@reddit
Not me but my friend sure did. We left the theatre and he said quite seriously “whoa I can’t believe that shit was real” and I about died laughing! He was mortified.
gonzagylot00@reddit
It was sold as a documentary, but everyone knew upon a watching what was going on.
Nerf-Hurdler@reddit
Yeah, my old roommate was CONVINCED prior to release that it was real and would not be dissuaded. And yes, he was a moron.
Zer0Summoner@reddit
I thought it was real until the supernatural stuff. I thought it was going to be real film of people investigating stuff, like any number of shows, ie Ghost Hunters or various documentaries in which people search for Bigfoot and such, so like, investigating stuff which was not real, but the investigation of the not-real stuff was itself real. Then the supernatural stuff occurred and I was not bought in at all and realized it was all fake.
doornumber2v2@reddit
No...but I really did think that alien one with Mila Jokovich was.
almost_cromulent@reddit
I was 15 and yes, definitely
9fingerjeff@reddit
The movie didn’t but honestly there was a “documentary” on sci fi just before it was in theaters that I thought was legit. Just a bunch of folks talking about old wives tales. It sounded familiar enough like I’d heard of it before like the bell witch or something like that. By the time the movie came out I knew what was up but going into that show never hearing anything about it before seemed pretty convincing.
Flimsy_Outside_9739@reddit
My brother did. We saw it opening night when all the hype was at its peak, and he was only 14 at the time.
Internet was limited.
Beneficial-Piano-428@reddit
Yes my older brother and I got into a huge fight because he swore it was real and made me cry over it then he felt like the biggest ass when I proved to him it was just a movie. Definitely revolutionary and still gives me the creeps when I revisit it for Halloween
-Ghost83-@reddit
I was 15 and totally sold on it!
SweetCosmicPope@reddit
I didn't really believe it, but it was really easy and fun to suspend your disbelief for the duration of the movie and the documentary.
Seven22am@reddit
There were definitely people who thought it was real. Here’s a post I x-postedwhere a while ago about this.
WilliamMcCarty@reddit
For about 5 minutes, honestly. I heard about, sounded like a documentary, more I heard about it I realized it was just a movie.
PupperoniPoodle@reddit
Yeah, I'd only heard vague things, wanted to go, my friends put it off, and by the time they were ready to go, we all knew the truth. And then I was no longer interested, since I'm not a horror fan.
HorrorAvatar@reddit
I remember seeing the fake missing persons posters in my hometown. They REALLY did a great job marketing it.
poptartsandmascara@reddit
I totally thought it was real! I went to see it with some friends at the drive in (wow we are old) in middle of no where Maryland opening night. We all thought it was real. The drive home through the woods and corn fields was terrifying!!!
laffingriver@reddit
I knew a dude in college who was convinced it was real. That whole thing was confusing to me.
Lemonblueberry579@reddit
Most ppl teenage and older knew it wasn’t real, but it seemed fun to go along with it.
d00kieshoes@reddit
The friend that drug me to see it opening weekend did. Good guy but a bit of an idiot.
Sad_Increase216@reddit
I remember there being a lot of hype around it but we watched it at school during study hall or something towards the end of the school year and no one was convinced. It had some creepy parts but I was more creeped out by some episodes of The Outer Limits. I guess since we were watching it at school it had been a minute since it's theatrical release and the initial impact had worn off but my friends and I were bigger fans of Scream and messed with each other more due to it (prank calls, anyone?).
Basic-Aioli-7652@reddit
I knew it was fake but I loved horror movies and it was such a great marketing scheme that I was fully invested.