Don’t worry—there’s no world in which lo-fi horror classic The Blair Witch Project gets one of those overly smooth 4K upgrades. The 1999 film became a sensation because it looks like it really was filmed by a trio of young documentary makers who get lost in a haunted forest: shaky, grainy, weird lighting, not always in focus.
Though by now we know the “true story” part of Blair Witch was a gimmick, the found-footage film is still finding new ways to surprise us. According to one of the film’s producers, Michael Monello, the film is finally—25 years after it hit theaters—getting a home video release that reflects the version its creators (the film was written and directed by Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick) always intended.
The new version comes into being due to a technical snafu that was mistakenly not corrected decades ago—and apparently makes a notable difference in the viewing experience. Here’s Monello’s social media post that breaks it down:
25 years later, our little movie, ‘The Blair Witch Project,’ is FINALLY being released as we always intended. Here are details for the curious. pic.twitter.com/w6S4dm2KKI
— Mike Monello (@mikemonello) November 11, 2024
“The Blair Witch Project was filmed on Hi8 video and 16mm b&w film and edited on a Media 100XR, a non-linear editing system in wide use then,” he wrote. “Since theaters then did not have video projectors, we had to transfer our DigiBeta master to 35mm via a process called ‘telecine,’ basically filming the video on a special screen in a controlled environment with a 35mm film camera.”
They had no choice at the time, he explained. But when The Blair Witch Project was shifting from theaters to home video, “[distributors] Artisan made a huge mistake” and instead worked not from the DigiBeta master, but the 35mm telecine transfer.
“This introduced serious motion errors,” Monello explained. “It gave the Hi8 footage film grain and muddied all the colors with a brown overcast, killing detail. The edits of that transfer became 3-frame dissolves, rather than hard cuts!”
The new version, he said, is the film the way it was intended to be seen, and it’s “scarier” to boot; the new transfer’s “look, motion, and hard cuts create a far scarier psychological effect than all previous versions.”
The release comes with 90 minutes of deleted footage as well as a new documentary, he added. But there’s a catch: this will be a Region B release only—that’s Europe, not the United States. (Monello suggested fans “contact Lionsgate on their social channels” to request a U.S. release; American fans with the ability to play Region B discs can pick it up from Second Site’s website, for what it’s worth. You can also go to that link to see the full list of special features.)
And speaking of Lionsgate, the studio recently announced it’s working on a new version of Blair Witch. To that end, a fan on Bluesky asked Monello if the Blair Witch Project cast—Heather Donohue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams—participated in this new release. Recently, the actors spoke out to say they weren’t included in the indie film’s massive profits, despite their integral part in its success.
Monello replied: “They were made offers to participate, but due to their ongoing issues with Lions Gate they chose not to be involved. Note that none of us earn any money from Blair Witch anything. Our work on this was unpaid, and we only did it to finally get it out into the world the way it was meant to be.”
The Blair Witch Project is already scary as hell. It’s hard to imagine a version that’s even scarier—but we’re certainly intrigued to get a look at it and see if that’s the case. Will you be checking it out?
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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