Description

With Maddy Sheehy, Emma Youndtsmith, Abbie Phelps, and Natalie Marlin!

How did YOU come across THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT? Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s found footage horror film kicked off a genre before the turn of the millennium, and it still holds a freaky deaky power over audiences today. Four voices are distinctly absent from this episode of Trylove, but the four who’ve replaced them have a lot to say about its provenance, use of negative space, and missing baddie.

Find Maddy…

• On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/corndogmaddy/
• On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kaijumaddy/

Find Emma…

• On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/quiltedquads/
• Volunteering at the Trylon every other Friday
• On Trylove Episode 220: WATERSHIP DOWN (1978)

Find Abbie…

• On Twitter at https://twitter.com/goodhunterabbie
• On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/goodhunterabbie/
• On Trylove Episode 184: DRIVE ANGRY (2011), Episode 209: WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)

Find Natalie…

• On Twitter at https://twitter.com/NataliesNotInIt
• On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/framingthepic/
• On Trylove Episode 162: THE THIRD MAN (1949), Episode 182: CHESS OF THE WIND (1979), Episode 197: RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985), Episode 210: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015), Episode 239: MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001)

Get tickets to “The Nightmarish Nineties” (October 2023 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/the-nightmarish-nineties/

• “Horror without Borders: My Blair Witch Project” by Chris Ryba-Tures for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2023/10/13/horror-without-borders-my-blair-witch-project/
• “From Sundance to Box Office Gold: The Story of The Blair Witch Project” by Kevin Maher for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2023/10/14/from-sundance-to-box-office-gold-the-story-of-the-blair-witch-project/

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "Draining Faces" by Skinny Puppy from Josh's Blair Witch Mix, the official soundtrack accompaniment to the release of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.

Timestamps
0:00 - Episode 249: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)

2:36 - The Patented Abbie Phelps Summary

4:18 - Maddy’s thoughts

5:47 - Emma’s thoughts

6:55 - Natalie’s thoughts

9:28 - Abbie’s thoughts

11:16 - The use of negative space and avant garde framing choices

17:36 - Learning – and breaking – the rules of filmmaking

19:13 - Daytime sequences

27:22 - The performances and building tension through conflict

37:25 - What makes Heather a complicated female character

40:47 - Comparing THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT to other found footage horror movies

46:23 - The BLAIR WITCH version of reality

54:46 - CURSE OF THE BLAIR WITCH and the moral implications of lying to your audience

1:02:00 - Where the cast is today

1:04:21 - Final thoughts