History Film / TheBlairWitchProject

* PostModernMagik: Subverted. The Blair Witch, assuming she exists, never appears on camera. Played straight with the footage itself, which was buried within the foundations of a Civil War-era house through unknown means.

* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: The disappearances of the student filmmakers happens close to Halloween. Justified, in that the film takes place in the month of October.

* RuleThirtyFour: The Bare Wench Project and The Erotic Witch Project, etc. Both of which had more sequels than the film they're spoofing.

''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 horror movie, [[FoundFootageFilms shot entirely in the style of a documentary]] {{gone horribly wrong}}.

It revolves around three college students, Heather, Mike, and Josh, who [[TwentyMinutesIntoThePast in 1994]] decide to make a documentary about the fabled "The Blair Witch", which is said to haunt the forest near the small town of Burkittsville, Maryland. After interviewing the locals about several creepy and macabre incidents in the area, the trio eventually decide to journey into the forest where the legend is supposed to have started. Things ultimately take [[FromBadToWorse a turn for the worse]].

Now, what it's ''really'' notable for is having one of the best ViralMarketing campaigns ever, and certainly [[TropeMaker one of the first]] to demonstrate the effectiveness of Internet advertising. Fake online documents, footage, published dossiers, interviews, and even a couple of professional-looking television documentaries blurred the line between truth and fiction like few other campaigns had done before or have since. Many were convinced that the movie was based on a true story, or even consisted of actual footage. Even more were convinced that the "Blair Witch" was a real legend, as opposed to something the filmmakers made up themselves.

The film became one of the most successful independent films of all time, and can also be credited with being the TropeCodifier[=/=]GenrePopularizer of found footage horror films, a trend that got used so frequently that [[DiscreditedTrope it was driven into the ground over time]].

The Film was followed by:

** When deciding whether or not to go west, Mike references the [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Wicked Witch of the East and the Wicked Witch of the West]], before deciding to go east.

** When deciding whether or not to go west, Mike references the [[''Film/TheWizardOfOz Wicked Witch of the East and the Wicked Witch of the West]], before deciding to go east.

* PostModernMagik: Subverted. The Blair Witch, assuming she exists, never appears on camera. Played straight with the footage itself, which was buried in the foundations of a Civil War-era house through unknown means

* PostModernMagik: Subverted. The Blair Witch, assuming she exists, never appears on camera. If she had, however, this trope would have certainly applied.

* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday:

** Josh compares their current situation to ''Film/Deliverance''.

** The filmmakers discuss ''Series/Gilligan'sIsland''

* WickedWitch: The titular witch [[spoiler:has killed children, been responsible for the disappearance of many different people through history, and tortures, torments, and kills the protagonists.]]

!! The tie-in games contain examples of:

* ActionizedSequel: Actually the prequel.
* AdaptationExpansion: As with other tie-in materials.
* AgentScully: The Stranger of all people, despite his career of going up against monsters has a hard time believing in the Blair Witch. See ArbitrarySkepticism below. Holliday is more of a downplayed examples as she initially Unnaturalbelieves she can solve the Rustin Parr case with her own weapons and skills.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: The Stranger, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Nocturne}}'', who has battled and killed all manner of monsters such as werewolves, zombies, demons and vampires, has a hard time believing in ghosts, especially the Blair Witch, although it has more to do with lack of evidence.
* AdultFear: A feature in all three volumes.
** In ''Rustin Parr,'' it's a given seeing as it follows the investigation of the murders commited by Rustin Parr, whose victims were children. A plot point involves Kyle Brody, a survivor who escaped Parr and was rendered catatonic, to the grief of his mother, and [[spoiler: later turns out be possessed by the demon Hecaitomix who plans to abduct another child]].
** In ''Coffin Rock,'' the large bulk of the plot involves finding a lost little girl named Robin Weaver.
** [[spoiler: Hec-aitomix in general seems to be walking AdultFear, as he operates by abducting, torturing and killing children, even possessing some and imprisoning their souls.]]
* BackToFront: Each game takes place further back in time than the film, and further back than each one that came before.
* BadassNormal: Each protagonist is this, of course they require gaining magical artifacts and weapons to give them some help, so it may be a case of EmpoweredBadassNormal.
** Holliday is an agent for Spookhouse and one of its best human field agents next to the Stranger, some weapons of her own invention at her disposal.
** [=McNichol=] being a soldier in the Civil War, so this comes naturally to him.
** Pryce is a BadassPreacher and WitchHunter sent to investigate the town of Blair. He ends up traveling both to the sprit realm and the demonic realm in his quest.
* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Near the end of act one, the Stranger arrives in town to help Holliday, just as it seems that she's gonna be blamed for assaulting a preacher. He helps get the town of her back by convincing them they're with the FBI and helps her defeat Hecaitomix.]]
* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Holliday is this to the Stranger. Both are field agents for Spookhouse, and while Holliday is certainly an ActionGirl herself, she mostly does study and research in her investigation, and uses a professional cover story, as opposed to the Stranger's tendencies to go about fighting monsters head-on and often lets others know his business. Another thing is how Holliday has a more laid back and friendly personality when interacting with people, while the Stranger is described as having the social skills of Attila the Hun. Also noteworthy is how her investigation lasts for days, while the Stranger's cases seemingly take about a day or night to complete.
* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler: In ''Coffin Rock'' a blind hermit makes a deal to help Hecaitomix, in return he would be given sight. Hecaitomix ends up turning said hermit into a demon.]]
* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:It is revealed that the Blair Witch, Rustin Parr, and Kyle Brody were influenced by a malevolent Native American entity called "Hec-aitomix".]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu?: All three protagonists do this when going up against Hecaitomix.
** Holliday , with the help of the Stranger manage to lure Hecaitomix into a trap, rescue the bleeding child and preform a ritual that traps Hecaitomix within his own realm. In the Stranger's case, this is [[VideoGame/{{Nocturne}} another day on the job]].
** [=McNichol=] not only allows Hecaitomix to briefly possess him, but manages to overcome the sprit while fighting another demon in single combat.
** Prye not only faces Hecaitomix himself within the demon realm, but also his mortal vessel on Earth in single combat.
* FantasticRacism: Hecaitomix has this towards humans. Amusingly this may even extend into actual race issues, as he especially resents the white man for turning the First Nations away from worshiping him.
* ForegoneConclusion: Elspeth Holliday and the Stranger are able to trap [[spoiler:Hec-aitomix]] back to its realm, but only temporarily and leading to the events of the film five decades later.
* FriendToAllChildren: Holliday is pretty friendly towards the children she interacts with and even saves them over the course of her investigation. One in particular is a child who has been trapped in Hecaitomix's realm for ''centuries''.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: ''Blair Witch Volume One: Rustin Parr'' features the main characters from ''VideoGame/{{Nocturne}}''.
* MagicVersusScience: At first Holliday uses mundane weapons and some of her inventions to combat the supernatural happenings in Burkettsville. Of course later on she uses more mystical means to facing Hecaitomix and culminates in a magic ritual to banish him.
* MotiveDecay: [[spoiler: The entity "Hec-aitomix"]] got less and less threatening with subsequent installments, and its motivations were soon reduced to FantasticRacism... [[InvertedTrope in game order]].
* SatanicArchetype: Hecaitomix is the demonic source of the Blair Witch curse, seeks to conquer the world for the sake of his own power, motivated by his hatred for humans and primarily acts through influencing and corrupting those around him, and attempts a conquest of a spiritual realm, turning the spirits there into demons while, already ruling a demonic realm of his own. The local preacher in act one wasn't too far off when he says that Satan may overtake the town of Burkettsville.
* SharedUniverse: ''{{VideoGame/Nocturne}}'' share the same universe with ''The Blair Witch''. The first volume functions as a stand alone sequel to to the game.
* TookALevelInKindness: The Stranger from ''{{VideoGame/Nocturne}}'' remains a DeadpanSnarker with some BrutalHonesty as he was in said game, however he is shown to be much more sociable and less gruff. Notable having a civil conversation with Svetlana, a damphir he had issues with in the previous game.
* WickedWitch: [[spoiler:DoubleSubverted with Elizabeth Stryker in the third volume, who seems benevolent and helpful to Pryce but has in fact made a bargin with Hecaitomix to become his vessel.]]
* TheWitchHunter: Jonathan Prye in ''Volume 3: The Elly Kedward Tale''.
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It revolves around three college students, Heather, Mike, and Josh, who [[TwentyMinutesIntoThePast in 1994]] decide to make a documentary about the fabled "The Blair Witch", which is said to haunt the forest near the small town of Burkittsville, Maryland. After interviewing the locals about several creepy and macabre incidents in the area, the trio eventually decide to journey into the forest where the legend is supposed to have started. [[AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame Things ultimately take]] [[FromBadToWorse a turn for the worse]].

* MenAreBetterThanWomen: Josh is about the nicest character, Heather is much reviled in universe for getting everyone lost and the witch herself is female.

* UnnaturalLoopingLocation: When you walk by the compass and still end up at the same place...

* TheUnreveal: During the final sequence, [[spoiler:Heather]] is heavily implied to have seen the antagonist, but [[spoiler:drops her camera before she can get a shot of it]]. We never find out the meaning behind...well, much of anything, really.

* AgentScully: The Stranger of all people, despite his career of going up against monsters has a hard time believing in the Blair Witch. See ArbitrarySkepticism below. Holliday is more of a downplayed examples as she initially believes she can solve the Rustin Parr case with her own weapons and skills.

* ExpandedUniverse: [[http://www.comingsoon.net/horror/features/763177-complete-blair-witch-legend Tie-in short films, books, comics, even computer games...]] Also a soundtrack album. The album is billed as being a copy of the mixed tape the police found in the tape deck in Josh's car. Is mostly goth music. The fact that they were able to sell a soundtrack for a movie that has no music shows the marketing power of this flick.

* ExpandedUniverse: [[http://www.comingsoon.net/horror/features/763177-complete-blair-witch-legend Tie-in short films, books, comics, even computer games...]] Also a soundtrack album, even though there is no music in the film. The album is sold as "The mixed tape the police found in the tape deck in Josh's car." Is mostly goth music.

* ExpandedUniverse: [[http://www.comingsoon.net/horror/features/763177-complete-blair-witch-legend Tie-in short films, books, comics, even computer games...]] Also a soundtrack album, even though there is no music in the film. The album is sold as "The mixed tape they found in the tape player in Josh's car." Is mostly goth music.

* ExpandedUniverse: [[http://www.comingsoon.net/horror/features/763177-complete-blair-witch-legend Tie-in short films, books, comics, even computer games...]] Also a soundtrack album, even though there is no music in the film. The album is sold as "The mixed tape they found in the tape player in Josh's car. Is mostly goth music.