Trivia / Blair Witch

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• Channel Hop: Lionsgate produces this installment; they acquired Artisan Entertainment, producer of the first two films, in 2004.
• Creator Backlash: For screenwriter Simon Barrett, if his appearances on RedLetterMedia are anything to go off of.
• The Danza: James Allen McCune plays James.
• Executive Meddling: Averted. Lionsgate were the ones that wanted it to be a direct sequel to the original, but other than that, allowed the production crew to handle things on their own and even went along with the plan to keep the film a secret until its official reveal with a good chunk of their employees not even being aware that Blair Witch was happening.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett took on the project due to being such huge fans of the original Blair Witch Project to the point where they didn't want any other film maker to "mess with it". While Ed Sánchez and Daniel Myrick, original creators of The Blair Witch Project, were originally trying to pitch their own Blair Witch 3 to Lionsgate, they saw Blair Witch and gave Wingard and Barrett their blessing, which Wingard and Barrett were grateful for. Wingard and Barrett had previously worked with Sánchez and the producer of The Blair Witch Project, Gregg Hale, on V/H/S/2.
  • Jason Constantine, a bigwig up at Lionsgate, got the ball rolling on getting Blair Witch started because he was a fan of the original, having seen it at its premiere.
• Viral Marketing: Beyond the bait-and-switch marketing as The Woods, the film took some cues from the original film to create in-universe media for the film. Lisa's documentary project has a Kickstarter page, as well as a Facebook group from family and friends searching for her whereabouts. A Wordpress blog implicitly maintained by Lane also exists, as does a YouTube upload of the very clip that triggers the film's story.
• Word of God:
  • Screenwriter Simon Barrett tweeted that the end credits are misleading, because the Blair Witch legend existed before Elly Kedward. This implies the creature we see is Elly, but not actually the Blair Witch. This actually fits in with an old PC game series, where it was revealed that Elly was enthralled by an ancient and evil entity that the Native Americans called Hecaitomix. This also matches with some of the retcons carried out by the new movie's creative team, namely rewriting Elly Kedward's death. Originally she was said to be tied to a cart and left in the woods, but the new movie claims she was instead tied to the trees in a manner that stretched her like a rack. It adds up that she is the elongated creature, but the "witch" is actually the older entity mentioned even in the original movie as being feared by Native Americans long before European settlers came along.
  • Some viewers mistakenly believe that the thing Ashley pulls from her leg is some kind of millipede-like bug or worm. The DVD Commentary reveals it's actually a tree root.

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