Film finds witch niche

It's hucksterism with a high-tech twist - a movie blockbuster outof thin air with good old fashioned hoax thrown in for good measure.

Repeat after me if you don't already know it: "The Blair WitchProject" is not real. It is a movie. Don't believe the Web site.Don't believe the buddy of yours whose friend's cousin remembersreading about three documentary filmmakers who disappeared in thewoods.

It is fake.

It also happens to be one great movie and the hottest ticket ofthe summer. More than that, though, it has become a phenomenon.

"We've never seen anything quite like this," said Loews Piper'sAlley manager Sam Dobschuetz, where a total of more than 60,000people packed three screens over 16 daily showings for the last twoweeks. Evening shows typically were sold out by early afternoon,Dobschuetz said.

Of course, Piper's Alley happened to be the only place in theChicago area where the movie was showing for the last two weeks,which partly explains the full theaters and long lines for tickets.It was part of a marketing scheme designed to create "buzz" about thefilm. It worked.

"Blair Witch" earned $2 million in its first weekend, showing on31 screens nationally. That is the same amount of money earned onthe same weekend by "Muppets in Space," showing at more than 2,200locations.

What is so special about this movie?

"It's the scariest movie I've ever seen in my whole life," saidJennifer Williams, 26, of Chicago, moments after she walked out of anafternoon showing. "The reality of it is unbelievable."

It is scary, to be sure. But it uses none of the tried and truetechniques of the scary movie - no eerie music, monsters jumping outof closets or machete-size butcher knives slicing through the showercurtain.

Also left on the shelf are all the typical methods of promoting ablockbuster movie - no screaming ads or national roll-outs inthousands of multiplexes across the country.

It's a movie that's been hot ever since a midnight screening atthe Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, after which independentfilmmakers Dan Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez sold their movie for $1million. The movie cost them about $20,000 to make.

Its believability is at the core of its success. The plot issummed up in a frame that appears at the opening of the film - anopening that includes no credits or titles.

"In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in thewoods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary. . .. A year later their footage was found."

The entire movie was filmed by the three actors, just as if theywere the three documentary filmmakers the movie is about. The wholefilm is shot with a family-style video camera the "students" broughtalong for fun, as well as the 16-millimeter camera the were using forthe "documentary."

The actors themselves were sent out in the woods with only a basicidea of the script and instructions to film everything as if theywere the characters they were playing. They were told to hike tospecific locations, where food, film and batteries would be waitingfor them, along with notes from the directors.

The result is a film that is chilling in its realism, as the fearand tension of the audience builds along with the characters, eventhough the audience has known from the first moment of the film thatthe students disappear.

But there's more than the movie at work here. A Web site -blairwitch.com - has enhanced the tale. It includes a timeline ofevents beginning with the witch's rumored origin and ending withalleged details of the search for the missing film students. It evenincludes excerpts from one of the character's journals.

Also, a promotion on cable television's Sci-Fi channel includesinterviews with the family and friends of the film's characters.There's even a novel purportedly written by a private detective whosearched for the students.

All of it has a "War of the Worlds" feel to it, hearkening back toOrson Welles' legendary broadcast of a fictional invasion from Mars.

"The advertising is like a companion piece to the film," saidAmorette Jones, marketing director at Artisan Entertainment. "Wenever lied to anyone, but we tried to make it scarier by creating anelement of truth in the story."

Some believers have organized search parties to look for thefictional documentary crew.

"You hate to waste their time," filmmaker Myrick said. "But atthe same time you are really excited."

He recalled a letter from one fan regarding a scene in the moviethat retells the story of an 1886 search party that was foundhorribly murdered in the woods at "Coffin Rock," apparently by theforest-dwelling witch.

"The letter started out: `It's all a lie. It's a big hoax,' "said Myrick. "And I thought, well, this guy figured it out. Then hewent on to say, `You had it wrong. Here's the real way they werefound.' "

Contributing: Sun-Times wires