The Blair Witch Project finally breaks the curse of its terrible transfer
Among the most influential and imitated movies of the last 25 years, The Blair Witch Project has never looked right on home video or DVD. That’s not us saying it. We love the grainy whip pans and gushes of snot that The Blair Witch uses to burrow into your terror centers. However, thanks to some clarification by co-producer Mike Monello and a re-release from Second Sight, we can finally face the Witch in all her horrible, stand-in-a-corner glory.
Posting on his various social media channels today, Monello explained that the film was never transferred to DVD correctly. Shot on Hi8 video and 16mm black and white film and edited on a Media 100XR, the film wasn’t fit for theaters. In the Stone Age of 1999, movie theaters did not have video projectors, so Blair Witch was transferred to 35mm film through a process called “telecine,” in which a 35mm camera records the video on a special screen in a controlled environment. When the film’s distributor, Artisan, transferred the movie for DVD and video for home release, they “made a huge mistake” and performed the telecine process again, recording the 35mm film back on video.
“This introduced serious motion errors; it gave the Hi8 footage film grain and muddied all the colors with a brown overcast, killing detail,” Monello wrote. “The edits of that transfer became 3-frame dissolves rather than hard cuts. Everything about it is wrong, but at the time we were not in a position to demand it be redone.”
Thankfully, for those living outside the U.S. or the proud owners of a region-free DVD player, the film has been re-transferred from the original tapes and film. The Blu-ray comes courtesy of the UK’s Second Sight imprint. It will only be available in Europe, though Monello suggests requesting an American release from Lionsgate on their social channels.
“We put in a lot of work to make this happen, but none of us earn any money from sales of Blair Witch anything,” he writes. “That’s just the reality for first-time filmmakers with no leverage cutting a deal with a studio, but that’s another story for another time.”
“Honestly, I’m just thrilled the proper version is now available, and people can see our original intent for home viewing.”
As exciting as it is to finally see the true Blair Witch in all her rock-stacking and map-tossing glory, we’d also like the people who made the film to start getting paid. Conservative estimates put Blair Witch’s budget under $500,000, including Artisan’s botch job on the home video release. After Artisan bought the movie for $1 million, it grossed $249 million, not including sequels, merchandise, and home video sales. Surely, there’s a slice of the pie for the people who made the damn thing.
The new transfer is out now on Second Sight’s website. But, in an ironic twist befitting the Witch of Burkittsville, it’s currently sold out. We’d like to apologize to Mike’s mom, Josh’s mom, and our moms for that one.