The Blair Witch Project is getting a special 25th anniversary re-release that will finally allow audiences to watch the cult classic the way directors Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick intended it to be viewed.
Producer Michael Monello confirmed that the film's upcoming home video release will be "scarier" thanks to a technological change being made this time around. He took to X to explain, “The Blair Witch Project was filmed on Hi8 video and 16mm b&w film and edited on a Media 100XR, a non-linear editing system in wide use then. Since theaters then did not have video projectors, we had to transfer our DigiBeta master to 35mm via a process called ‘telecine,’ basically filming the video on a special screen in a controlled environment with a 35mm film camera.”
Home video distributors Artisan "made a huge mistake," however, as they utilized the 35mm telecine transfer for the home video release rather than the original DigiBeta master, “This introduced serious motion errors. It gave the Hi8 footage film grain and muddied all the colors with a brown overcast, killing detail. The edits of that transfer became 3-frame dissolves, rather than hard cuts!”
For The Blair Witch Project's 25th anniversary, they teamed up with Second Sight to transfer the film from its original Hi8 tapes and 16mm film to correct those errors and effectively show the movie in its full glory. Its Region B edition will also include over 90 minutes of unseen deleted footage and a two-and-a-half-hour documentary. "The new master is scarier, sharper, and exactly how we dreamed it should be," Monello wrote. "I hope fans love this new transfer—its look, motion, and hard cuts create a far scarier psychological effect than all previous versions.”
Check out Monello's full announcement below.
25 years later, our little movie, 'The Blair Witch Project,' is FINALLY being released as we always intended. Here are details for the curious. pic.twitter.com/w6S4dm2KKI
— Mike Monello (@mikemonello) November 11, 2024
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