THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT: Lionsgate May Reboot 1999’s Found Footage Horror Film

1999 Box-Office Hit Film The Blair Witch Project Could Get Reboot

According to reports, one of the projects Lionsgate is considering making is a reboot of the 1999 horror sensation, The Blair Witch Project.

It was one of the most exciting and frightening movies ever made. 1999’s The Blair Witch Project made big box-office dollars the summer in which it came out. I remember The Village Voice advertising the film in such a way that it was thought by readers to possibly be one of the most terrifying cinematic experiences of all time. Now, after that movie made a fortune and its failed sequel and spin-off tanked, Lionsgate is considering bring the franchise back to life.

Here’s the thing. Despite making $140 million domestically in a summer that included The Sixth Sense, not many people were fond of The Blair Witch Project. It earned a mere “C+” CinemaScore grade from audiences and I remember quite a few disappointed customers coming out of the NYC Angelika movie theater opening weekend. However, it sold out those weekend shows at the Angelika and was a box-office mega-hit regardless of customer satisfaction.

Whether or not audiences would embrace the reboot is not the only scary thing to consider when conversations come up about bringing this series back to life, though. Let’s talk box-office. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 was rushed into production and came out a year later to a frightening total take of $26 million and, to make matters worse, a reboot from 2016 called Blair Witch bombed with a bullet earning just $20 million domestically.

It gets even more horrifying when one considers the CinemaScores for Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 and Blair Witch. A “D-” and a “D+.” It wouldn’t sound like going forward with a reboot would be worth it. Unless one takes into consideration the amazing performance by Heather Donahue in the original 1999 picture about three film students making a documentary in the woods. Donahue “won” Worst Actress at the 2000 Razzies Awards, but I think they were just jealous of how good she was because if her performance didn’t work, people wouldn’t have stayed through the whole picture. I could even go as far to suggest bringing her character back in the reboot (it would have to be another actress since Donahue retired) to make the picture get followers of the old 1999 film back into the theater! This was the draw for teenagers and college aged moviegoers in the summer of 1999 and those people may want to come back for more if it has a good hook!

Whatever Lionsgate decides to do with the reboot of The Blair Witch Project, it probably wouldn’t be wise to drop the picture from its proposed slate. There are so many great ideas. Heather Donahue’s character may have died at the end of the original, but her unique character could appear in the reboot or something like that which would draw interest to viewers of the first film. Fans of the 1999 film can’t wait to see what Lionsgate is going to do with this very delicate “project!”

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