#WAS THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT REAL MOVIE#

“’Bulldozer’ meant there’s trouble and the filming had to stop,” said Sanchez. The actors and the crew had a safe word, ‘bulldozer,’ that when said, would temporarily halt filming. would take them on a week-long journey all up and down this park,” said Ledbetter. “Their odyssey following the (GPS) waypoints. They would use GPS coordinates to pinpoint specific locations that the actors needed to go to. The crew used GPS - which at that time was only used by certain hunters and the military - to guide the actors through the woods. “We would constantly play them against each other.” 'The legend could live there'īurkittsville was chosen as the town where the legend of the witch originated simply because with its rolling hills and churches, it was “an idyllic, small town,” said Sanchez. He said since the film, he has been back to Maryland about four times. Leonard, 42, who lives in Los Angeles, spent several summers in Maryland as a kid, sailing the Chesapeake Bay.

“I have overwhelming positive memories of my experience filming” in Maryland, Leonard said. One of the other main actors, Joshua Leonard, recalled how wonderful it was waking up each day in Seneca Creek. “We were young so they didn’t necessarily have to be kind,” he said.Īs an avid fisherman, Williams said he is dying to return to Seneca Creek to fish for trout. He also appreciated how so many Marylanders were kind and considerate to the actors. Williams, 44, who lives in Hawthorne, New York, and is now a school guidance counselor, has only been back to Maryland sporadically since the film, but he remembered the “slow pace” lifestyle in the smaller, rural towns he visited. Williams remembered that although they were supposed to be isolated in the woods, “some mornings we would wake up and there would be a jogger running by or a family.” “I was pleasantly surprised by the inside scoop we learned on the hike,” Debbie Kaplan, 54, of Germantown, Maryland, wrote in an email.“The hike was well-led, well-attended, and a great way to spend a dreary Sunday afternoon.”Īctor Michael C.

#WAS THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT REAL MOVIE#

“When I first saw the movie (10 years ago) it was pretty scary,” he said. One of the hikers, Kelsey Stanford, 27, from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, said that after seeing the filming locations, he wanted to watch the movie again. The hike included a visit to the famous “Coffin Rock.” In the film, the filmmakers travel to the massive rock formation after hearing stories of fur trappers who were supposedly mutilated there. 8 at Seneca Creek, leading fans to some of the film’s iconic locations and explaining their significance. Park Ranger Erik Ledbetter led a Blair Witch Heritage Hike Oct. Seneca Creek has grown to embrace the film’s popularity. It had everything we were looking for,” said Sanchez. Sanchez and De Cassan also used to hike and picnic in the park. Sanchez’s girlfriend at the time (now his wife), Stefanie De Cassan, lived a few miles from Seneca Creek State Park, so it was a “totally pragmatic decision” to shoot the majority of the film there, he said. “There’s this dark, natural world that’s out there,” Sanchez said. His family also went camping in the Shenandoah National Park, and he said that helped inspire the decision to have the student filmmakers camp in the woods.Ī lot of the scary moments the students in the film experience in the woods - like noises outsides of tents and the idea that “something is hanging around” - came from Sanchez being scared as a kid, he said. He said the creek was “this forbidden thing” because his mother didn’t want him to get wet or dirty playing in it.

Was the blair witch project real