The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers who hike into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland in 1994 to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch. The three disappear, but their equipment and footage are discovered a year later. The purportedly recovered footage is the film the viewer sees. The film is heavily credited with reviving the found-footage technique which was later used by similarly successful horror films such as Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield.
Principal photography began on October 23, 1997 in Maryland and lasted eight days, overseen by cinematographer Neal Fredericks. Most of the film was shot in Seneca Creek State Park in Montgomery County, Maryland. A few scenes were filmed in the historic town of Burkittsville. Some of the townspeople interviewed in the film were not actors, and some were planted actors, unknown to the main cast.
BURKITTSVILLE UNION CEMETERY
DATE(S) VISITED: JULY 6, 2019
LOCATION: BURKITTSVILLE, MD
Immediately following it's release, the town of Burkittsville, which the cemetery scene was filmed at, became overrun with fans of the film. They even stole the town sign a reported three times, which probably explains why the current sign differs from the one in the film. Allegedly many locals were not best pleased with the attention their town received – even booing the filmmakers out of town when they returned to discuss filming a sequel. Thankfully when we visited it was nice and quiet and we did not encounter any unfriendly locals.
SENECA STATE PARK
DATE(S) VISITED: JULY 6, 2019
LOCATION: GAITHERSBURG, MD
The woodland shots were all filmed in Seneca State Park. Due to time constraints we could not go and hike around to find the various locations within the woods, but that is an excuse to return and do these at a later date.
We plan to grab some more locations in the near future that we are missing from The Blair Witch Project. For even more photo's that we took of the locations featured above, check them out via our Facebook page.