Apologies for my hiatus. I've been battling Medicare-related bureaucracy for a couple of months and it's worn me out. No matter how bad the aches & pains get, I maintain, the worst thing about aging is the paperwork.
Spoilers abound for The Blair Witch Project and the Portal video game. You've been warned!
It’s the 25th anniversary of The Blair Witch Project and the fandom is abuzz with news of extended versions and releases. These discussions led me to look back over a couple of hard copy tie-ins to the original movie in my collection of geekly goodies. They’re quite marvelous and well worth searching for. I’ve pasted below some sample pages from both The Blair Witch Project: a Dossier ($12.95 Onyx) and Oni Press’ The Blair Witch Project comic book ($2.95). These were published in August and September 1999, shortly after the film’s theatrical release.
I’d not read either of these books since I first bought them in 1999. I remembered them as being well done and intriguing and my memories were correct. You’ll note from some of the photos below that all writers and artists involved maintain the conceit of the filmmakers’ disappearance being an actual event. In addition, both books mention other documentaries and publications related to the “case” that don’t actually exist. (At least, not in this dimension.) The whole wonderful game reminds me a great deal of Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves published a year later, a read which I suspect Blair Witch fans would also enjoy. (I had to use three different book marks to wend my way through Danielewski’s print labyrinth, but it was well worth it.) There are also some stylistic similarities to the gradual reveal of Doug Rattmann's story in the Portal video game and tie-in Lab Rat comic. References, cross-references and outright blarney similarly abound in the Blair Witch universe and we wind up as disoriented as the filmmaking trio out in the woods. (In a good way.) Enjoy. And, beware...
The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier
The Blair Witch Project Comic
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