Eduardo Sánchez Brought The Blair Witch Project Home to Frederick County

BY: DAVEY

Last night I went to a screening of The Blair Witch Project at Warehouse Cinemas in Frederick, followed by a Q&A with co-director Eduardo Sánchez. Leading the conversation was Michael Robinson, the mayor of Burkittsville, the real town where the movie is set.

I’ve been a Blair Witch superfan for as long as I can remember. I even live within walking distance of the old Griggs House site in Patapsco Valley State Park, the house that played the Rustin Parr house in the film’s final scene, so this movie has always felt a little personal.

Eduardo answered questions for about 45 minutes, and he was warm and friendly the entire time. The crowd was so excited to be there, and you could feel how much this movie still means to people who grew up with it.

After the Q&A, the lobby had a recreation of the “Welcome to Burkittsville” sign in the style seen in the movie. The sign in town looks a little different these days, since fans used to steal the original right off the street.

While I was in the area, I stopped by the Burkittsville cemetery, which appears in the film. When I got there, I saw trucks and crew members setting up to film the next Blair Witch movie, which is currently untitled. It was a lot of activity for such a tiny, sleepy town, and seeing it in person was super exciting.

The new film comes from Lionsgate, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, with Dylan Clark directing. Eduardo Sánchez, Daniel Myrick, Gregg Hale, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams from the original are all executive producers. It’s set to hit theaters September 24, 2027.

It’s still amazing that the original was shot in eight days on a budget of around $60,000 and went on to gross almost $250 million worldwide. It brought found footage horror into the mainstream, and its early website had a lot of people convinced the footage was real. Twenty-seven years later, it still works, and it’s clear the Blair Witch isn’t done with Burkittsville yet.