The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project is back on the big screen at the Historic Duncan Auditorium on Thursday, October 22, from 7 PM to 9 PM. It's a retrospective screening of the 1999 horror classic, and for a movie that basically defined the found-footage style, seeing it in a theater is a different experience than catching it on a small screen.

There's a bit of local history to this one, too. The Tampa Theatre first screened the film back in 1999, and later hosted a talk with the two men who made it. That puts this screening in the same room where the movie first landed here in town, which is a nice touch for a retrospective.

If you're not familiar with how it came together, the story behind the movie is almost as famous as the film itself. It started in 1993 when Dan Myrick and his University of Central Florida classmate Eduardo Sánchez came up with the legend of the Blair Witch and a story about three film students who go missing in the woods while trying to capture the witch on camera. They wrote a short, 35-page screenplay that relied heavily on improvised dialogue, and the three actors shot most of the footage themselves with hand-held cameras. They received only daily 'clues' and no insight into their co-stars' motivations, which is a big part of why the performances feel so raw.

After years of planning and an eight-month edit, it became one of the most successful and profitable independent films in history, grossing nearly $250 million worldwide. The screening runs from 7 PM to 9 PM at the Historic Duncan Auditorium, part of the Tampa Theatre at 711 N Franklin St, Tampa, FL 33602.