Behind-The-Scenes Secrets From 'The Blair Witch Project' That Are More Than Just An Urban Legend

The Blair Witch Project was a movie well ahead of its time, later paving the way for successful franchises like Paranormal Activity. It is often overlooked, and always underrated, but it should go down in history as one of the greatest horror films ever made.

The movie follows loosely along the legends of an actual "town witch," and looking at how the movie was shot, it actually makes you believe that everything you are seeing is 100% authentic.

If you haven't seen the movie, we would suggest taking the opportunity to watch it in the near future. If you have seen it, here are 10 things we bet you didn't know about the movie and its production.

1. The movie had a minuscule budget.

When the movie was first put into production it was only granted a maximum budget of $25,000. When you look at the quality of fear that the film inspires, they spent each and every one of those dollars perfectly.

2. The script was just as small as the initial budget.

When the movie first got into production, the script was only 35 pages long, and it included absolutely no dialogue. This gave the actors a chance to make it up as they went along, allowing their words to fit the scenes perfectly.

3. The directors of the film got creative when they wanted to increase the tension among the cast.

As the cast wanders through the forest, acting like they are hungry, tired and dirty, you can feel the tension crackling between them. It turns out that the tension was 100% real. The directors started cutting the amount of food the cast was allowed to have daily. By the last day of filming, they were only eating a power bar, some fruit, and water.

4. The iconic shot of Heather's face was not planned at all.

The shot of Heather's face where she has the camera zoomed into the max was a complete accident. While she was filming the scene, she didn't realize that she had it zoomed in. It looked so good that the directors decided to keep it in the movie.

5. The movie has caused the town of Burkittsville a little bit of stress.

The movie became so wildly popular in its cult like following that the sign for the town of Burkittsville has been stolen on multiple occasions. People will go to any lengths to get a little piece of movie memorabilia.

7. The movie did produce some authentic memorabilia.

When filming was completely finished, the camera that Josh was seen using throughout the film was put up for sale on eBay. Someone went ahead and paid $10,000 for the privileged of owning that late 90s camcorder.

8. Josh was actually happy when his character disappeared.

A lot of actors new to the game aren't supposed to be happy when their character is killed off from the movie. Though Josh was never officially killed off, when his character disappeared he was happy, because he wanted to be able to make it to a Jane's Addiction concert.  

9. The cast really did believe in the legend of the town witch.

When the cast first showed up in town to get ready for filming, they met up with some of the locals to get their take on the legend of the Burkittsville witch. One of the locals told such a convincing (yet fictional) tale, that they all started to believe.

10. It didn't take very long to shoot, but the editing process was intense.

The average movie can take months to fully film, but not The Blair Witch Project. It only took a total of 8 days to film, but the editing process to get to the final product took a full 8 months.

Would you be brave enough to go looking for The Blair Witch?