POLL! BLAIR WITCH Fake or Real??

[DerickA]

You know what, it might be an age thing.  I was in high school when it came out and I knew a bunch of people that were very much all like "is it real or not!?!?"  

I only knew it was fake because I had a subscription to Rolling Stone at the time.

I think this is proof that only cool people knew it was fake.

I mean...people are stupid. They walk into Blockbusters around the nation and pick up TRANSMORPHERS and think it's the Micheal Bay directed TRANSFORMERS. People do this. Lots of them. Like a whole lot. I think it's fair to say that there was a good chunk of people that didn't know it was fake.

[Cuppy]

Wasn't the movie actually about a serial killer who blamed a witch for his actions.

Summer of Sam had the same with a dog. *shrug*

[Tim]

I knew several people who not only went in thinking it was real, but also came out thinking it was real.  You might say I hang out with stupid people, but I honestly believe they're a pretty good cross section of America.

And as far as it being about a witch, do you realize how many religious folks get upset about things like Harry Potter because it involves 'witchcraft'?  Obviously those people believe witches are real and dangerous.  

On July 11, 1999, when Ebert first wrote about Blair Witch from Sundance, he said, "As I was walking out of the Sundance screening at midnight, people assured me it was a "real" documentary. When I disagreed, they said they'd "heard" it was, or remembered reading in a paper about the disappearance of the three documentarians. Thus do urban legends bloom; everybody knows a "friend" who is the source of the story."

Seriously, people are really stupid.  You'd think after seeing the film they'd know, but they don't.  

You know that urban legend about a woman in an atlantic city casino elevator with a big bucket of chips and two black men get on the elevator with a dog, and one says "sit", and the woman, apparently a racist lunatic dives on the floor.  And the next day she receives flowers in her room with a card signed, "thanks for the best laugh we've had in years", signed Eddie Murphy and Michael Jordan!

A guy I used to work with(this is a middle aged man, college graduate, aeronautics engineer), he swore up and down that this story is true and it happened to his nephew, but the man in the elevator was actually Lionel Ritchie.  People are so stupid.  The funniest thing is when he tells the story, he apparently has no idea how racist and bigoted it makes him look by relating the story as if his nephew's reaction to a black man on an elevator was somehow reasonable.  Also, Lionel Ritchie?  Really?  He was scared and intimidated by Lionel Ritchie?

Anyway, so yeah, Lionel Ritchie is the Blair Witch.  People are so stupid.

[Dalton]

I knew several people who not only went in thinking it was real, but also came out thinking it was real.  You might say I hang out with stupid people, but I honestly believe they're a pretty good cross section of America.

Really?  This shocks me.  I guess it shouldn't.  I remember seeing JFK with an audience of people in Boston.  There was a audible gasp when Claw Shaw was acquitted by the jury.  Here is a guy who was railroaded by Jim Garrison, had his reputation forever damaged because of Garrison's mental illness, and people in the audience were upset that he wasn't thrown in prison.  That scared me a little.

[Chris G]

While I knew that it was all fake going in, I was willing to suspend my disbelief for the film and treat it as if it were real.

Chris

[Luke Erik]

Before I ever saw a trailer for the movie, there was a "the blair witch project documentary" on cable (A&E / travel channel / discovery or something of that ilk).  The show interviewed "locals" and was pretty much a half-hour advertisement for the movie.  I fell right for it, but then looked for the website.  When I found the site, it was pretty obvious that it was all a hoax.  Still, like Chris, I tried to enjoy the movie as if it were real.

[DerickA]

Here is a guy who was railroaded by Jim Garrison, had his reputation forever damaged because of Garrison's mental illness, and people in the audience were upset that he wasn't thrown in prison.  That scared me a little.

Wow. I should read a book, huh?

[sean]

Here is a guy who was railroaded by Jim Garrison, had his reputation forever damaged because of Garrison's mental illness, and people in the audience were upset that he wasn't thrown in prison.  That scared me a little.

The amazing thing to me is not so much that they bought into the idea that Garrison had proven it (at least as far as the movie goes), but that they thought that somebody had been convicted in the murder of JFK.