The Mythmakers Behind the ‘Blair’ Buzz

Patti Hartigan 

c.1999 The Boston Globe 

   It used to be that only films with the word ``Star'' in the title generated their own off-screen mythology. That all changed with the Internet, and now obsessive enthusiasts are creating Web sites to memorialize their favorite films and television shows. But fans of “The Blair Witch Project'' have taken the phenomenon a step further. They will tell you outright that they consider themselves partly responsible for the online promotion. Who are they? Why are they doing this? 
   Jeff Johnson wants the world to know that he created the first online fan site last December, when most folks were still focused on the holiday blockbusters. Johnson, a Cape Cod native who sells aquatics merchandise in Northern California, became fascinated with the film after he saw footage on the Independent Film Channel last summer. “It sucks you right in,'' says the amateur film director, whose site is at www.delphi.com/blairwitch. Many of the other fans consider Johnson, 33, the “grandpappy'' of the “Blair Witch'' bunch; he cheerfully says the fans are “one big, happy demented family. I see them as people who want to be involved, like the proverbial little brother who wants to be taken seriously.'' 
   Eric Alan Ivins and Abigail Marceluk met in February on the “Blair Witch'' bulletin board. He's a computer technician, and she's a film student at Temple University. They started the second fan site, and after they met in person at the Florida Film Festival in June, they decided to get married. Ivins says their site (at http://tbwp.freeservers.com/main.html) gives them “an online presence, like a synergy.'' The creepy film hardly inspires thoughts of cuddling up at the campfire, but you never can tell. “I met the woman I'm going to spend the rest of my life with because of this independent film,'' Ivins says. And who said Internet addicts don't have a life? 
   Cecilia Gin's site, called “The Blair Warner Project'' speaks for itself. The 27-year old San Francisco consultant made a connection between “Blair Witch'' and the well-heeled character in the television show, “Facts of Life.''
   “You just do it to be silly,'' Gin says. The site is at www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Lounge/3027/Blair.html. 
   James Higgins, a computer trainer in New York, had recently put up a site counting down to his wedding when he heard about “The Blair Witch Project.'' He thought it would be fun to put up a countdown to the movie.
   ‘I got a creative charge out of the whole mythology, and I found myself wanting to make a little contribution myself,'' Higgins says. His site counted down to the July 30 wide release opening in days, hours, minutes and seconds. Alas, it's now obsolete, although the fans are already talking about doing “promotion'' for the next film by “Blair Witch'' directors Dan Myrick and Ed Sanchez, a comedy called “Heart of Love.'' On the Internet, the countdown never ceases.