In an interview with Dexerto about his terrifying new horror movie The Boogeyman, found footage legend Rob Savage revealed why he’d be “too scared” to take on The Blair Witch.
Although the found footage technique has been around in cinema for decades, the subgenre was revolutionized for horror with the release of 1999 hit The Blair Witch Project. As well as putting the crude mockumentary style to good use, the film hit all the right horror notes, masterfully showing that when it comes to developing an antagonist, less is more.
Rob Savage hit a refresh button on the style with the release of his pandemic flick Host, about a virtual séance gone horribly wrong. This was followed by Dashcam, another computer screen horror about a deluded MAGA supporter who gets caught up in a demonic nightmare after giving a woman a ride in her car.
So when news broke that Host co-writer Jed Shepherd was in talks with The Blair Witch co-director Eduardo Sanchez about making a TV series that would serve as a direct sequel to the OG, we wondered if Savage might be involved – it certainly would be a match made in heaven, but don’t get your hopes up just yet…
The Boogeyman director “too scared” to take on The Blair Witch
Ahead of the release of his eagerly anticipated horror flick The Boogeyman, Dexerto caught up with Rob Savage to ask about his thoughts on the potential resurrection of The Blair Witch and whether or not he’s involved.
The filmmaker explained: “I heard somebody was developing a Blair Witch TV series, but I don’t know what the latest is. I’m not sure if anyone from Host is involved or if that was just an early conversation.”
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But even if it does go ahead, Savage isn’t sure if he’d want to join the project. “I think I’d be too scared to do a Blair Witch Project, that movie scared me so badly as a kid. I think those are big shoes to fill.”
Humble words, especially considering Host and Dashcam are such effectively terrifying flicks, ones that show there’s still life (or should we say, death) in the found footage arena. In fact, the former was even voted the “scariest movie of all time,” according to science. In other words, he’d be the perfect candidate to collaborate on a Blair Witch TV show.
Nonetheless, Savage is busy with the release of The Boogeyman, an adaptation of the Stephen King short story of the same name that centers on a grieving family who are targeted by the eponymous creature.
As we said in the Dexerto review, the filmmaker “has taken a Stephen King story and extended it to create an effectively creepy horror movie, one that has plenty of jump scares and a heartfelt family story weaved into the narrative.”
The Boogeyman creeps into cinemas on June 2, 2023. You can check out our other horror coverage here, and read more about The Blair Witch TV project here.