The “Blair Witch Project” (1999 film) as Inspiration for Revisiting a Painting I Did on Halloween in 2017

 

It is Halloween week and all late night movies compete to be the most horrific and phantasmagoric.  So, it is not my favorite week to watch movies, and I quickly search for tennis channels.

However, there is one horror movie that I liked when it was launched in 1999. It is a movie made in Maryland, “The Blair Witch Project”, where a low budget approach convinced viewers that it was a genuine because of the “found footage” documentary. No special effects were used and by amateur cinematographers and kept the viewers at the edge of their seats, even knowing that there was no real witch hunt in the Maryland woods. The groundbreaking film making style relies on capturing the screams, fear and vocalizations of the actors.

As for a photographer who uses B&W film and vintage mechanical cameras, the final scene was the most impressive, when the main character, Blaire Donahue, runs in the woods at night. The cameraman ran behind her with an amateur movie camera, making the entire scene shaky and filled with Donahue’s screams. Although the film was in colour, the darkness of the night and low contrast pellicule made it feel like it was a B&W movie.

 

A couple of nights ago that 1999 movie was on TV, and I decided to watch it again. The joy of seeing how much effect was achieved without AI, special effects and fancy cameras remained impressive.

Then, I recalled that many years ago I had painted a similar theme (woman running in a forest at night) and wondered if I had still kept the wild hare skin upon which I had painted that scene.

And I had. Here is the original painting:

So, just like watching a movie again after 25 years and having new thoughts about the last scene, I wondered if I would “retouch” my 8 year old painting to reflect my present state of mind.

… Here is the wild hare pelt, still perfectly preserved. Like all my painting on animal skin, I leave the fur on and paint on the hide proper.

I looked at the painting for a short while, and thought about the subject of the movie: it was to find the Blair Witch in the Maryland woods. And, it occurred to me that my old painting should also a “Spirit of the Woods” that the woman was searching and perhaps running to.

And since the movie was looking for Blair the Witch, a woman, here is how I started personifying the Spirit of the Woods.

 

Then, I wondered how my painting would look in B&W – a thing I had never done before by changing the camera filter on my phone.

Perfect! Now it had become a Halloween moment.

 

A crop of the running woman I painted in 2017 and the Spirit of the Woods tells a story much better in B&W

than in its original colour

 

The finished work is at the top of this post. I added a spider-like peacock feather en guise of earring (very appropriate for a witch) and to add colour to the painting. I framed the work with a starry background on a dark sky.

The before final version, without the peacock feather (no need for colour in the B&W) is below:

 

On Halloween week, I like the B&W version better.

And, I wonder if through my imagination, I have found the Blair Witch the documentary movie was searching for in the Maryland woods ....

 

PS/ My 2017 post about the woman running in the night forest can be seen here:

https://vaheark.blogspot.com/2017/10/night-forest-on-halloween.html

 

October 22, 2025

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2025