Episode 196 – Lost and Never Found: On 'The Blair Witch Project'

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Of all the flavors of horror, few are as dreadful as that of being lost in the wilderness. In this episode, JF and Phil revisit The Blair Witch Project, the classic 1999 found-footage film that inspired a thousand imitators. What makes this film so gripping, they argue, is the way it lingers over the subtle stages of disorientation in a hostile place, from blithe denial to devastating gnosis. The Blair Witch Project isn't a ghost story so much as a work of cosmic horror. Ultimately, the woods themselves—vast, indifferent, inescapable—are the monster. Support Weird Studies on Patreon. Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 and 2, on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page. Visit the Weird Studies ⁠Bookshop⁠ Find us on ⁠Discord⁠ Get the T-shirt design from ⁠Cotton Bureau⁠. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia. References Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez (dirs.), The Blair Witch Project Gus Van Sant (dir.), Gerry Martin Heidegger, Being and Time Weird Studies, Episode 195 on John Keel Gilbert Simondon, Imagination and Invention Georgio De Chirico, Italian artist Arthur Machen, The White People Jack Zipes, literary scholar Weird Studies, Episode 150 on Arthur Machen's “A Fragment of Life” “Schizophonia” Stanislav Lem, Solaris Andrei Tarkovsky (dir.), Solaris Beyond Yacht Rock Podcast Shirley Clarke (dir.), The Connection Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 1: The Movement-Image Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:02.0	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.0	For more episodes, or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdst. This is Phil.
0:53.5	This week, J.F. and I are talking about the 1999
0:56.9	found footage horror film, The Blair Witch Project. This episode is time to drop on August 13th,
1:04.7	in what would otherwise be an off week in our usual fortnightly release schedule. This is because
1:10.5	it's the big kickoff day for the
1:12.3	Spectrevision Radio Network, which we joined earlier this year. Spectrevision's roster of podcasts
1:18.8	is impressive, boasting both new talent and grizzled veterans such as Mitch Horowitz, Greg and Dana
1:25.3	Newkirk, Jim Perry, and our own good selves.
1:29.5	But what's really impressive is Spectrevision's mission, which is closely aligned with our own,
1:35.6	to gather multiple voices from the domain of the weird and to hear the sympathetic resonances
1:41.0	that emerge among them. This is a project that J.F. and I believe in, which is why we're running promos for other Spectrevision shows.
1:50.0	Though, be assured, weird studies will always be ad-free.
1:54.0	We'll play the promos at the beginning before inviting you to enter the slipstream of our conversation.
2:00.0	And while this means you can skip them
2:02.1	pretty easily, I might suggest that you stay your hand, for who knows what inner adventures
2:08.7	might await you. The Blair Witch Project purports to be a film edited together from
2:14.7	footage discovered after the film students who shot it, Heather,
2:18.8	Josh and Mike, disappeared in the Maryland woods. Heather had intended to make a documentary
2:24.8	about the Blair Witch, a mysterious presence believed to haunt a stretch of Maryland Forest.
	...

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