Daniel Myrick’s name causes less of a reflex action than his most famous project, The Blair Witch Project, a film he directed and edited along with Eduardo Sánchez. The Myrick name may soon resonate louder but for quite different reasons. Quietly he has become the first of the major directors to go web-only for film distribution. It’s a huge step and to date without fanfare.
Seven years ago Myrick and Sánchez invited their audience into a spooky Maryland wood. The reason you heard about Blair Witch, or went there with them, is either you bought in to the conceit that three young documentary makers had disappeared in Burkitsville, Maryland, and the movie was pieced together from the leftover footage from their shaky handheld camera, or because you heard a couple of young guys just made a blockbuster movie on an eight-day shoot. And for less than $100,000.
The Blair Witch Project grossed around $60 million in the first three weeks after release and over $150 million in all, a sum boosted by merchandising and computer spin-offs. It became the most profitable investment in movie history.
The New York Times called it “Where panic meets imagination” adding its makers had “a game plan so enterprising it should elevate [them] to pinup status at film schools everywhere.” The Irish Times headlined it as "The Shock of the True, and Sects, Lies and Internet Hype."
What happened next? After a puzzling hiatus - seven years is a long time without a hit but even longer without a movie - a Myrick film is due back on the big screen later this year.
“I have a bit of a rebellious nature,” Myrick begins, reflecting on a desire to make great movies but also to change how they are made. “I don't like it when people, artists, whomever are held to a status quo that may not necessarily be in their best interests.”
In Solstice a young girl uncovers a disturbing secret about her twin sister, who committed suicide, and who appears to be communicating with her from beyond the grave. It’s a return to familiar territory: the occult, the transcendental, and the horrifying.
So reconcile this. A rebellious director who won’t be shoehorned into the status quo, who happens to be famous for his work in horror, is now back making horror movies. But Solstice is not why Myrick agreed to correspond with me about his filmmaking philosophy and recent career.
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