‘Blair Witch’ Debuts Surprise Trailer at Comic-Con, Revealed as Direct Sequel to 1999 Horror Blockbuster ‘Blair Witch Project; Callie Hernandez Talks Filming Most Disturbing Sequence

‘Blair Witch’ debuted a surprise trailer at the 2016 Comic-Con and was revealed to be Adam Wingard’s new installment in the horror series previously titled ‘The Woods’. Actress Callie Hernandez recalled filming one of the sequel’s most disturbing sequences that involved a dark tunnel.

According to The Verge, Adam Wingard’s found-footage horror project ‘The Woods’ has been rebranded as the direct sequel to the blockbuster horror film ‘Blair Witch Project’ released in 1999. The film had its big reveal during the recent San Diego Comic-Con where it debuted its official trailer.

The new film picks up after the events of ‘Blair Witch Project’. It follows a group of friends venturing back to the woods where Heather Donahue, the original film’s lead character, went missing. They are then haunted by a malevolent presence.

It was intended as a sequel and created to reboot the horror franchise that followed the story of three student filmmakers who disappeared while hiking the Black Hills near Maryland in 1994 in order to film a documentary about the urban legend Blair Witch.

The original film received acclaim from critics upon release. It also became one of the most successful independent films of all time after grossing $248.3 million worldwide on a production budget of $600,000, according to The Numbers. It ushered in a new era of found-footage horror films.

A sequel, entitled ‘Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2’, was released in 2000. It was largely panned by critics and fans of the original film and earned $47.72 million against a production budget of $15 million. A third film was planned but never materialized.

Although ‘Blair Witch’ is the third installment in the series, it totally skips over the events of ‘Blair Witch 2’. Writer Simon Barrett said, “We’ve changed the mythology in a lot of ways just to kind of introduce new features and new ideas.”

Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, the original film’s writers and directors, revealed that they were involved in Wingard’s new film as executive producers together with Gregg Hale. Myrick said, “The thing that we liked about this project when Lionsgate approached us, especially with Adam and Simon working on it, is that they really stuck to the original mythology.” He added, “They came at it with a very authentic approach to the film which we felt was with love for the first movie so it was all done for the right reasons.”

The new cast consists of Corbin Reid, Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry, Brandon Scott, James Allen McCune, and Callie Hernandez. Hernandez plays Lisa, a documentary student helping her boyfriend explore the Black Hills forest where his sister Heather disappeared.

According to /Film, the actress recalled filming one of the most disturbing scenes in the film. In the trailer, Hernandez was seen crawling in a tight tunnel in the dark. She said, “That tunnel scene, it was funny because right when I signed onto that project, that was the scene when you were reading it, it’s like whoa, okay… They built that whole thing. The designer built it from scratch. It was incredible watching it being built throughout filming. From day one, they were asking very sensitively, ‘Do you want to do it? Are you claustrophobic?’ And I was very gung ho about it. I said, ‘Yes, absolutely, I want to do it. I don’t want anybody else to do it.’”

She revealed that the tunnel was only an inch wider than her shoulders and they had to use a body double for one part in the scene. She added, “It was funny because the camera guy was actually claustrophobic. Adam was really great and we would communicate with walkie talkies while I was in there. It was just me and the camera guy and he was sort of letting me take my own cue.”

‘Blair Witch’ is an upcoming horror film scheduled to be released on September 16, 2016.