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I love Michael Bay's films as much the next guy. My summer filmgoing experiences were defined by explosions, jump-punches, dick jokes and Jeff Bridges' racist dad jokes. Blockbusters, Seth Rogen and nine-figure budget blockbusters are excellent, and should be celebrated.
But they're already celebrated by every other film critic in America.
Here at Willamette Week, we have the opportunity to cover Portland's unique film scene. This is a city rich with repertory, small film festivals, horror nerds and local filmmakers working on minuscule budgets. And so that's what I'm going to do.
Welcome to Screener, our new-look film section. I'm Walker, your newly sworn President Bill Pullman of this movie section.
This week, I talked with Gregg Hale, who, along with directors Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, made a movie as quintessentially late-'90s as nu metal and crop tops: The Blair Witch Project, which followed followed three film students into the woods of Burkittsville, Md., to track down the mythical Blair Witch. The 1999 film popularized the now well-established found-footage subgenre of horror and is one of the most successful indie films in history, grossing $250 million with a budget of $60,000.
Hale relocated to Portland with his family in 2009. He was called on to executive produce the reboot of the Blair Witch franchise, directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett, which comes out on Friday. I spoke to a bushy-bearded Hale about what it was like to have his indie film made on a shoestring budget become a genre-defining megahit, why he gave up control of the franchise, and his life in Portland.
WW: How did your role in executive producing Blair Witch differ from your role in producing The Blair Witch Project?
Gregg Hale: The first film was made by a grand total of maybe seven people. My credit as a producer then covered a spectrum of stuff well beyond what any producer on a normal film does, from creating the mythology, to working on the website, to promoting the movie, to doing stuff with the film itself— it was pretty all encompassing. That's what you have to do when you don't have any money.
The way I think of Blair Witch is like the way I think about The Force Awakens. It wasn't really a sequel, it was a reboot of the Star Wars franchise. With Blair Witch, Adam and Simon did exactly what needed to be done with that story from 1999 that makes that universe relevant to an audience today. Simon is a really meticulous guy, and he immersed himself in our mythology to make sure it fit with his screenplay.
Related: The Horror Convention That Portland Deserves
One of the most interesting aspects of The Blair Witch Project's legacy is that some people at the time of its release believed the film to be a real documentary. With Blair Witch, the world knows that it's fiction. Do you think that will change the way people respond?
I think the number of people who actually thought that the original was real was fairly small. The people who still enjoyed the film and the "Is it real?" aspect were mostly enjoying an expanded version of suspended disbelief. What we did with Blair Witch Project is create a universe that exists before and after the events of the film. This framed the movie and gave people something to latch onto. Blair still has a kind of continuing mythology that combines the fiction of the story and myths about the movie itself that blurs those lines. One of my favorite parts of that mythology was that after the film, [Blair Witch Project actor] Heather Donahue's mom got real sympathy cards from people that truly thought that her daughter had died.
You've mostly been producing festival-level horror films between 1999 and now. What was it like making films after The Blair Witch Project?
Independent film has changed massively since we made Blair. We had a few years where there was a lot of capital available to independent filmmakers, but that isn't really the case anymore. The payoff of Blair Witch Project is that I get to make movies, television shows or do things ancillary to that as my profession. Do I imagine things having gone differently post-Blair, and having us maintaining some degree of success or exposure after it? Yes. Would that have been good? Maybe. But I'm also by and large very happy with the films we have made. For me personally, I fought most of my ego demons before Blair, which is probably why my life didn't completely spiral out of control after it blew up. I had already accepted the fact that I wasn't going to be Steven Spielberg or George Lucas.
Is that who you wanted to be?
When I was kid? Totally. Up until 1995, that's who I thought I was going to be. When you don't know shit, that's what fuels you. My whole thing about being a Lucas or Spielberg lasted into my adulthood, for sure. Thank God I had already sorted through that for the most part by the time we made Blair.
You grew up in the South and you moved to Portland in 2009. Why Portland?
Pure lifestyle. We were in New York City—which I love—but two little kids in New York is about a 180-degree lifestyle from here. Portland is a much better fit for my wife and our kids. This is a good place to do your thing and have people be accepting and supportive of that. I'd love to shoot something here. I've tried a couple of times. I've even shot a Bigfoot movie [2014's Exists].
Related: Portland film pioneer Don Gronquist was banned, panned and forgotten. He deserved better.
Was that inspired in any way by Portland or the Pacific Northwest?
I have been obsessed with Bigfoot since I watched The Legend of Boggy Creek [1972] when I was a kid. At some point we got the chance and we jumped. I tried to get it made in Oregon. Oregon has a good film incentive, but it's a little underfunded. Between Grimm and Portlandia, they take most of the money—which is great, I totally get it. But when you're making an indie film, and you can get no money here, and some money in East Texas, then that is where you go.
Have either of your kids seen The Blair Witch Project?
No, my daughter is 10 and my son is 7. If my daughter in a couple of years wants to watch it, she can watch it. My other movies get gorier and more fucked up, so it'll be a while.
Blair Witch is rated R. It opens Friday at Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Oak Grove, Vancouver.
Willamette Week