The Blair Witch Project: Special Edition

[Deleted]

You still don't have it ??!!
Haha. Well now you do.

[speightm09]

Haha and now I do, thank you, kind entity.

[FormallyBlair]

I'll take a copy as well!

[Deleted]

I can't be bothered. Just kidding.

[Deleted]

This thread was started 9 years ago and nobody really got to the bottom of why this bootleg VHS tape *Special Edition/workprint/Sundance* cut ever existed. Yesterday I read this entire thread very carefully. And the following is what I believe, based on all the information I've ever been able to gather, and a lot of this was from video interviews with people involved in the film.

It was said (in this thread) that Eduardo Sanchez himself said the Special Edition/workprint is indeed the Sundance cut. And I have no reason to doubt it, because it makes the most logical sense. As to why it existed along with Curse of the Blair Witch on a VHS tape, I only have a theory about that.

My theory, which could be way off, is that it was a fallback plan to independently sell the film to the home video market if it didn't sell at Sundance in January 1999 .. it was definitely their final cut before sale, which then led to editing again to create the theatrical cut (between February and June of 1999)

As far as anyone has ever come forward with in interviews or fan knowledge, there was originally the 1998 Enzian Theater cut which approached 3 hours, and then later that year they showed the University of Central Florida cut which was shortened, and then they shortened it again for the Sundance cut. We have come to refer to the Sundance cut as the "workprint". We have also come to refer to it as the "special edition" because that's how it was labeled on a single bootleg VHS tape packaged with Curse of the Blair Witch. As to how the tape was leaked in 1999 in the first place, I have only one idea. Most likely someone who had access to it got paid to leak it.

If anyone has any further updated information on anything that I have said, please feel free to share.

[Deleted]

Monrozombi said:

What about the 100 min cut that was trimmed to become the Sundance cut?

The hour and forty minute cut Ed gave me has the scene w/ Heather, Josh & Mike at the diner after their drinking and poetry in the motel room amongst other things the Sundance cut didn't have.

This quote is taken from two of Monrozombi's posts on the 3rd page of this same thread, saying that Ed Sanchez gifted to him a cut with a runtime of 1 hour and 40 minutes.

By deductive logic, it must be a copy of the UCF cut .. because if it isn't .. it's a separate cut that no fan ever knew about. Because it's NOT the Sundance/workprint cut. Both Ed and Monrozombi say they are one and the same. Sundance = workprint = special edition.

So did Ed put together a special cut just for Monrozombi?

Nevertheless, I have not heard of a scene where our trio returned to the diner AFTER leaving the motel in the morning (with hangovers) .. so that's also interesting.

[Deleted]

On a side note (still high on another new Blair high here)

FormallyBlair, you still need to change your latest status to actually fit your avatar.

I suggest "This is ridiculous.. We already agreed to walk south all day"

[edulars]

Apr 23, 2022 16:40:28 GMT -6 @entity said:

You still don't have it ??!!
Haha. Well now you do.

Hello Entity, i new here (well, i already accessed here before, but only now i created a account). Can you send me a copy of the workprint version ?

[Deleted]

I could, yes, but why.. when I have a much better extended cut now? Trust me, nothing is missing from it from the WP/Sundance cut.

[trey]

Just to clarify (since I was the one who introduced the Special Edition to this site all those centuries ago), it wasn't something that was packaged with Curse of the Blair Witch. Curse was an official release, first on the Sci-Fi Channel and then as its own VHS, and also as a DVD extra.

In August 1999, I found the Special Edition (that is, the workprint, but it started with a title card that called it the Special Edition) for sale on a movie bootleg site. There were plenty back then that sold VCDs (sort of a crappy offshoot of CD-Rs/DVDs), but I couldn't play those myself. Only one site had the extended Blair Witch Project on VHS, so I emailed the site owner about getting a copy. At first, it was straightforward, but the guy got more cagey as time went on. Initially, he gave me an address to send payment to (this was before online payments were common, so mailing checks was still a thing), and I said I would. I got distracted for a few days, and when I went back to the site to check the price again, the listing had gone. I emailed asking about this, and he said, "I'm sorry, but you missed it. Blair Witch is no longer available." I wrote back again begging him to make an exception, even offering to drive to Atlanta (where he was; I lived about two hours away) to pick it up if he didn't want to ship it. He relented and told me to send payment ($20), though he also insisted that I include a signed statement that I wasn't affiliated with either the movie industry or law enforcement. That was weird; apparently, he was afraid of getting in trouble. But I got my copy, and that was that.

Oh, and if you're wondering how I remember this so well, I still have the emails saved from back then. I save a LOT of things.

[Deleted]

So you're saying the guy slapped Curse onto the tape along with the two title cards; Feature Presentation and Special Edition. A home job.

But it still doesn't explain how he obtained the workprint to begin with.

And $20 then was like $35 now. Not a bad deal for a never seen version of it.

[trey]

I didn't get the impression that the guy I bought it from made the original tape himself. It was clearly a copy from another tape (recorded onto a store-bought blank tape), and whenever it was made, whoever made the copy had the tracking slightly off, which messed up the sound. Hence, bootleg.

It's too bad that the older posts in this thread don't still have the images in them. I guess the site hosting the images disappeared. I went back into my saved stuff and found a couple that I still had (the side-by-side comparisons of the different versions), and I tried to post them in here just now, but it isn't working for some reason. Something is broken. Actually, hang on, I can't embed them, but I can still post links:
ibb.co/LxTjJQt
ibb.co/0mZgq0C

These were, from left to right: DVD version, older workprint that had been circulating in this group, and the Special Edition that I'd gotten. Note the difference in cropping and picture quality.

[Deleted]

Well, it was somebody's homemade bootleg job.

Still curious how the original bootlegger obtained the Sundance cut to begin with. The world shall never know.

[FormallyBlair]

According to a recent interview with Ed, they believe the original bootlegger was someone who worked at Sundance.

[mikedbo523]

Hey everyone, I came upon a YouTube video by Sinister Cinema Reviews talking about The Blair Witch Project Extended Cut that is about 2hrs 23mins long. Didn't know if anyone on the forum knows if this is the supposed Workprint or another version. Either way I would like to view this longer version if anyone here has a copy. Thank You all.

[jimbal]

Does anyone have the special edition Trey posted back when this thread was fresh. Lost a hard drive and never had backed that up either, lost a few other Blair Witch files, like the FX cut that was posted more recently. If anyone can shoot me a link to either of those I would be most appreciative.