By Carson Timar
The thin mountain air of Park City, Utah, is a perfect setting for sparks to grow into wildfires. There is something about the annual Sundance Film Festival that has allowed for the discovery and celebration of new talent that is unique compared to the other major film festivals throughout the year. Another unique facet of the festival is its inclusion of genre films. Outside of a handful of midnight selections, the horror genre has sadly taken the role of the ugly duckling in most film festivals and celebrations of the cinematic art form like the awards season. Sundance has long defied this notion, and instead has promoted horror as a key piece of the Festival's identity.
In return, Sundance has become a foundational force in the development of the horror genre. The combination of no expectations plus cabin fever has allowed new horror features to blow up and explode with hype and energy. This force has historically continued past the Festival itself and is a leading reason why so many of the horror films that have debuted at the festival have continued their momentum into wide release to become defining editions in the wider horror genre. These films have even gone on to radically evolve the genre itself with the domino trail behind this push being traced back to the festival they debuted at.
Perhaps the most iconic example of this came in 1999 with the debut of The Blair Witch Project. Starting their groundbreaking use of the internet to build a cultural identity for the film the year prior, by the time the film premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival it was the subject of mass attention. The filmmakers promoted the film as being real-found footage. The isolation of Sundance bred a hysteria that made the film one of the most talked about films of the Festival as a whole.
This buzz was crucial for this strange and innovative indie horror gem to get wide distribution and become the horror legend it is today. Without The Blair Witch Project, the found footage genre, which is still alive today, would be only a shell of what it currently is. Without the word of mouth from the Sundance Film Festival, The Blair Witch Project s fate would also look drastically different. Sundance gave a platform to prove the worth of the film which in return, revolutionized the genre.
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