"The concept for The Blair Witch Project originated with Haxan Films in 1992, and the company registered the idea with the Writers Guild of America in 1996." -- Haxan Films, The New York Post, 8/3/99

"We were in film school in 1993. We were just hanging around my apartment, talking about the fact that there hadn't been a good horror film in awhile..." -- Blair director Eduardo Sanchez, The 11th Hour, 7/11/99

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Hollywood is the compliment capital of the world, regularly churning out dueling "coincidentally" similar pictures dealing with such odd topics as animated ants, apocalyptic asteroids, and haunted houses on haunted hills. The independent film scene has been praised for offering respite from these studio similarities, and no indie has been praised more this year than The Blair Witch Project, which since its premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival has been deemed "innovative", "original", and a film that "redefines the horror genre with sheer cinematic ingenuity."

All of which makes it rather unfortunate that nearly every aspect of Blair -- from the plot to the structure to the website to the marketing down to even the title logo -- can be found in a 1998 film called The Last Broadcast, a small, digitally shot movie that escaped mainstream attention but found great success in the very independent film scene that Haxan Films, the company behind Blair which includes directors Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, was once very much a part of. And while the similarities between the two films were noted by critics and reporters alike after Blair's triumphant release this July, what hasn't been explored as thoroughly are individual histories of the two films, a chronology of "coincidence" which can be called questionable at best.

"That's the thing -- the dates are so hazy!" exclaims Stefan Avalos. "They're all over the place!" Avalos, the Pennsylvania-based filmmaker who with partner Lance Weiler wrote, directed, edited and produced The Last Broadcast, speaks here of the discrepancies in the dates of Blair's inception -- and with good reason. According to Haxan Films, who released a statement concerning the film's date of origin in response to Broadcast - fueled queries, the idea for Blair originated in 1992 -- a claim contradicted by Blair's Eduardo Sanchez himself, who repeatedly lists 1993 as the date of inception.

Either way, Haxan's assertion that the idea for Blair was registered with the Writer's Guild of America in 1996 also raises more questions than answers. While Blair may share much in common with the earlier Broadcast, the former film's method of shooting was unique -- but its reliance on improvisation and lack of a set script calls into question what, exactly, was registered. Certainly not the plot, which involves three college students venturing into the woods in search of the legendary Blair Witch, only to find a greater horror awaiting them -- a classic horror staple used in dozens of films. "People are calling us, asking us if we're going to sue, and we're like, `No, we're not going to sue, man.' Storylines -- there's no such thing as original or innovative."

There is also the fact that Blair appeared in several incarnations before the final cut was submitted to Sundance in the fall of 1998, the earliest of which resemble The Last Broadcast to a much greater extent. "They said they registered something in 1996," continues Avalos. "If they came up with this idea in 1992, why did they wait until 1996 to register it?" Moreover, why the sudden appearance of Blair -- which initially debuted as an eight-minute segment on the television show Split Screen in 1997 -- just when Broadcast became available to the public eye?

The Last Broadcast, on the other hand, was in production barely a month after it was conceived. "Lance and I had been working on getting our computers to work, and by the fall of 1996 everything was working really well," recalls Avalos of the film's inception in November of that year. "By December of 1996 we started shooting. It was a really quick turnaround." A turnaround so quick, in fact, that Avalos and Weiler began circulating parts of the unfinished film as early as the spring of 1997, and by March had created a website which contained an elaborate backstory that served as an extension of the film itself, information on how the movie was produced, and a 2 and 1/2 minute trailer.

Structured as a mock documentary, Broadcast was shot entirely on video with digital cameras and produced with non-linear editing software, an innovative style of production which led it to be called "the first desktop feature film." A now familiar tale of four members of a cable access show called "Fact or Fiction" who venture into New Jersey's Pine Barrens in search of the legendary Jersey Devil, Broadcast's combination of onscreen interviews and lost footage set it apart from other indie films. Its use of accessible technology and ultra low-budget style of shooting ("The first thing we got rid of was actors," offers Avalos in explanation of the film's $900 price tag) allowed the movie to be finished in July of 1997. Publicity for the film appeared as early as August of 1997 in the online magazine indieWIRE, a publication which, it turns out, would be instrumental in the history of Blair as well.