The Blair Witch herself may be hundreds of miles away in the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland, but The A.V. Club, being the proud Midwesterners that we are, isn’t about to let Chicago—or our sister city to the north, Milwaukee—get left out of the scary fun surrounding the release of the new Blair Witch movie.
Soon after it was revealed at Comic-Con that You’re Next director Adam Wingard’s new, suspiciously Blair Witch-like found-footage movie The Woods was, in fact, an official Blair Witch sequel, Bloody Disgusting’s Brad Miska boldly declared it a “game changer” that will “completely wreck” all but the most seasoned of horror fans. “‘Scary’ is probably an understatement, as this may just be the first film since The Exorcist that will leave younger audiences scarred for life,” Miska writes.
That sure sounds like a challenge to us! The A.V. Club is giving our readers a chance to find out if Blair Witch lives up to its immense hype at a special preview screening, taking place at the Music Box Theatre on Wednesday, September 14 at 7 p.m. You can sign up for one of the 40 regular passes to the screening we’ve got available here. Those are first come, first served, and as always, remember that these preview screenings are intentionally overbooked—so be sure to show up early, as this one will be packed.
Or, for the adventure-minded, we’ve got another way to get you in to the screening that guarantees you won’t get turned away. All you’ve got to do is go in search of the Blair Witch—or at least those spooky little stick figures she likes to decorate with—in Chicago. We’ve got six Blair Witch totems hidden in locations around Chicago’s North side and in Logan Square/Avondale, and the first 12 people to find one, take a picture, and upload it to Instagram with the hashtag #AVCBlairWitch will win a pair of VIP tickets to next Wednesday’s screening. (That’s 12 pairs of VIP tickets in all, two for each of the six locations.) Here are some hints:
1. Whitey, the ghost of a former manager, haunts the historic Chicago theater where you’ll find one of the totems.