[Shout out to Jacek T, Peter P and Zeke P!]


    Hollywood What If Chapter 186


    Just as he expected, that night, ABC news tackled The Blair Witch.


    -- A group of college students went missing in Burkittsville, Maryland. The police tried to locate them but they failed to find them. Instead, the police only found a camera and films. We are still trying to fix the footage. For now, we only fixed a film worth of one minute video.''


    The newscaster seriously explained, perhaps clueless about the truth as well.


    Then, the news showed the footage.


    The scene was quite dark and shaky. The audience realized that the one holding the camera was running away from something. Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream happened, then another person cried. The footage became pitch black after that.


    -- Rest assured, our team will try its best to fix the footage to get more clues about the missing people.


    The news went to another topic but the story about the Witch stirred the hearts of some people who believed in paranormal.


    "... I call that bullshit."


    Kazir Grey muttered after watching the program. He won''t fall for that trick since he knows that this is nothing but a movie.


    He grabbed the remote and turned off the television. He touched his chin and thought about it seriously.


    The Blair Witch Project was an important movie in the history of cinema. It was the first of its kind that gained a good box office.


    However, Kazir didn''t like the fact that they deceived so many people into believing that a witch was real.


    On top of that, Kazir didn''t like Miramax. This film company was owned by the Weinstein brothers. Particularly, he hated Harvey Weinstein. That guy went to prison because of an obvious crime. To be honest, it was questionable why he was only imprisoned in 2018 even though his crimes started in the 1970s.


    The man had sexual abuse allegations back in the 1970s but he was only reprimanded in 2018. Almost as if he was protected by the higher-ups of Hollywood. Almost as if everyone turned a blind eye to the crimes he did.


    Note that over 80 women stood up about the allegations of sexual abuse and rape against Harvey Weinstein. This incident sparked the #MeToo movement in social media.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Obviously, everyone knows about Harvey Weinstein''s crimes but they were just chill as fuck. Just like what they did to Jeffrey Epstein.


    For Kazir, this was a disgusting move. From the bottom of his heart, he felt like it was unfair that people would buy tickets for The Blair Witch only to get deceived by Harvey Weinstein and Miramax. It didn''t sit well with him.


    With a cold gaze at the ceiling, Kazir Grey decided to fuck the timeline more.


    .........


    ......


    ...


    While people started talking about the missing students, another batch of movies were released in the theaters.


    On July 9, seven movies were released simultaneously. However, only one movie got a good reception. It was none other than American Pie.


    An R-rated comedy with strong sexuality and foul language. Yet this movie made $18 million in its first week at the box office. It seemed that Universal Pictures had a good comedy to milk this time. Perhaps they were salty that Grey Pictures had never sold them a comedy script.


    The news networks realized that a lot of people were interested in the missing students and the mythical Blair Witch in Burkittsville, Maryland.


    One news channel sent a team to interview the people of Burkittsville, Maryland, but they had no idea about the missing students. There were some stories about witches in their community, but no one really believed they were real. Even the police tried to investigate the hill, but they found none.


    But now that the news about the Blair Witch was getting stronger, the people of Burkittsville, Maryland decided to stay in their homes just to be sure.


    The news crew decided to enter the hill where the missing students were last found. However, as they walked deeper into the woods, the team felt strange and as if someone was looking at them... Uh, maybe it was a placebo effect. Their minds believed that there was indeed a witch hiding in the forest.


    While traversing the deep, one of their members was injured. Suddenly, crows started flying around them, screeching!


    The team got scared and started running out of the forest!


    Everything was recorded by the cameraman... When this story was published in the media, the fear of the witch increased.


    Stories about witches became the subject of many TV shows, just to join the hype.


    In the 16th century, thousands of people died in witch hunts, mostly women. They were either hanged or burned. Many believed that European witches migrated to United States in the 1800s.


    In the month of July, almost every topic on the street would be related to witches.


    In addition, some people were interviewed by the media saying that their relatives had been killed by witches.


    These small stories formed a trend until almost everyone was interested in the footage left in the woods by the missing students.


    -- This is Wanda Rinn from ABC News, our team has recovered another segment of the footage. We are here to show you the video. We want to warn our viewers that the scene you are about to see may be inappropriate for some ages.


    The video started broadcasting. This time the video showed a group of people talking around the campfire. They were the missing students. Suddenly, a screaming cawing of crows echoed. The students stood up and became alert.


    The person in charge of the camera pointed the camera into the woods, and a shadow formed in the darkness, as if a person was there!


    -- Unfortunately, our team only fixed that part. Rest assured, after we fix all the footage, we will release it in theaters for people to see.


    Then the TV show ended, leaving people curious and scared!