The Blair Witch Project
Rating: Meh
Themes/Genres: Horror, Found Footage, Local Legends, Descent
into Madness
Main Characters: Heather, Joshua, Michael
Early fall, the time for every Horror movie to be announced and come
out in time for Halloween. On the one
hand, that’s just one reason on a long list as to why Halloween is the best
time of the year, but on the other hand… we horror fans are basically ignored
the entire rest of the year. It’s like
Halloween is the only time Horror is properly appreciated… and minutely, at
that. But, that aside, there’s a whole
heap of Horror movie sequels headed our way right now so it’s the perfect time
to take a look at some of the originals they’re spawning from! To start it off, let’s take a look at the
original Blair Witch.
The story focuses around three film students, Heather, Josh, and Mike,
heading to the town of Burkitzville, Maryland to do a documentary on a local
legend the ‘Blair Witch’. The movie
switches back and forth between the black and white designated documentary
camera and the color vlog-style camera that Heather carries. The group gets a few interviews from the
townsfolk, asking what they know about the legend, getting a sparse look at the
history, before heading into the woods to get further evidence.
However, their quick hike through the forest quickly turns sour as
navigational abilities come into question, cigarettes run out, and the very entity
they’re out to research starts following them.
During the day they run around in lost circles, arguing amongst
themselves, and rapidly losing morale then are tormented and taunted throughout
the nights. Eventually, all three of
them meet an off-screen end, never returning home, with only the footage and
sound equipment making it back out of the forest.
Originally released in 1999, the independent film took the world by
storm, becoming an unexpected phenomenon, being nominated for 21 different
awards, winning 17 of them, and is, to this day, one of the highest grossing
independent films of all time. While it
wasn’t the first of the ‘found footage’ style movies, it was definitely a
milestone of the genre and a major element in horror history. Critically acclaimed in its time and still
making it to the top of most horror-related ‘To Watch’ lists, Blair Witch is a horror movie
giant. Even despite its terrible sequel,
Book of Shadows.
However.
While critics ate it up, general audiences were relatively divided
about it. Ever a source of unpopular
opinions… I wasn’t overly fond of the movie.
I can certainly see how and why it took the world by such a storm, it’s
not a bad movie by any degree... but
it wasn’t great, either. If anything, it was a bit boring. In a very documentary sort of way. Which, I suppose, is about what they were
going for, but for a thrill-seeking supernatural horror fan the relatively
realistic lack-of-actual-spooks ‘documentary’ was honestly boring.
The thing about supernatural horror is that things get… well,
supernatural. The reason legends and
scary stories get told is because scary shit actually happens in them, there’s,
even if by word only, evidence that there is, in fact, some sort of
spooky-scary out there trying to kill you.
Imagine if they’d gone around the town, asking people about the Blair
Witch, and someone just said “yeah, my tent got rattled and there were some
rock piles!” It wouldn’t really be that
convincing, now would it? No, they told
stories of bodies being mutilated and spread in lines then just vanishing, they
told stories of missing, murdered children who had to stand in corners, they
told stories of half-human, half-beast ladies, they told stories of a lady who
never touched the ground. They had stories
where something actually happened,
where people would go ‘oh shit, I don’t want to face that’, stories that had
some sort of action.
And thus my biggest problem with Blair
Witch. While yes, subtlety and the
audience being able to use their imagination and not have everything thrown in
their face is a wonderful tactic for horror, there is such a thing as having too little. Blair
Witch felt more like a study on normal people getting lost in the woods and
slowly losing their minds over the thought of never returning home than a documentary
on an actual haunting of an entire forest.
(On a long list of "things that had no explanation"...)
On top of endless, pointless arguing and the consistent question of
‘if this is found footage, who the fuck edited it together like this?’ a
problem that plagues every found footage style movie, there are so many
disconnected random tales with no real explanation behind the witch, herself,
that nothing really makes sense.
Apparently, there was supposed to be a prequel doing just that after
this movie came out, but Artisan rejected the idea and instead decided a shitty
sequel was a better idea. I would have
preferred a literal sock-puppet explanation over Book of Shadows, guys.
There’s too much arguing, not enough witch, and way too much just
straight black screen time. I realize
it’s supposed to be night and a camera doesn’t pick up a whole hell of a lot at
night, but there are a lot of moments it just goes on too long. It gives a few moments of tense ‘omg what’s
gonna happen?’ but it lasts too long with no real pay-off. I’m not asking for a jump scare, I just want anything to happen, even in the
background. There are plenty of moments
where the characters are just sitting around yacking where some sort of subtle
background movement or noise would have worked really well to keep viewers
actually on edge. Instead it’s just more
arguing.
(This was one of my favorite parts of the movie)
I watched this movie at night by myself to get the full effect, which
is something I almost never do. Horror
movies at night are just how they’re supposed to be watched, but I’ll never
watch a horror movie if I know I’m going to be alone for over an hour afterwards
especially since I live in a pretty creepy-at-night place. But I was so unfazed by Blair Witch the first time that I decided to do just that to see if
I could get at least a bit of unease after it.
The only thing that legitimately creeped me out at any point was the
sticker on the DVD because it reminded me of The Ring.
Overall, The Blair Witch Project
was incredibly underwhelming. Maybe it’s
because it’s been so long since it came out and I’ve seen some damn good horror
movies nowadays, but Blair Witch
isn’t something I would honestly go to for a real scare. It’s an important part of horror history and
should certainly be seen by anyone who somehow hasn’t yet, it’s also an
important study piece, but it’s not the best for a scare.
Naturally, I’ll be seeing the new sequel as soon as I’ve got a chance,
which means there’ll be a review and a comparison once that happens. I will not, however, be reviewing Book of
Shadows. With all the sequels and
remakes coming out right now I’d rather focus on the best pieces and Book of
Shadows is definitely not on that list. There
wasn’t even a book. So look
forward to that, as well as a review of The
Ring and Ringu because they have
not one, but two sequels coming out eventually between Rings and Sadako vs Kayako. Which I cannot wait to get my teeth into.
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