Movie review of The Blair Witch Project

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

Horrorphile - May 2007

The Blair Witch Project

May 3rd 2007 03:48

A film that has been championed and derided ever since it was first released. A movie’s success and criticisms built from an enormously effective hype machine. Two filmmakers who decided upon a very clever, yet absurdly simple, concept for a horror movie: a relatively short, super-low-budget flick about three filmmakers making a documentary about a witch, who vanish in the woods. A year later the footage is found.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez held the Guinness Book of Records for budget to box office ratio (for a mainstream film): The film cost $US22,000 and made $US240.5 million (that’s approximately eleven grand for every dollar spent)!! It held the spot of highest grossing independent movie of all time for several years.

About six months to a year prior the filmmakers designed a chilling website which authentically purported how these three student filmmakers had disappeared in 1994 in woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while making a doco about the legend and murderous legacy of the so-called Blair Witch. The website had interviews with locals, numerous exhibit photographs and asked for any information on the missing students’ whereabouts. The website was visited by millions of people genuinely believing the entire hoax was real. Even respected movie site imdb.com listed the three actors as “missing, presumed dead” leading up to the film’s release.

Josh Leonard as Josh Leonard and Mike Williams as Mike Williams

When the movie was released in the US in July 1999 it created a storm of fear, partly due to the movie’s brilliantly realistic production values (none, basically) the totally convincing performances by Heather Donahue, Josh Leonard and Mike Williams (their real names were used instead of fictionalized character names and they improvised all the dialogue). But more importantly the movie played on the oldest, and arguably the most ferociously potent element of terror: the fear of the dark.

The hype of the movie, with film critics laying down all manner of superlatives such as “Scary as Hell” and “The creepiest movie since The Exorcist”, meant that very quickly the movie polarised audiences. The movie’s most obvious effect was there were no effects (no elaborate special effects); instead it relied on the audience’s imagination; the fear of the unknown and those things that go bump and scratch in the night. By never presenting what the Blair Witch actually looked like (although described by an eccentric witness early in the “doco” as being a woman covered in dark hair and able to float above the ground), the audience were forced to conjure their own images and impressions of the witch and her myth.

Heather's now famous terrified piece to camera

In the modern age of horror when everything is shown as graphically as possible (and hey, I’m still a gorehound at dark heart), to have a movie where the monster is never seen, there is the bare minimum of gore (a presumed severed tongue and pulled teeth), and you’re stuck the entire 80-odd minutes with three confrontational, sometimes obnoxious people, doesn’t seem to make for the most exciting horror cinema. But, on the contrary, its weaknesses are its strengths, but a lot of the reasons why the movie is so adored are the same reasons it is vilified. Thankfully it will most likely never be remade due to the unique nature of its production.

The movie was shot over eight days with the three lead actors filming nearly all the footage themselves on handheld Hi-8 video and 16mm black and white. They were also lead to believe the witch mythology was authentic and were in the dark as to the events which unfolded while they were in the forest (the directors secretly planted props such as the stick figures, snapped branches in the darkness and shook the tent during the night so as to illicit genuine reactions). The movie culminates with the discovery of a derelict two-storey house deep in the woods filled with esoteric hand prints on the walls. It is here that the footage ends, climatically and ever so frightening, just as the local legend had described.

The Blair Witch Project is an utterly original cult classic; yet an acquired taste. You either like it or you don’t (perhaps you need to watch it again?) It has spawned more imitations and like-minded DIY horror flicks than you can shake an occult stick figure at, but none have come close to capturing the same creative farrago and intensely atmospheric, palpable unease. Quibbles aside it is one of the best horror movies of the past fifteen years.

Here are three original theatrical trailers utilising the “authenticity” angle and proving less is more:

* images on this page are courtesy of www.horrordvds.com and www.dvdtimes.com

123

Vote

Subscribe to this blog

Email this post to a friend

Go to the Orble Film Channel

Start your own blog

[ Link ]

Posted By: Bryn - Category: No Category

Related Posts:

Relate This Post

[ Previous - Psycho ]

[ Next - The Final Conflict ]

Comments

15 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by KylieW

May 3rd 2007 04:53

Celebrity Obsession

Bryn,

Great review. I must say, I wasn't overly taken with the film at first, and didn't find it that scary. But I did like the ending in that house....that scared me.

But after the film, I walked home from the cinema in Sth Yarra to my house by myself. Less than a km, but it was in back streets.....and it was 11:30pm at night. Right about then.......I realised the movie's power. Cos for the first time ever I was shitting myself walking alone in the dark!!

Kylie

Comment by David

May 3rd 2007 04:55

Bryn ...

You should be getting paid shitloads for some movie review magazine ...

David ...

Comment by Damo

May 3rd 2007 05:50

For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics

Good review.

odd film where the premise is just is scary more than the film. Forest noises and darkness are pretty scary in real life. My regret was learning that it was faked before I saw it. Balloon burst, bullshit filter went up and it became less enjoyable. A work mate saw it thinking it was real and walked away thinking it was just horrific.

Comment by Bryn

May 3rd 2007 06:27

Horrorphile

Thanks guys, you're my reliable dark posse! Big cheers!

Kylie, it is most definitely a movie which stays with you ... the feel and the tone and sporadic images resonate long after the movie finishes ...

David,
muchos gracias mi amigo! I'd buy you a beer or three if I was in your scary neck of the woods!

Comment by Bryn

May 3rd 2007 06:41

Horrorphile

Damo,
yes, that problem struck a lot of people (discovering it was fake before seeing it) ...
I was lucky, a friend of mine a been sent a bootlegged copy on DVD from the States months and months before it got released theatrically down under. All we'd seen was the website ... I think we knew it was fabricated, but it still scared us something wicked! I remember thinking I hadn't been that genuinely frightened by a film in a long time.
I tried not to hype the movie up too much to friends, but m any of them heard too much from other sources and thus found them film disappointing ...
It certainly deserves another viewing, now with several years under its belt. Personally I think it was very clever filmmaking and certain factors which were overlooked on its release have aged well; for example the acting is exceptional. You totally believe these people are for real; Mike's dry sense of humour to Heather's annoying arrogance, well, they were real I guess, since they improvised all the dialogue, but what holds it together is that the performance's are sustained, and you believe everything they do, unlike other bad horror movies where characters keep doing really stupid things they obviously wouldn't have done in real life.
Sure, Blair Witch does have some flaws ... doesn't every movie? I remember at the time thinking why on earth didn't they have mobile phones with them, but I guess you could argue they left them in the car since there was no reception in the woods ... And then there's the batteries, which they'd have need shitloads! Heather does mention at the beginning that they're carrying a lot of batteries ..... but I'm sure for the five days they're out there videoing and filming as much as they were, you'd need a wheelbarrow full. But like I said in my review, quibbles aside, Blair Witch is a very concise and deliberately constructed movie which works on an primary and insular level.
Thanks for the props dude!

Comment by katyzzz

May 3rd 2007 08:58

Photography Tips
Health Focus
Poetry Lighthouse
MS Paint Art

Bryn,

I remember this, funny about that!

katyzzz

Comment by Nickoftime's Sanity Corner

May 3rd 2007 10:11

Bryn,

I saw the movie twice, once when it came out in the theatres and once on DVD...neither times was I overly impressed...

Yes their concept of making the film was very original and very simple, but the fluttering wobbly camera shots, the annoying supposed "failing" of their equipment at the most inopportune times was aggravating to me..

Other friends however, thought it was a great cult classic type film...

Great post and wonderful review!

Take care,

Nick

Comment by JohnDoe

May 3rd 2007 10:54

Film & TV on DVD

Superb Review my friend,
I agree, I think this is a film that suffered terminally from hype. It should have been viewed on whispered recomendatiosn from the underground, instead it was the original Snakes on A Plane!

Comment by D. Armenta

May 3rd 2007 14:41

The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan

I thought it was a brilliant idea, and well executed. When I found out that it was a hoax, I got a good laugh (Orson Welles, anyone?)
They'd even done a documentary show (prior to release) on it here in the states, with all the stuff from the website.

There was an old horror movie documentary from the early 80s called "Terror in the Aisles" (Donald Pleasence) that featured a clip with genius director Alfred Hitchcock. He said (paraphrasing), "There is no image I can produce on the screen that is as powerful or terrifying as the image the human imagination can produce. I just put the idea into their heads so they can scare themselves silly with their own imagery."

I thought that statement was brilliant, and definitely applies to this film.

Comment by D. Armenta

May 3rd 2007 14:42

The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan

Er--not to wax didactic--sorry!

Comment by Bryn

May 3rd 2007 15:34

Horrorphile

Nick,
sure there's a fair amount of wobbly camera work, I guess the actors hadn't really had much experience, which is a bit of continuity flaw, as they're meant to be film students, so you think they'd have more aptitude.

JD,
yeah, imagine discovering this without having known anything about it whatsoever. Better still would've been if the two directors had purposefully left off any reference to "directors" and only credited themselves as hired editors .... !

Armenta,
that's a great Hitchcock quote, I might have to purloin it for a future blog post of mine!
Yeah, I've seen that doco, Curse of the Blair Witch, right? Tis fascinating. All concocted by the two directors a couple of years or more before the actually shot the main feature.

Comment by Cibbuano

May 4th 2007 02:16

20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

this movie has been parodied countless times, which results in people not taking it very seriously. If you never heard any hype and saw it on a whim, you'd probably find it terrifying.

That last picture - shivers.

Comment by Bryn

May 4th 2007 04:06

Horrorphile

Cibby, you are so right. Pity, huh? Yeah, that last pic, I almost didn't use it, but I couldn't resist ....

Comment by Ruby

May 14th 2007 04:31

The Rubik's Cube

Awesome review. Definite one of my faves. Not entirely because of the movie, but the way it was hyped and marketed. Excellent public relations for this movie. In the end, when the movie started showing, everyone already had some version/rumour of the movie. Which made it all the more "in your head" and cooler to watch.

Kudos!

Comment by Bryn

May 14th 2007 23:38

Horrorphile

Cheers Ruby,
glad you're on the savvy side of this flick ... it's amazing how many people actually can't stand it! They regard it as the worst horror movie ever made. They don't seem to appreciate beyond the wobbly cam and incisive improvised acting.

[ Previous - Psycho ]

[ Next - The Final Conflict ]

Add A Comment

To create a fully formatted comment please click here.

CLICK HERE TO LOGIN | CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Name or Orble Tag

Home Page (optional)

Comments

Notify me of replies

Notify extra people about this comment

Is this a private comment?

List the Email Addresses or Orble Tags of the people you would like to be notified about this comment

One per line max of 30

List the Email Addresses or Orble Tags of the people you would like to be notified about this private comment thread. Only the people in this list will be able to see or reply to your comment.

One per line max of 30

Your Name
(for the email going out to the above list, it can be different to your Orble Tag)

Your Email Address

(optional)

(required for reply notification)

Submit

July 2008

4 Posts

June 2008

23 Posts

May 2008

23 Posts