The Blair Witch Project
By admin /
September 23, 2010 /
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Three film students travel to Maryland to make a student film about a local urban legend, the Blair Witch. They went into the woods and never came bacThe Blair Witch Project
Anyone who has even the slightest trouble with insomnia after seeing a horror movie should stay away from The Blair Witch Project–this film will creep under your skin and stay there for days. Credit for the effectiveness of this mock documentary goes to filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, who armed three actors (Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Josh Leonard) with video equipment, camping supplies, and rough plot outlines. They then let the trio loose into the Maryland woods to improvise and shoot the entire film themselves as the filmmakers attempted to scare the crap out of them. Gimmicky, yes, but it worked–to the wildly successful tune of 0 million at the box office upon its initial release (the budget was a mere ,000).
For those of you who were under a rock when it first hit the theaters, The Blair Witch Project tracks the doomed quest of three film students shooting a documentary on the Burkittsville, Maryland, legend of the Blair Witch. After filming some local yokels (and providing only scant background on the witch herself), the three, led by Heather (something of a witch herself), head into the woods for some on-location shooting. They’re never seen again. What we see is a reconstruction of their “found” footage, edited to make a barely coherent narrative. After losing their way in the forest, whining soon gives way to real terror as the three find themselves stalked by unknown forces that leave piles of rocks outside their campsite and stick-figure art projects in the woods. (As Michael succinctly puts it, “No redneck is this clever!”) The masterstroke of the film is that you never actually see what’s menacing them; everything is implied, and there’s no terror worse than that of the unknown. If you can wade through the tedious arguing–and the shaky, motion-sickness-inducing camerawork–you’ll be rewarded with an oppressively sinister atmosphere and one of the most frightening denouements in horror-film history. Even after you take away the monstrous hype, The Blair Witch Project remains a genuine, effective original. –Mark Englehart
Curse of the Blair Witch
Are you wondering just exactly who the Blair Witch was? What the Burkittsville, Maryland, legend was all about? Or what exactly fascinated student filmmaker Heather and what possibly took her, Mike, and Josh from this earth? Get all your background questions answered by Curse of the Blair Witch, a one-stop-shopping “documentary” originally produced for the Sci-Fi Channel as a tie-in marketing tool. Entirely fictionalized, Curse of the Blair Witch focuses both on the past and the present, with copious info on the Blair Witch myth as well as on the disappearance of Heather, Josh, and Mike. As it turns out, the original witch was one Elly Kedward, who was accused in 1785 of taking blood from several children; she was subsequently banished to the harsh winter woods and left for dead. Her grisly and bloody legacy involves missing children, polluted water, disemboweled men, and a serial killer of children who claims to have been haunted by “an old woman ghost.” Aside from some ineffective “newsreel” footage of the serial killer, all this intriguing information is presented convincingly and chillingly. Curse may in fact freak you out more than the movie, and it evokes the great, pulpy In Search Of series of the ’70s, one of the prime inspirations for filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. News clips of the search for Heather, Josh, and Mike lend a vérité atmosphere to the proceedings, but shed little light on their mysterious disappearance or their characters. Basically, it’s a tease to go see the movie. Still, The Blair Witch Project provided only ever-so-slight information on the legend that haunted the forest, so you’ll want this cleverly constructed mock documentary to supplement your knowledge of the film. –Mark Englehart
Rating:  (out of 1887 reviews)
List Price: $ 9.98
Price: $ 2.28
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Review by Graboidz for The Blair Witch Project
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It seems like everyone now enjoy’s ripping on “The Blair Witch Project”, and I don’t get it?! It’s almost like when you scare the hell out of that kid when you are in 6th grade, and he might have been screaming wide-eyed with fright, only to tell you a couple minutes later “Hey, You Didn’t Scare Me”, just to repair his pride or ego. When I first saw “Blair Witch”, it did scare me, and left me a little rattled at the end…..why? Because when I went to see it in the theater, there was still a strong buzz about the movie that it was either really an aborted documentary, or was a film based on true events…we were supposedly seeing the genuine article. Sure, I may have been duped by a clever marketing campaign that involved TV mocumentaries, internet gossip and radio buzz…..and looking back I think that was great. “Blair Witch” if nothing else, is a wonderful homage to William Castle, who back in the day of “The Tingler” would wire theater seats to shock select members of the audience to induce a well timed scream, or his film “The House on Haunted Hill”, where skeletons would buzz the audience, or his movie “Straight Jacket” in which he offered the audience a chance to buy life insurance in case the film scared them to death. That is great stuff that put butts in the theater seats, and with the advances in technology, and modern communication, “Blair Witch” and it’s marketing campaign did the same thing, only the updated version. It worked, the movie made a ton of dough and was the water-cooler talk around theoffice for weeks. Did I feel let down when I learned “Blair Witch” was just a movie? No. I applauded the idea behind the movie, and only wish more films would do the same. As far as the actual movie goes when I watch it on dvd….well it doesn’t pack the same punch as when you might think these were actual events, but I still get a kick out of it. And it’s obvious this film hit’s a nerve with quite a few people, I mean at this time there are over 1700 reviews posted here at Amazon about this movie…most are ripping the film apart….but there just seems to be a hint of that 6th grader saying “Yeah….you didn’t scare me” as they rush over to turn on the lights after the movie ends.
Review by 3dgeek for The Blair Witch Project
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I really don’t care for modern horror movies….they seem so stupid nowadays (Scream was a recent exception). But I really liked this.If you like Hollywood cookie-cutter horror movies, this is definitely NOT for you. It’s a very unique, experimental movie, one which had elements from my childhood nightmares (getting lost, being in a strange house, etc.).Why it works, I think, is because so much is unseen or vague, leaving much of what is going on to your own imagination, sort of like Jaws, where the most intense scenes are those where the shark isn’t even in sight. Hitchcock understood this concept, that less is more. Unfortunately, today’s viewers (especially younger ones) are jaded by the glut of gore and special effects in modern Hollywood horror movies, which may explain the negative reviews (worst movie ever? Not by a long-shot). Gore is almost non-existent in this movie…but be warned, I believe the “R” rating comes from the use of the “F” word, which becomes more and more prevalent as the three filmmakers get more and more lost/scared/frustrated.I was a little disappointed at the ending initially, but the movie stuck with me for weeks after (I also had trouble falling asleep the night I saw it)….give it a shot.
Review by Kitten With a Whip for The Blair Witch Project
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First, I feel like I have to address the buzz surrounding the movie. I am at the same time disgusted and sort of impressed with the hype. It is pretty clever when you think about it. No trailers (well, they did have some eventually, but still, it took them long enough) no cast members doing the rounds on talk shows, no big budget, etc. Just the website, the documentary on the SciFi channel, and big-time word of mouth. Apparently worked. I feel for those actors, since they got paid about what I make in 2 weeks for 3 weeks of hell. I hope to God the filmmakers were generous and gave them points in the film. I am also hearing that at most theaters, they pay the manager, etc to get up before the showing and get the crowd all hyped up, which is kind of lame. When we saw it Saturday, the owner (before she threatened people who had laser pointers) got up and yelled, “Hey, welcome to Crossroads theater, and ARE YA READY FOR THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT? Whooooo-hoooo! Everyone READY TO BE SCARED?” I was like, oh please. I also heard these girls in front of me asking someone next to them if **this was a real documentary**. We got up and moved because I did not want to spend the movie sitting behind someone so incredibly stupid and naive. But I guess that’s what a good job they did marketing it, because I heard there are plenty of stupid people out there who think the thing is real. I also grudgingly admire whoever decided to market it initially as a ‘hard ticket’, meaning they wanted to have it only at one theater or so per city for a few weeks. I’m sure that helped the buzz. Hyping it as the scariest movie of all time (though maybe this is more word of mouth than the filmmakers doing it) is kind of dumb, though, because people are just going to be disappointed, unless all they’ve seen are “Scream” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer”. I heard kids talking after the movie who were let down because they was very little gore, no monster, and no real pay-off. I had a good time because I told myself not to expect anything. I guess if you go, just keep an open mind, and don’t think, “This better be the scariest movie of all time after all the hype, or I’ll be p**sed”. I do think it’s kind of funny how the big studios spend millions of dollars marketing their lame summer ‘event’ pics, but this is the one most people are talking about wanting to see. So, that’s my 2 cents as far as the hype goes. Went and saw BWP for myself a few weeks after in came out. Inside the theater manager had to come make an announcement about laser pointers, she said if anyone used them during the movie she’d take them away and kick them out. She was this huge, burly, tough woman who looked like a prison warden so people calmed down after that and shut up. Anyway, I loved it. Not the scariest movie I’ve ever seen, but if you asked me what the scariest movie I’ve ever seen was, I wouldn’t be able to name it. I would saw BWP, the Exorcist, Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, Last House on the Left (and a couple more I can’t think of right now) are like the top scariest. I was really impressed though. Very realistic, the way it was shot and put together, and the character’s reactions to stuff. My spouse said it really scared him, which he hardly ever says, because he’s been camping and that’s like your worst nightmare. The whole movie was very creepy and spooky but the last 5 minutes REALLY scared the crap out of me.It’s funny, the audience started out very rowdy, and I thought I’d have to “shhh” people the whole movie. But after the first 5 minutes, people were engrossed. As the film got more and more tense and scary, there were no screams. Instead, the whole audience just sat there cowering quietly in fear. Not a lot of talking back to the screen, etc like there is in most horror movies, and the audience was full of teenagers. That speaks for itself, I think.I read a review in which they said that the movie was all about panic, and I agree. One of the most upsetting things is the way the characters go from calm, controlled, and joking, to nervously joking and then arguing, to trying desperately to hold it together, to understandable total freaked out panic by the last reel. As the film draws to a close they just give up all pretenses of composure and control and just panic and run around like maniacs screaming incoherently at the top of their lungs. Usually when characters in a movie do that you feel like slapping them, but the film draws you in so much that you do not blame them, one bit. You know you would probably act the same way if you were in their shoes, and the way the movie is filmed, you are pretty much in their shoes.Bottom line regarding how scary it is: If I’d been watching it by myself at home at night I probably would have started crying.
Review by El Kabong for The Blair Witch Project
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Sorry to quote Jesse, but I couldn’t resist. This movie has garnered much divided opinion; both camps are right. It sucks AND it’s great. First of all, immediately dismiss every opinion that whines ‘where’s the blood?’. Simpletons who need monsters and gore to officially enjoy a horror movie should park their cars on road shoulders and read back issues of FANGORIA while waiting for the next highway fatality to rubberneck. This is essentially a ghost story, and ghost stories frighten with mood and suggestion, not with slashed carotid arteries. But most of the naysayers have a point: after the overkill of the media hype, you DO walk away deeply disappointed after the first viewing. The narrative structure, such as it is, is clumsy and tedious. But part of that disappointment is due to the fact that horror movies are marketed to yahoos, and otherwise-rational viewers have become all too willing to think and act like yahoos when watching a horror movie in a theater. And who can blame ‘em, after 20 years of dumbed-down, market-researched ‘rollercoaster ride’ horror that feeds the mob a steady, predictable diet of CGI, ‘dream’ sequences, unkillable brand-name psychos, and wisecracking teenage hardbodies. To release a serious, straightfaced, artistic horror movie nowadays is to ask audiences to think unsettling thoughts and FEEL something genuine: far easier to let the latex do the talking over a heavy-metal soundtrack and hope you can con enough kids into believing a ‘director’s cut’ DVD of ELM STREET 12 is a statement for the ages worth owning. Now, while BLAIR WITCH is far from perfect, it does have one ‘monster’ that no fx wizard could ever approach…those damned woods. Anyone who’s ever gotten lost on a camping trip, or even driven through the woods at night, knows exactly what I’m saying here. There’s something deeply, frighteningly eldritch and pre-human about wooded areas. Nature isn’t Bambi and Grizzly Adams…it’s harsh, unforgiving, cruel, remorseless; the territory of elder Gods who predate our warm and fuzzy civilized notions of deities and divinities. To live out in those woods and survive extracts a price so terrible that our ancestors finally fled, formed societies, created cities….ain’t NOTHING scarier than the wild. As the three kids in this movie venture deeper into the woods, I felt a deep intuitive foreboding forming in the most primitive jelly of my brain. They’re doomed because they’ve learned to be afraid of people but they’ve forgotten to be afraid of Nature, and deeper they go into a place where the very terrain- the rocks, the trees, the dirt beneath their feet – is the predator stalking them. All the faux-hostility they’ve learned from rap music and schoolyard brawls can’t help them now. If you saw this flick and left the theater underwhelmed, see it again, alone, late at night. You might think twice about preserving any rainforest anywhere. The ‘movie’ part of BLAIR WITCH may be weak tea, but those haunted woods are scarier than any weightlifter in a hockey mask.
Review by Zilbanne for The Blair Witch Project
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I liked this movie despite all the hype because the horror is not all spelled out for the viewer. Just enough expressions of creepiness and the implication of an unseen, extremely malignant, entity are given, so that fear begans to work inside the imagination of the viewer. There are subtle details set forth earlier in the film. If these subtle elements are missed by the viewer, the story will not have a strong impact as it can for some. People who rely on massive amounts of special effects or spraying blood and gore to get their jollies from horror movies ,just won’t be into this film. This story makes me think it is a modern equivalent to the early American stories, Young Goodman Brown or The Headless Horseman. I do think this movie is not without problems. The journalistic build up behind the witch herself could have been stronger. I could watch this movie a second time to catch any details I might have missed the first time around but would be disinterested in multiple viewings. All and all I give this film a B- for effort and a B+ for bald fear and creepy feelings.