The Blair Witch Project
The Blair Witch Project made a tremendous impact on the world of horror movies when it was released.
I am personally of two minds about this. It's certainly a good movie, deserved its success and should be watched by all horror movie fans.
That said, I'm reluctant to applaud its format as revolutionary. It's an intrinsic part of a good story, and I applaud its creators for their creativity and innovation. But filming with shaking cameras is not a good ideas for most horror movies.
I'm ordinarily not a fan of artists making art about making art. Rock songs about being a rock and roll star. Country songs about making country music. Novels about writers. You get the idea. Perhaps it's because I hated the movie 200 Motels so much despite having been a fan of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention since 1965.
However, although The Blair Witch Project is technically a movie about film students making a documentary, that's really just the excuse to have their investigation into the Blair Witch legend recorded by a video camera. Ordinary campers would not have recorded so much footage, and could not have presented the backstory history of the Blair Witch. Nor would they have interviewed any locals.
The Blair Witch is a local legend of a woman in colonial times condemned to death by hanging. However, she seems to have changed into some kind monster that lives on. Subsequent incidents of death are recounted, such as man who confessed to torturing and killing seven children in the basement of his house.
If the movie has a weakness, I think it's in this backstory not being tied into established belief systems. I was not sure just what the monster of the story really was. An evil power that just happened to use the Blair Witch? Was she the beginning of the local evil?
The monster is apparently not a standard witch or monster, though there is a place in the woods where various figures have been woven out of sticks, making it look like a place of pagan worship, which I'm sure the filmmakers wanted to evoke. But who created them, and why?
It's like somebody put them there as a form of worship or propitiation, but it's not clear who. There's otherwise no hint that any local people are in secret contact with the witch, that there is a coven hidden within the town. She apparently has no power outside of the woods.
The movie works extraordinarily well given that the three actors were forced to improvise a lot rather than recite dialogue. Apparently some of the personal interconflicts depicted between them were real. And they had to learn to operate the equipment they were supplied with.
According to the commentary, the strange woman the trio interview who says she had an encounter with the Witch when she was a child was a student in the local film school who answered their ad. However, she was also as truly weird as Heather later describes her. That was her real house. She really does claim to believe she's a lot of different things.
Although The Blair Witch Project is cited as an influential movie, I can't say I agree. It's based on a gimmick. Yes, it works. That's tribute to the filmmakers and actors. They manage to carry it off.
But I personally don't agree it's a good idea to copy gimmicks. If somebody is inspired to discover another innovative and creative format and they can make it work, great.
But the story and its presentation are what's important.
The Blair Witch Project succeeds in evoking fear, wonder and shock. That's the goal of horror movie.
I am personally of two minds about this. It's certainly a good movie, deserved its success and should be watched by all horror movie fans.
That said, I'm reluctant to applaud its format as revolutionary. It's an intrinsic part of a good story, and I applaud its creators for their creativity and innovation. But filming with shaking cameras is not a good ideas for most horror movies.
I'm ordinarily not a fan of artists making art about making art. Rock songs about being a rock and roll star. Country songs about making country music. Novels about writers. You get the idea. Perhaps it's because I hated the movie 200 Motels so much despite having been a fan of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention since 1965.
However, although The Blair Witch Project is technically a movie about film students making a documentary, that's really just the excuse to have their investigation into the Blair Witch legend recorded by a video camera. Ordinary campers would not have recorded so much footage, and could not have presented the backstory history of the Blair Witch. Nor would they have interviewed any locals.
The Blair Witch is a local legend of a woman in colonial times condemned to death by hanging. However, she seems to have changed into some kind monster that lives on. Subsequent incidents of death are recounted, such as man who confessed to torturing and killing seven children in the basement of his house.
If the movie has a weakness, I think it's in this backstory not being tied into established belief systems. I was not sure just what the monster of the story really was. An evil power that just happened to use the Blair Witch? Was she the beginning of the local evil?
The monster is apparently not a standard witch or monster, though there is a place in the woods where various figures have been woven out of sticks, making it look like a place of pagan worship, which I'm sure the filmmakers wanted to evoke. But who created them, and why?
It's like somebody put them there as a form of worship or propitiation, but it's not clear who. There's otherwise no hint that any local people are in secret contact with the witch, that there is a coven hidden within the town. She apparently has no power outside of the woods.
The movie works extraordinarily well given that the three actors were forced to improvise a lot rather than recite dialogue. Apparently some of the personal interconflicts depicted between them were real. And they had to learn to operate the equipment they were supplied with.
According to the commentary, the strange woman the trio interview who says she had an encounter with the Witch when she was a child was a student in the local film school who answered their ad. However, she was also as truly weird as Heather later describes her. That was her real house. She really does claim to believe she's a lot of different things.
Although The Blair Witch Project is cited as an influential movie, I can't say I agree. It's based on a gimmick. Yes, it works. That's tribute to the filmmakers and actors. They manage to carry it off.
But I personally don't agree it's a good idea to copy gimmicks. If somebody is inspired to discover another innovative and creative format and they can make it work, great.
But the story and its presentation are what's important.
The Blair Witch Project succeeds in evoking fear, wonder and shock. That's the goal of horror movie.
