|
If you haven’t seen "The Blair Witch Project"
yet, I would only recommend it if you are prepared to watch one
of the most terrifying movies ever made.
That may seem like a grandiose statement to make, and after
hearing several comments like it before seeing the movie myself,
I was ready to be disappointed.
I wasn’t. |
The two directors of the film, Daniel Myrick and Edward Sanchez,
could not have picked a better time to release their film, since
people have recently been overwhelmed with the sometimes outrageous
special effects presented in movies like "The Haunting".
The Blair Witch has redefined what horror movies are supposed
to be about. There are no special effects, no scenes where people
jump into frames unexpectedly, and none of the setup-slash, setup-slash
patterns which made films like "Scream" and "I
know what you did last summer" famous. Instead, this new
innovative movie respects it’s audience’s intelligence,
and uses psychological horror and haunting screen shots to continue
frightening viewers long after the last frame.
The essence of the story has been publicized through the same
statement on every piece of the film’s advertising: "
In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the
woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary…a
year later, their footage was found." The entire movie was
shot on High-8 video—the trio’s perspective. This simple
form of filming has been one of the driving forces behind the
horror of the story. Instead of the third-person view most movies
are shot from, "The Blair Witch Project" is only seen
from the first person view of each of the three students. This
not only draws the audience into the woods with the students,
but also brings out the raw intensity of the tale. For instance,
when it’s cold, you can here the girl’s chattering
teeth and see the screen shaking. Basically, whatever she sees
is exactly what you see, and when the sounds begin in the woods
at night and the characters strain to see through the darkness,
you may find yourself straining as well, and with equal anxiety.
|
If, by chance, you were frightened enough by the film to begin
telling yourself "It’s only a movie," do not go
to the Blair Witch Web site. If you do, prepare for an outstanding
amount of evidence which seems to prove the Blair Witch, and
the incidents depicted in the films, to be real. www.blairwitch.com
contains such things as baby pictures of the three students who
disappeared, interviews with police officers regarding the search
for the missing persons, and a timeline of all the events regarding
the Blair Witch right back to 1785. |
|
"The Blair Witch Project" debuted at the Sundance
film festival and has been the talk of the industry ever since.
Even though it is an amateur film, it seems that the horror professionals
could learn a lot from this particular group of amateurs.
Links:
To get the latest info on the Blair Witch phenomenon, check
out these sites:
http://www.movie-page.com/1999/TheBlairWitchProject.htm
http://www.sfbg.com/AandE/33/44/leada.html
http://www.grainypictures.com/wwwboard/messages1/15.html |
