Okay, so why did I like "The Blair Witch Project"? Well, several reasons. I liked the fact that it was made with a budget that is the equivalent of some Hollywood studio CEO’s milk money. Low budget warriors almost always get an "A" from me, if only for effort. I liked all that cinema verite shaky-cam stuff. It was appropriately disorienting, keeping the viewer "off-balance" through out the majority of the film. It also gave the film an added sense of verisimilitude which was key to the movie’s effectiveness. I know one of the knocks against the movie is why would these people would keep shooting footage while all those wacky, spooky things were happening. My take on this is that I was reminded of photo and video journalists in Vietnam and Cambodia. They would brave any kind of horror or danger to get the shot because that is what they DO and who they ARE. Further, their whole lives are filtered through a camera's lens, and in some instances, it becomes a defence mechanism, the only way that they can deal with the horrors that they are experiencing. To whit: at one point in the film, the guys are giving Heather, the director, holy hell for continuing to shoot video footage in the midst of all the unpleasantness. She breaks down and says, "It’s all I have left..." Having done some freelance video work and still photography, I have to admit that I can understand her sentiments. There was a time when I spent most of my waking hours looking through a camera. It begins to define your life. The world and it’s hardships seem manageable, controllable, through the camera’s eye. While you’ve got the camera, YOU have the power, YOU have control. Heather simply can’t stop shooting because she fears a further spiraling loss of control. . It’s not a healthy way to approach things, and I think that is underscored in the film.
I liked the fact that it flew in the face of current horror film wisdom by showing NOTHING and leaving us with more questions than answers. I found the film’s enigmatic tone, it’s lack of closure or defined answers, and it’s lack of conventional narrative, to be pleasantly disturbing. And the film is more evocative than demonstrative. If someone went into it expecting a "jump-out-of-your-seat-and-get-popcorn-in-your-hair" kind of movie, they were, in all likelihood, terribly disappointed. A traditional popcorn movie, this ‘ain’t. The current trend (due to the leaps and bounds made in CGI technology) is to leave no stone unturned, to show everything. Not exactly a subtle approach, but in some cases, it works. If "Deep Blue Sea" hadn’t shown the sharks graphically having a people pizza party, it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as much fun. In some cases – like the Blair Witch Project
– I commend the filmmakers for not chewing my food for me, if you know what I mean.
I liked it because, to my mind, it was a psychological horror film. It’s definitely from the "Less Is More" school of horror film making. In an odd way, it’s a child of films like the original version of "The Haunting". No fright wigs and plastic, glow-in-the-dark teeth here. Just creepy ambience and people slowly losing it. Personally, I found watching the characters slowly unravel fascinating, if kind of unnerving. And finally, I liked it’s slow leisurely build to an ending that is, to my mind, genuinely creepy. I admit that much of the film’s visual and narrative tropes are born out of budgetary necessity. I don’t think this negates the cleverness, inventiveness or effectiveness of the film. If anything, "The Blair Witch Project" provides evidence for the old truism that necessity is the mother of invention.
Oh, well, enough of my rambling. One thing we should keep in mind, though, is that there is no empirical method for determining a film’s merit or worth. I think this is especially true of horror movies. Horror is highly subjective. And I have to admit that while I enjoyed BWP and found it effectively creepy (the film has managed to stay with since I’ve seen it, always a good sign), it didn’t shake me down to the very core of my being. I recently saw a film that did do just that to me. It’s a Spanish film called "In A Glass Cage". Now THERE’S a film that will haunt me for years to come.
I saw "The Blair Witch Project" last night. Had many different thoughts. I think I really liked this show, all in all. Let's see, where do I begin....
First of all, I read once where Siskel & Ebert would give thumbs-up to a movie just for being "different". Someone once said that Siskel & Ebert would watch so many clone-of a clone-of a clone movies that every time someone tried something just a little different, they both automatically loved it. Oh man, whichever one is still alive must have adored this little number. TBWP was really different than any other movie in recent memory.
At some theaters, they actually posted warning posters about motion sickness. However, the bouncing camera shots didn't make me sick-instead, they brought me right into the film. It was like watching one of our home movies. Interestingly enough, there was a comment made by one of the characters in the film that cameras tend to filter our realities. This is true in many aspects: When I used to box in Utah's Amateur Collegiate Boxing Federation, and had a rather impressive record, I invited my then-girlfriend to come & videotape my fight one night. She came, and so did all of my friends I'd been bragging to, and predictably, I not only lost for the first time, I was absolutely DESTROYED in there, total mess, didn't get knocked down or out, just got knocked all over the place, total bloody mess (go watch Rocky III where Rocky first fights Clubber Lang), and the one way my then-girlfriend could bear to watch the fight was by watching it through the video lens, pretending she was watching some schmuck-o on television get beaten up. That way, she could keep from looking away.
Yet the Blair Witch Project had the opposite effect: After watching so many "film" movies, this one with its "video" feel really brought me in. I felt like I was there with these two young men & this one young woman. Which brings me to the main problem I had with this film: Oh, crud, I began routing for the witch after about three minutes into this one!
There are few things which grate on my nerves worse than a bunch of upper-middle class liberal college kids whining about ANYTHING, mocking EVERYTHING, speaking with phony pseudo-English accents whenever it suits them then speaking gutter-talk replete with 60's hippie phrases whenever it doesn't. All of us began hollering, "Get them! Get them!" at the TV screen every time one of these kids would whine or swear or posture or whatever else. I mean, how do they manage to mispronounce the "F-Word"?
I guess if I were an upper-middle class whiny liberal pseudo-intellectual hippie-wannabe college kid still, I would have really identified & commiserated with these guys. But as it were, I & everyone I watched this film with just wanted them to SHUT UP, hence our immediate commiseration with the witch. Oh geez, if the girl did Madonna-speak for five more seconds, or if boyish-Mikey had whined & screamed one more time, or if Josh had said, "Hey man," one more time, I MYSELF would have gone into those woods after them.
{Incidentally, if anyone reading this is an upper-middle class whiny liberal pseudo-intellectual hippie-wannabe college kid still, I apologize.)
{Well, sorta.}
Okay, enough of my whining. What did I like about the movie? The female character sort of grew on me. She was optimistic and encouraging when things starting going wrong. She was humble & apologetic. She bit whining boyish Mikey during their bitch-slapping match, but then I wish she would have walked over & bit Josh. Then I sorta would like to have seen her bite herself, just because of the hippie-speak & Madonna-speak she made me sit through in the first 20 minutes of the film. In fact, if I were the one writing the Closed- Captioning for the Hearing Impaired on this film, I would occasionally add a phrase such as, "You're lucky you're deaf-you don't have to listen to these spoiled wussies." CRUD! I'M WHINING AGAIN!
Must be positive...
I do say, there were several parts of this movie which REALLY disturbed me. Believe it or not, that's a compliment in this case. When I was young, & still going after the Boy Scout badges, we would camp out in "Bigfoot" country just east of Downey, Idaho. One night, while we were lying in our tents, we heard something outside of our tent. We lied there, silent, until morning. In the morning we sent out this kid we didn't like much to check on things-we figured that if there were a bear out there, we'd see his head come flying off, & we could hide inside the tent until a helicopter flew in & saved us. He went out, & when his decapitated head didn't come rolling back into the tent, we crawled out & cautiously followed him. During the night, something or someone had gone through our backpacks, & stolen some things. Things such as Snack-Pack puddings & a couple of sodas. Hey, wait a minute. I just realized something: Our scout masters slept in another tent. I just realized where our Snack-Packs & Sunkists went!
Every time the sun would set in this movie, I would get worried. I would hope that the gal would keep her camera off until the next morning. And, of course, she wouldn't. Which made me think: If I were running through the woods, screeching with fear, would I keep the floodlamp, the boom mike, & the camera all running? Probably not. But then again, maybe I'm wrong: I've never gone off running through the woods, screeching with fear....at least, not when I had a floodlamp, a boom mike, & a camera handy.....so who knows what I'd do?
But seriously, if one were trying to get away from someone or something, wouldn't it sort of be smarter to be quieter, & try to hide oneself?
As soon as they got to that house, it got really scary. I was really freaked out. My wife was bored, & she kept calling me a sissy. But if a sissy is someone who weeps & screams & throws his wife & kids at the television screen at the first sign of danger, then grabs a Bible & a BB gun & locks himself into the closet, screaming the whole time, then bursts back out of the closet when he gets the creeps in there, then okay, Mr. Toughguy, evidently I'm guilty of being a sissy by your description!
All in all, I give The Blair Witch Project:
Hated it!
This was the dumbest movie I've ever seen. I give it a "G" because an "F" is too good for this one. This was a film about a few kids trying to make a scary film.
Brief note: Please remember that Ando-Woman didn't like Frankenhooker or Halloween III or Quest for Fire, either! She's also sort of lukewarm on the Yankees, the Beatles, and Billy Joel!)
