THE AISLE SEAT - "THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT"
by Mike McGranaghan
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.
Those words make up the opening of The Blair Witch Project, a low-budget movie that was shot on 8mm film and digital video. It was the talk of the town in Sundance earlier this year, and based on the buzz, the movie is now getting a national release. This is further proof that Sundance is invaluable as a springboard for bold, inventive new works of cinema. The Blair Witch Project is a revolutionary horror film that uses not one special effect in its efforts to scare the living hell out of you. It succeeds brilliantly by letting your mind do most of the work.
As the title card says, three student filmmakers wander into the woods to make a documentary about a local legend, the Blair Witch. According to that legend, the witch was responsible for the disappearances of anyone who entered her domain (to go into specifics of the myth would ruin some of the fun). The filmmakers - Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Joshua Leonard playing characters named after themselves - start their movie well enough, but soon become hopelessly lost. They cannot find their way out of the woods, and panic begins to set in. If you've ever been in a situation where you were lost and just desperately wanted to find your way again, you will squirm at the scenes of the trio futilely looking for civilization.
During the night, things become menacing. Strange noises surround the tent and...well, let's stop right there. Part of what makes The Blair Witch Project so effective is that, like the characters, the audience is never certain what's going to happen. From the introduction, you already can conclude that these people are doomed (a fact that casts a creepy spell over the picture), but the less you know about the specifics before going in, the more terrifying the movie is.
And believe me, it is terrifying. What makes it so compelling is that it's low-budget origins are its greatest strength. Co-directors Eduardo Sanchez and Dan Myrick have come up with two bursts of inspiration. First, the movie plays strictly as the so-called "lost footage." There's no outside commentary, no addition of unrelated scenes. What you see looks like it came right out of the characters' cameras. This approach gives the movie an authentic feel. Second, because there was no effects budget, the story is loose enough to allow your mind to fill in most of the blanks. You don't see exactly what happens to the people, but you do see that something happens. When they meet their ultimate demise, the movie's suddenly over. Sanchez and Myrick are clever enough to allow your psyche to create the real horror. A movie like The Haunting, with its CGI effects and big budget, doesn't even begin to compare to this one. Blair Witch knows that what's truly frightening is a strange noise in the night, a sense that something is "out there" and coming after you.
To some, the concept of the film might seem like a gimmick, an ingenious-but-hollow way of suggesting unspeakable evil. Not so. I think the movie goes deeper than that because the actors are so convincing. Heather is a woman driven to success; her determination to make this documentary puts everyone in peril. There's a marvelous confession scene late in the picture in which she shoots herself with the video camera and - realizing she may never make it out alive - apologizes for her actions. In addition to being scary, the story is fascinating for the way it delves into the psychological ramifications of the situation for Heather, Michael, and Joshua.
All of which leads to the final five minutes, a lengthy scene of such overwhelming terror that I became physically tense watching it. The denouement is as chilling a sequence as has ever been put on film. In the 24 hours since I saw the movie, I have replayed this scene in my mind over and over, getting the heebie-jeebies every time I think about it. This film got under my skin and, quite frankly, has freaked me out like no film since The Silence of the Lambs (in my opinion, this one is even scarier). I swear this is not hyperbole, but I'm kind of dreading having to turn out the lights and go to sleep tonight because I know I'm going to start thinking about the film as soon as I do (this already happened last night).
This is more than a film - it's an experience. Because of its originality, its innovation, and its sheer feeling of authenticity, The Blair Witch Project is the scariest movie I have ever seen.
(
out of four)
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