The Blair Witch Project
There were two films in 1999 that were hyped to death. One of them was made on a budget similar to third world debt or minor civil war and recouped this money and more by selling plastic toys well before the film was released. The other film was The Blair Witch Project, made on a few thousand dollars with a minuscule cast of unknowns, entirely on Hi-8 video and 16mm film. No Industrial Light and Magic special effects here and nowhere near the same level of infomercials in the guise of ‘making of’ specials that George Lucas could command. This film went straight to its target audience and infuriated them to the point where most of them were sick of the film before it’d even premiered. Aiming BWP at the late teen early twenties kind of market the producers realised they’d only get them out from their bedrooms for something extra special. Failing that, something they could pass off as extra special. So the hype was primarily Internet-based, bombarding the alt.cult-movies and alt.horror newsgroups in particular with the idea that the footage seen in the film is real, and the mysterious fate of the three people is a bona fide crime.
Well it’s not real. There, I’ve blown the big secret. Neither is it as scary as its fans would have you believe which is a real let down for me. Like many I’d been hoping for a fresh horror film to come along and blow my socks off with originality and/or genuine fear. The best we’ve been able to do this decade is the Scream films, wherein a pioneer of the nastiest horror movies, Wes Craven, satirised the genre that he had contributed so much to. They’re original only in their stunningly humorous return to slasher conventions of the 70s and the welcome appearance of gore. Other than these films, which had me screaming with laughter and joy, not fear and terror, there’s been nothing much of note this decade. An entire generation unable to lay claim to great horror films is not a generation worth considering. Of course, I’m not really of that generation, hence my ability to make insulting claims like that, so maybe what scares them doesn’t scare me. As for originality, the film’s broad plot about a group of film makers going missing under unusual circumstances and whose film is later discovered and reveals strange goings on owes a great deal to Cannibal Holocaust. So much in fact that Ruggero Deodato’s gut-churning classic got a re-release in American cinemas. With a plot reminiscent of an earlier horror film and marketing reminiscent of Snuff, which challenged the audience to believe a woman wasn’t raped and murdered in the film, the originality angle takes a bit of a beating.
But is it a good film anyway? Surprisingly, for all of the criticism and disappointment I can dish out towards it, BWP is actually quite enjoyable, pretty good and rather creepy in parts. The story, for those who’ve been able to avoid the hype (living in a monastery were you?) is basically about three college students who go into the invariably spooky forest for a weekend to make a student documentary about the Blair Witch, a local legend. As one of the interviewed locals says early on in the film "You damn fool kids’ll never learn". So in true horror movie tradition they get lost, tensions arise within the group, strange things happen at night, and then they all meet their doom. Shouldn’t have had that whisky before you started filming, everyone knows that. They were asking for it. Much of the apparent horror lies in the psychological dimensions of the film, feeling lost and hunted. Didn’t do much to me unfortunately, not like the idea of being trapped in a house or shopping mall surrounded by zombies, which is odd since BWP has at least some dimension of reality. The trick was in the making, the three actors were only given a sketchy outline of the story and never too much in advance. Each day’s provision drop included an outline of the day’s route and activities, nothing more. The hunger, the arguments, even the shock at night was quite real to them. And if you can put aside your knowledge that nothing spookier than the director’s harassing the kids is going on, and ignore a recurring plot hole that annoyed the hell out of me, then I’m sure you’ll get a decent jolt from it. Not me though, which is a bit of a shame because in the end I liked it.
Craig Andrews
