Post by StevePulaski on Dec 29, 2011 16:07:07 GMT -5
The most famous shot of Heather Donahue apologizing to her and her friend's families in The Blair Witch Project.
Rating: ★★★★
Found footage films are unique, different, and most of all, scary. Well, they used to be. The Blair Witch Project was the first of its kind in the "found footage" sub-genre of horror where you get a very unprofessional camera, perhaps of the 16mm sort, and a very unprepared, expectation-less cast. The films usually presented in this style incorporate a more close-to-home feel that is rare to experience in a film of a high budget, which is why my expectations for these kinds of films soar to great lengths.
The ironic thing about The Blair Witch Project is it takes everything that is usually the jump scare in a modern horror film and makes it the main scare. Crackling, unsettling sounds in the woods, haunting echos, twigs snapping, etc is all the main source of horror in the film. They are the simple, unsettling noises we usually hear when we're in bed expecting to fall into a deep sleep.
The film is billed as a true story by stating before the film begins "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 three filmmakers are Josh (Leonard), Mike (Williams), and Heather (Donahue) who head into the woods to shoot a documentary centering around the popular legend of "The Blair Witch." Before taking off, they do about thirteen minutes of interviews, some scripted, some not, of townspeople who have had their personal experiences and encounters with the legend.
We then dive into the core of the film; the woods and a lot of it. From the first night they sleep in their tent, the gang notices rock formations, stick figures, and other unidentifiable objects in the middle of nowhere. Authentic frustration and tension builds amongst the characters as they try and cope with the idea of being lost, but it soon becomes even more haunting then they intended.
This is a very character-driven movie, and the people who don't appreciate it were likely going in expecting a gore-fest fueled by nudity, guts, and standard slasher style-fare. The Blair Witch Project is not that. It's not anything that deserves comparison to another horror film. It is its own original thing. Not a knockoff, no formula was used, and I highly doubt any found footage style of present day put its actors through hell and high water like this film did. The three actors were put through the worst, most insufferable conditions while shooting this film. A film that took eight days to be completed had its actors on a low food supply to showcase authentic anger and frustration, very broad directions to have getting lost an option, etc. I'd like to see a slasher that put their actors through some resemblance of treatment. If more did, maybe we'd see some more sincere reactions, though I'm obviously not promoting the idea.
Your opinion on the film may be how receptive and responsive you are to the idea of a shaky-camera movie about three people who get lost in the woods and hear things going bump in the night. In a time of needless 3D, special effects that can show you anything your creative mind desires, and actors that go from nothing to something, here is a very low budget work of art showing us how the little things and the most simplistic of ideas can very well be the most chilling. The Blair Witch Project is a taunt and testy thriller about the brink of insanity and how it can be lost.
Starring: Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams. Directed by: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez.