Amazon.com video review:
Anyone who has even the slightest trouble
with insomnia after seeing a horror movie should stay away from The
Blair Witch Project--this film will creep under your skin and stay
there for days. Credit for the effectiveness of this mock documentary
goes to filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, who armed three
actors (Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Josh Leonard) with
video equipment, camping supplies, and rough plot outlines. They then
let the trio loose into the Maryland woods to improvise and shoot the
entire film themselves as the filmmakers attempted to scare the crap
out of them. Gimmicky, yes, but it worked--to the wildly successful
tune of $130 million at the box office upon its initial release (the
budget was a mere $40,000).
For those of you who were under a rock
when it first hit the theaters, The Blair Witch Project tracks
the doomed quest of three film students shooting a documentary on the
Burkittsville, Maryland, legend of the Blair Witch. After filming some
local yokels (and providing only scant background on the witch
herself), the three, led by Heather (something of a witch herself),
head into the woods for some on-location shooting. They're never seen
again. What we see is a reconstruction of their "found" footage,
edited to make a barely coherent narrative. After losing their way in
the forest, whining soon gives way to real terror as the three find
themselves stalked by unknown forces that leave piles of rocks outside
their campsite and stick-figure art projects in the woods. (As Michael
succinctly puts it, "No redneck is this clever!") The masterstroke of
the film is that you never actually see what's menacing them;
everything is implied, and there's no terror worse than that of the
unknown. If you can wade through the tedious arguing--and the shaky,
motion-sickness-inducing camerawork--you'll be rewarded with an
oppressively sinister atmosphere and one of the most frightening
denouements in horror-film history. Even after you take away the
monstrous hype, The Blair Witch Project remains a genuine,
effective original. --Mark Englehart
Amazon.com video review:
The Blair Witch Project
Anyone who has even the slightest trouble with insomnia after seeing a horror movie should stay away from The Blair Witch Project--this
film will creep under your skin and stay there for days. Credit for the
effectiveness of this mock documentary goes to filmmakers Daniel Myrick and
Eduardo Sanchez, who armed three actors (Heather Donahue, Michael Williams,
and Josh Leonard) with video equipment, camping supplies, and rough plot
outlines. They then let the trio loose into the Maryland woods to improvise
and shoot the entire film themselves as the filmmakers attempted to scare the crap out of them. Gimmicky, yes, but it worked--to the wildly successful tune of
$130 million at the box office upon its initial release (the budget was a mere $40,000).
For those of you who were under a rock when it first hit the theaters, The Blair Witch Project tracks the
doomed quest of three film students shooting a documentary on the
Burkittsville, Maryland, legend of the Blair Witch. After filming some local
yokels (and providing only scant background on the witch herself), the
three, led by Heather (something of a witch herself), head into the woods
for some on-location shooting. They're never seen again. What we see is a
reconstruction of their "found" footage, edited to make a barely
coherent narrative. After losing their way in the forest, whining soon gives way
to real terror as the three find themselves stalked by unknown forces that
leave piles of rocks outside their campsite and stick-figure art projects
in the woods. (As Michael succinctly puts it, "No redneck is this clever!")
The masterstroke of the film is that you never actually see what's
menacing them; everything is implied, and there's no terror worse than that
of the unknown. If you can wade through the tedious arguing--and the shaky,
motion-sickness-inducing camerawork--you'll be rewarded with an oppressively
sinister atmosphere and one of the most frightening denouements in horror-film history. Even after you take away the monstrous hype, The Blair
Witch Project remains a genuine, effective original. --Mark
Englehart
Curse of the Blair Witch
Are you wondering just exactly who the Blair Witch was? What the
Burkittsville, Maryland, legend was all about? Or what exactly fascinated student filmmaker Heather and what possibly took her, Mike, and Josh from this
earth? Get all your background questions answered by Curse of the Blair
Witch, a one-stop-shopping "documentary" originally produced for the
Sci-Fi Channel as a tie-in marketing tool. Entirely fictionalized, Curse
of the Blair Witch focuses both on the past and the present, with
copious info on the Blair Witch myth as well as on the disappearance of
Heather, Josh, and Mike. As it turns out, the original witch was one Elly
Kedward, who was accused in 1785 of taking blood from several children; she was
subsequently banished to the harsh winter woods and left for dead. Her
grisly and bloody legacy involves missing children, polluted water,
disemboweled men, and a serial killer of children who claims to have been
haunted by "an old woman ghost." Aside from some ineffective "newsreel"
footage of the serial killer, all this intriguing information is presented
convincingly and chillingly. Curse may in fact freak you out more than the movie, and it evokes the great, pulpy In Search Of series of the
'70s, one of the prime inspirations for filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo
Sanchez. News clips of the search for Heather, Josh, and Mike lend a vérité
atmosphere to the proceedings, but shed little light on their mysterious
disappearance or their characters. Basically, it's a tease to go see the
movie. Still, The Blair Witch Project provided only
ever-so-slight information on the legend that haunted the forest, so you'll
want this cleverly constructed mock documentary to supplement your
knowledge of the film. --Mark Englehart
