THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

  Well, let's get out of the house for a bit, shall we? Care for a walk in the woods?

                         The Blair Witch Project   (1999)

  Directed by: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez

  Cast: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams,  and Joshua Leonard

  Synopsis:
 Three college students doing a documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch. They do some interviews in town, hike into the woods and are never seen again. Their film is found a few years later by an archeological dig. The film is processed and put together in an attempt to learn what happened to them.

  The Pickings:
  I love this movie. And I'm not ashamed to say that I believed it was true when it first came out in theaters and I was kind of bummed when it turned out not to be. I think their strategy was brilliant. It may not have been original or unique (Cannibal Holocaust did it first) but their manipulation of the available media was great.

  Anyways, on to the story!
  It starts out kind of slow with them getting ready and the interviews in town but I love the set-up of the story. I'm a sucker for supernatural horror, ghosts, hauntings and all of that. So this was right up my alley. My favorite part of them is the research part.
  I love the part where Heather is adamant about there being 'no cheese'  in their documentary then in the next shot she's got the cheesiest documentary narrator voice.
The action picks up one they get in the woods.
  They first visit Coffin Rock and then continue on to what they call 'the graveyard'. Ok, while watching this I couldn't help but think that their documentary was going to be awfully short. There's about 15 minutes worth of interviews in town, about 5 minutes at Coffin Rock and about 5 minutes at the graveyard in the woods. That's barely half an hour. Also the 'graveyard' in the woods is never fully explained. There are seven rock piles, presumably to go with the kids Elly Kedward killed or the kids that Rustin Parr killed but it never really says. One other thing that doesn't make sense to me. Heather gets all freaked out about Josh accidentally kicking over a pile of stones but she takes one of the stick figures in the trees. We don't actually see her do this but when Josh is telling at her later he says something about taking one of the stick figures.
  Things really start going to hell after that. You can feel the tension between the three of them almost from the start. Especially between Josh and Heather. The atmosphere that the movie creates is amazing. It just keeps getting layered thicker and thicker the longer they're in the woods.
  The actors do a good job of portraying it all realistically. I think that is what sells it. They're cold, they're hungry, they're tired. They can't sleep at night because things keep messing with them. And they do it well. There are a lot of fights, even a couple of physical ones. One between Josh and Heather and one between Mike and Josh and Heather when Mike kicks the map into the stream. Incidentally, another great part. Mike is laughing, Josh laughs along with him thinking they're just laughing at the absurdity of the situation, Heather thinks they're messing with her about the map and/or laughing at her being wet and uncomfortable (she seems a little on the paranoid side sometimes). Until Mike reveals that he kicked the map in the river. Josh's laughter trails off and they both go dead quiet. It's perfect.
  The minimal effects are great and much creepier than if they had thrown buckets of CGI at it. That might be another reason it was critically praised. So much nineties horror was glutted with CGI effects so going back to minimal effects was almost like it was brand new. There's not much there but what is there is effective. Something attacks them in their tent, they hear cackles and branches snapping around them. They awake one morning to find three piles of rocks outside of their tent, piles that are eerily similar to the ones in the graveyard. They hear the laughter of children in the night. That one especially always makes my scalp crawl. There's nothing more innocent sounding than the laughter of children on a playground. The laughter of children in the middle of the night, in the middle of the forest, is something else entirely.
  Something chases them from their tent in the middle of the night and when they return in the morning the tent is collapsed and Josh's things are strewn about and covered with slime.
  When they awake the next morning Josh is gone but ask of his things are still there, negating the possibility that he just took off and ditched them. They stay there to look for him and that night hear him screaming in the dark. Which is another part that I love. Heather and Mike are debating going to him and Mike really wants to but they don't go far from the tent. Why? Because they're scared. Y'know like real people would be. The next morning they find a bundle of sticks tied up with a strip of Josh's shirt outside their tent. To pacify Mike, Heather carries it away but later, when he's not there she opens itonly to find a smaller bundle of Josh's shirt, soaked with blood. She opens that as well and finds blood, teeth and a bit of tongue perhaps. The teeth are definite but it's hard to see what piece of meat it is. I'll go with tongue although there are certainly other meaty bits I could suggest.
  I only mention this part in detail because it's one of my favorite scenes. Heather totally loses her shit altogether but doesn't want Mike to know. To me it felt like she felt so guilty at getting them into this mess that she doesn't want to scare Mike more than he already is. As though right now it's the least she can do for him. Also, right after that they're putting their packs on to continue walking. She's visibly upset but tells Mike that nothing's wrong. Then she catches her hair on the pack and just kind of whimpers and crumples up until Mike untangles it. Like that is just the last straw and she just can't take anymore at that moment. It has a very real feeling to it. I'm sure we've all been there. Where things are just going so bad but we're ok and then something comparatively little happens, like we stub our toe. And that is just it. We're done, if even for the moment.
  I read on Wikipedia that Heather Donahue was nominated for and won the Golden Raspberry. I dint really see why. True, she's not a great actress but what they all do works in the context of the movie. In a more polished production it would be more noticeable but conversely a more polished performance would stick out like a sore thumb in this movie. And really, I've seen less convincing 'acting' on some of the recent ghost-hunting shows.
  The house, to me, is by far the creepiest part of the movie with the runes and the handprints on the wall. There's also a really eerie effect that happens with the cameras. I don't know if it was intentional or not but it works. Heather is carrying the B&W camera without the sound. Mike had the camera with sound. So when we see out of Heather's camera we are actually hearing her scream from a totally different part of the house. It's unsettling.

  Probably the biggest flaw of the film (besides some parts being so shaky it actually made some movie-goers throw up from motion sickness) is that Heather, Josh and Mike aren't particularly likeable. Well, Mike isn't so bad (besides some map-kicking proclivities) and frequently plays peace-maker between Heather and Josh. Heather is pretty bossy right from the start. She makes it pretty clear that this is her project and she's in charge. She frequently insists that she's right and interrupts people when they're talking. A lot. Josh makes it pretty clear that he doesn't like being told what to do and you can almost see the resentment building.
  Which begs the question. When things really start going off the rails Josh and Mike make it pretty clear that they blame Heather for getting them lost and tell her flat-out that they don't trust her judgement or leadership. However, neither of them have any suggestions of their own and continue to follow Heather. Nothing is really stopping either of them from taking charge or suggesting a different course of action but they don't. They're just as happy following Heather because this way they don't have any responsibility and can blame someone else when things start going wrong. Maybe we can sympathize with Josh when he finally does lose it about all the videotaping still going on but at the same time what does it really matter? If she puts down the camera they'll still be just as lost and confused so really he just looks like a jerk.
  You can definitely tell they're city (or at the least suburban) kids. Especially Heather's remark that it is almost impossible to get that lost in America anymore. Um, no. It depends on where you are but there are still woods thick enough that by getting lost you can be really screwed.

  Is it the greatest be all, end all of horror movies? No. But it is far, far from the worst. In my eyes that dishonorable title will always be reserved for The Fog (2005).

 I give it a solid 3 1/2 out of 5 on my personal scale.

  Any thoughts? Do you disagree with anything? Any ideas on how I can make my blog better? I'm always open to criticism or just to debate movies. Leave a comment!

  I'm still reading The Shining by Stephen King so that should be coming soon and we just watched Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 so that should be up by the day after tomorrow at the latest.
  I think by now it's safe to say that one movie, one review for each day of October is probably not going to be happening but I'll try my damndest to at least get them out every other day.

  Happy Monday fellow ghouls and goblins!