(Originally posted at Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat by Sean T. Collins.)
The 13 Days of Halloween: Day 13
1. The Blair Witch Project dir. Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez
the scariest movie I've ever seen
Well, here we are: Blair Witch. Let me say right off the bat that I don't expect to change anyone's mind here. This is a movie for which the phrase "you either love it or hate it" was invented. I remember seeing it on opening night in a theatre: Half the audience booed and yelled at the screen as the closing credits rolled, while the other half looked as though they'd just been eyewitnesses to a plane crash. With most films you can argue that people just didn't "get it," but it's different with this movie: It gets you. Or it doesn't. A lot depends on where you first see it, how you'd heard about it, the kind of mood you were in, and (I think) the kind of mood you allowed yourself to be in. So yeah, this movie gets you, or it doesn't.
Good God, did it ever get me.
Opening night, August 1999, was not the first time I saw Blair Witch. That was actually back in June of that same summer. At the time I was working for Troma Studios, progenitors of the Toxic Avenger, Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, and various other rubber-masked individuals you see at the San Diego Comic-Con or on E! Entertainment Television. The Troma Team had just gotten back from their yearly expedition to the Cannes Film Festival, which took place just before I began interning at the company. Along with the usual tales of living 20 people to a room and having your picture snapped by hundreds of paparazzi while dressed as a man-eating condom, my coworkers had brought back a videotape. It was given to them by the makers of The Blair Witch Project, who, it turns out, were enormous Troma fans. (I guess Troma is an inspiration for anyone who wants to make a movie for less than no money, although clearly the Blair Witch people emphasized Troma's can-do spirit and not so much their fondness for exploding heads.) They gave them a copy of their movie, which was just beginning to garner some attention during its screenings at the festival, as a gift. Needless to say the Troma folks were quite excited: Horror-film true-believers to a man (and woman), they were up for anything, as long as it was frightening. Before long copies were making the rounds of the whole staff, and I remember being quite excited when I finally got mine. There was no hype, no stories in Newsweek or Time proclaiming this the scariest film in history and touting its micro-budget blockbuster status, no appearances on late-night and early-morning talk shows to publicize it, no endless parodies consisting of people talking into videocameras. All I knew when I took my copy home was that it was a mockumentary, and that it was scary.
Article comments
1 - Michael Croft
Dung! I thought you meant the Beatles movie...
2 - Michelle
You exactly described how I felt after watching this movie. I was never so scared in my life while the friend that had accompanied me to the cinema found the whole thing totally boring. I had to park some ten meters from my house, just walking the distance nearly got me a heart attack. At home I lighted candles everywhere because I was scared the energy could go out. It was really weird. I watch "Blair Witch" another time when it premiered on tv, but that's it. Nobody will ever get me to watch this movie again!
3 - donkey puncher
you wabbits are qweers
you smell like pussy
4 - duane
I think I would like donkey puncher to meet up with Ms. Blair Witch. Clearly, he needs to be corrected.
Nice personalized movie review, Sean. Yes, BWP had something elusive about it. It was restrained enough to give it a little extra air of reality, i.e., no lumbering masked dorks with battleaxes jumping out from behind trees. None of that crap that's supposed to make you jump out of your seat. Very refreshing. The sense of lurking terror in the darkness always works for me, as long as it doesn't turn out to be some lumbering masked dork with a battleaxe.
5 - Ana
Why would someone make a movie named the Blair Witch Project and make it be on the news and fool everyone on thinking its real? I think thats a worst thing you could do, YES its a good movie but why would they do that i am so angry thats its not true i hate the truth!!!!!!! i really wanted it to be true im just crushed!
6 - bigdoy
Oh Dear you have been hyped to death, this movie had one word be-fitting a B-flat movie "CRAP" if it wasent for the jerks of this world we would have movies that would really scare you, instead what this movie does is con you into believing that a movie is real and shocking , when all it looks like is someone forgot to turn off the bloody camera while walking round the park, please someone out there make a movie that scares you not one that pretends to do it like bloody blair witch. Altered is being hyped too watchout for the god damm hype,,,