The Blair Witch Project

I am going to die out here.
*****

I went ahead and included the script beginning The Blair Witch Project, although I imagine anyone that is a horror fan that visits my blog knows the goods regarding it, so I could just go right into the review without going in depth as to the synopsis.

Which wicked witch was worse? The wicked witch of the west or the wicked witch of the east?

I had just watched this about, oh, two or three years ago and I think this actually gets better—not worse as I have read others comment—with age. I actually appreciate what filmmakers Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez do with this film, but I have to give credit where credit’s due in regards to Curse of the Blair Witch as I think it is vital to the success of The Blair Witch Project. It really adds a kind of Disappeared : Investigation Discovery feel to the movie that I thought just adds to the power of the final product. I actually purposely watched Curse prior to The Blair Witch Project just to build myself to the plight of the situation the characters fall prey to. There’s something that really unsettles when it comes to people seemingly vanishing off the face of the earth with very little left except memories. But when “documented footage”, pieced together events just before *the vanishing*, allows us to peer into the fear and paranoia and increasing understanding that peril and doom seem to be just on the horizon, with the addition of Curse which tells us that this trio are “lost”, it, for me, gives the finished product extra oomph and chills. I really responded to the crackling and knocks, how loud yet just distant they were, as the trio record them on the first night. What really impressed me was how each night does increase in their intensity until the tent is beat upon and we hear the giggles of children. Then Josh goes missing, his teeth later found by Heather in a ragged piece of cloth tied within peculiarly designed sticks, and the film just amps the terror of the scenario. Good stuff if you like a build that doesn’t quite allow you to see who/what it causing these “visits” but yet their/its presence is quite real. I’m a big fan of what the filmmakers do—and how the actors express—in regards to how the wilderness seems to have no exit; it is as if the woods are a labyrinth with no end. To me it was like the wilderness was playing games with the trio. There’s a scene where Heather is cocksure that in their day and age (circa 1994), getting lost is rather impossible, and Josh tries to reassure them (more himself, really) that once his family/girlfriend realizes he’s missing, they’ll come looking for him. I think, though, that Michael’s kicking the map into the creek was the beginning of the end as morale is decimated…because at the very least, a map gives you comfort in regards to “signposts” that might trigger an idea of where you started. Heather seems confident that she can lead them into the Black Hills forest without a hitch. Coffin Rock is the location she eyes, but Parr’s cabin is also of direct interest considering he was “ordered” to murder the children there. But I especially find amusing one scene where we see Josh pouring over the map with all his attention and the Black Hills forest is far more vast than we might at first realize.

 

What The Blair Witch Project does is expose how the human psyche quickly unravels when circumstances arise that places characters up against an unforeseeable future that looks bleak and uncertain. You start to succumb mentally/psychologically/emotionally to thoughts of the supernatural, of the darkness, of the unknown. What is going on? Why do we keep returning to the same log at the stream? Who is leaving those most unusual symbols made from sticks, hanging from trees? Who is piling up those rocks in such a particular way? But what really is most visible and obvious is how the toll of not escaping the woods takes on the trio's relationship with each other. Heather is the most easy target because this was her project. She was responsible for the trip, inspiring to visit spots of significance in regards to the Blair Witch legend. Because Heather wants to shoot everything--and I mean, EVERYTHING--it begins to grow tiresome, wearisome, to Josh and Michael. They are mostly the point of emphasis, always documented, in often unflattering ways. We see these three bicker, provoke themselves to anger, spit vitriolic profanity, laugh, cry, pile in pathetic heaps when on the verge of giving up thanks to the circles they walk, and even engage in conversation much more pleasant when arguing does them little good. Through the found footage genre, The Blair Witch Project (unless you go back to Cannibal Holocaust; it does deserve its due as quite a disturbing piece of "shot in video reality", a godfather of sorts to the found footage genre) uses "recording events in the lives of *real people* in the moment" to its advantage, a lower form of storytelling that isn't necessarily cinematic as much as it is relatable in a format far cheaper that Hollywood's tricks of the trade. Knowing that such independent filmmaking of a simpler form could be such a success was certain to inspire others to try the same thing. The Paranormal Activities and The Last Exorcisms used what The Blair Witch Project did, that momentum so untapped, and benefited accordingly. I got a good talking to when a user on the imdb was a bit peeved in a review I wrote that didn't acknowledge Cannibal Holocaust as much as The Blair Witch as an influence in found footage. I do, I really do. I think that CH is incredibly powerful and shocking, but The Blair Witch Project was made in 1999, its timing just right to start an explosion. CH was a profound film in regards to showing human behavior at its darkest and showed through a camera a descent into the jungle. The Blair Witch Project doesn't provoke a response through grotesque violence but by never explicitly showing the danger's presence. It infuriates many but those of us who just flat dig it, we consider the unknown quite scary because its face is just out of sight but somewhere very close.

I have to admit that the photography is rough to say the least. I can understand the claims of motion sickness and anxiety that left some members of the audience simply unable to watch/finish this. Putting together images for my review was extremely difficult. I had a similarly arduous experience recently with V/H/S. That said, the ending left me quite fascinated. I believe I saw Josh's clothes in a pile while Heather and Michael were moving up the stairs of the old Parr house (with lots of little hand finger and hand prints painted on the walls) with their cameras. You get those triangle-type symbols also visibly painted throughout the dilapidated walls of the skeletal house. I think in regards to the difficult camerawork, perhaps The Blair Witch Project is best visualized on the small screen. I never had a chance to watch it in the theaters but seeing it on the small screen was probably easier. Small doses and multiple viewings have been rather thrilling for me personally, although the results regarding what you don't see never wavers. We are left to wonder. Was this all a hoax as suggested by certain characters in the Curse of the Blair Witch? Were they actually lost or just pretending for publicity? Suggestions are made, yet the tidbit regarding where the equipment and recordings were found, underneath the remains of a cabin, that was told to us looked completely undisturbed, does raise questions.

Josh's clothes?

Fate always seems to come up in my reviews for horror movies. You see that these three film students approach this project as a fun excursion hopefully for an easy grade. Not taking the myth seriously, jovial and sarcastic, completely unaware that something in the woods is very real. They will meet whatever it is first hand. Curse of the Blair Witch offers some possibilities, some explanations with a little history of the location as an added bonus. Did the kids fall to the Blair Witch? The ending sure hints that something sinister was awaiting them in the woods and at the old Parr house...