Films That Witness Madness

review

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

I had been planning on writing about THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT for several weeks now in celebration of its tenth birthday. I had planned on holding off a bit longer, maybe changing the look of the site to a BLAIR WITCH theme on the actual day of its original release. But I decided to jump the gun. Why would I lavish so much attention on this film? Because this is a film I sincerely love and a film I find myself spending a ridiculous amount of time defending against people who complain that nothing happens during the course of its running time or that the camera work made them vomit in their popcorn. This is a perfect film in every way, from its cast to its concept to its execution and it came along at a time when horror needed to be rescued from the teen tripe spawned by the likes of SCREAM and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. It re-invigorated the independent film scene, hit big at the box office and established the Internet as the new mecca for movie marketing. It was and still is the most profoundly disturbing horror film of the 1990s and its influence is still being felt today.

*Unfortunately, I'm a bit too late in writing this. Rue Morgue just devoted their cover story to it. Now I'll be regulated to the role of copycat, riding on the coattails of the best horror magazine around. Thank you sooooo very much, you wonderful pricks.*

I don't feel the need to get into the roots of the film or its obvious inspirations in great detail. It is, more or less, a mixture of In Search Of..., THE LAST BROADCAST and CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. Shot on 16mm and HI8 video,THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT manages to look the part of a documentary film - in this regard, it is definitely one of the best of its kind, besting even MAN BITES DOG. It has all the tell-tale signs of an amateur film - rickety camera work, undisciplined framing, blown exposures, etc. - and they all add to the total experience, helping to create a work that both looks and feels real. It's a testimony to the filmmakers - and especially the cast, all of whom were operating the equipment - that even months after the film premiered, people still thought these three amateur movie makers really died in the woods.

A testimony to this: I was at the first showing of the film when it opened in my city and was taken aback by the gentleman sitting in front of me who, mid-movie, stood up and exited quickly, screaming about how terrible it was for Hollywood to be benefiting on the great misfortunes and deaths of three people. When I returned to the theater to see it again later on that evening, the same gentleman was sitting behind me. I turned to him and asked him if he caught on to the fact that it was just a movie. "Yeah", he said. The lady in the lobby took him outside, pointed out the cast and crew listings on the poster and assured him it was completely fake. He had visited the films website when he got home, browsed around on other film review sites and quickly realized he was wrong. "How was I to know?", he asked me. "It looked so real".

Of course by the time THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT hit the theaters, most people were already in on this fact. While the website for the film did little to discourage the myth that the film was genuine, a quick glance at everything from Premiere Magazine to Variety showed that THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was a phenomenon waiting to happen. Everyone was abuzz about this $22,000 film made by complete unknowns that had caused a stir at Sundance. Whether it would succeed or not in the mainstream theaters seemed to be beside the point. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was proof that independent film - truly independent film - was alive and well and more than able to compete with the Hollywood big shots.

Much of the films success lies on the shoulders of its actors/crew. While CLOVERFIELD - another faux documentary - went the way of glamour casting, the three actors on display in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT are notable because they look, well, normal. All of the actors - Heather Donahue, Mike Williams and Joshua Leonard - are fantastic and their interplay and clashes form the emotional backdrop of the film. We might not necessarily like them but we care what happens to them. Trapped in the woods with absolutely no clue how to get out, starving, emotionally devastated and beaten into submission by a situation they cannot fully grasp, our three leads bicker, argue, fight, joke, laugh, cry and collapse at a moments notice. Our empathy - a completely inescapable part of our human nature - is triggered. Though repeatedly lampooned since, Heather's heartbreaking, confession/apology is not only the key scene of the film but also one of the greatest screen moments in the past ten years, performed perfectly by an actress willing to put aside her vanity and sink deep into her performance. By the time the film reaches its terrifying conclusion - containing one of the greatest of all images in the horror genre - we too are emotionally spent and mentally exhausted. We are also cheated. There is no final, releasing moment. Just a blur of confusion and a scream that goes suddenly silent.

Watching THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT again, I was struck by how remarkably constructed and executed the film is. The first twenty or so minutes is spent giving us all the folklore we need to know without feeling like exposition. We learn about Rustin Parr, about Coffin Rock, about all the sightings and occurrences in the area over the years. We are lead gradually deeper into the woods, slowly but surely introduced to mystery after mystery. The film takes on an episodic structure. We spend our days trying to get out of the woods and our nights cowering in fear as strange noises erupt from the dark. The horror genre has prepared us for the dangers of camping in the woods through years of slasher films but there is no hulking brute with a really big knife lurking behind a tree here, only the ghostly sounds of trees snapping, footsteps and crying children. The filmmakers stumble upon strange piles of rocks and stick figures made of twigs hanging in clusters in a clearing. They find themselves inexplicably walking in circles. One of them goes missing only to be heard screaming in agony after the sun has set. A bag of teeth is left outside their tent in the morning. When we finally reach the climatic scene in the old house, we find ourselves trapped in one of the most terrifying environments ever seen in a horror film. Dilapidated and long abandoned, with strange symbols carved into the doorways and the handprints of children covering the walls, this is the house of our collective nightmares, where no one ever escapes from the hideous monster lurking in the basement.

More than any other horror movie of the 1990s, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT proves that the imagination is a very dangerous place. There are no trick shots in this film, no special effects, no CGI monsters or extras running around in costume... just sounds, a few clever props and three great actors who sell the material so well that you can't help but be sucked into the situation. This is guerilla filmmaking in its purest and most precise form.

Essential viewing.

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