The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

a review by Christian Pyle

The Blair Witch Project Written and Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez Starring Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard Official Sites: http://www.blairwitch.com/ (mythology-recommended!) http://www.artisanent.com/blairwitch/ (trailers, screensavers, comic book, etc.) http://www.blairwitchdirect.com/ (merchandise) Grade: A-

Horror films have often proven that Less is More. Many classics of the genre have been made on relatively small budgets: "The Last House on the Left," "The Night of the Living Dead," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Assault on Precinct 13," "The Hills Have Eyes," "Halloween." Even "Psycho" could join the list; Alfred Hitchcock chose to make his first true horror film on a small budget to limit studio interference.

Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez's low-budget indie "The Blair Witch Project" is the ultimate expression of the Less is More principle. It follows this rule not only in its method of production but also in what it shows-or, more accurately, doesn't show-the audience.

By now, you've read the words that open "The Blair Witch Project." They appear on the posters, on the webpages, and in the trailers:

In October of 1994,
three student filmmakers disappeared
in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland,
while shooting a documentary.

One year later their footage was found.

The movie the follows is supposed to be the recovered footage that three college students-Heather, Mike, and Josh (apparently using their real names)-made as a project for their film class. Their subject is the local legend of the Blair Witch, a ghostly figure who lives deep in the Black Hills Forest and inspires the murders of children. After some preliminary interviews with Burkittsville (formerly Blair) residents about the legend, the trio sets out into the woods armed with a Hi-8 video camera, a CP-16 film camera loaded with black & white film, DAT sound equipment, and camping gear.

For the first quarter of the film the three students have a lot of fun playing with their equipment. They record themselves drinking, film a study of Mike's sporadic chest hair, and try to catch Heather peeing. This is all so real that it's almost tedious except for the ominous knowledge that they won't be coming back from this trip.

Before long, they're lost in the woods, and the map is gone. There are terrifying noises in the night and ritualistic warnings to leave. Unlike most teens in horror films, these three would be happy to leave if they could only find the way back.

After seeing "The Blair Witch Project," I'm not surprised that recent exit polls have shown widespread audience dissatisfaction. It's an experimental film, and it doesn't offer what the average moviegoer is seeking. When I saw the ending I was initially disappointed myself, but my reaction was the result of mistaken expectations.

To continue this line of discussion, I have to wander in to SPOILER territory, kids. So, you might want to TURN BACK NOW.

Watching "Blair Witch" can be as frustrating as it is frightening. What we see and hear is what would be recorded by three amateur filmmakers out in the woods. Most of the movie is shot by Heather with the small video camera which lacks the definition we usually see in theatrical releases. Some shots are out of focus, others are shot in total darkness. The sounds in the distance are hard to make out. Important events happen when the cameras aren't running.

Most frustrating of all for many horror fans, we don't see the witch. In "Danse Macabre," Stephen King said that one of the most terrifying monsters can be "the monster behind the door." He cautioned, though, that the writer can never open that door because regardless of how awful the actual monster is, the reader was expecting something worse. However, the recent reactions to "Blair Witch" suggest that not opening the door may leave the audience just as disappointed, especially in a visual medium like film.

So, where do I get off giving it an A-? Partly because I admire its audacity. Making a movie that suggests rather than shows takes guts. The choice to film most of the movie with a small camcorder is not only brave but also clever; in part, "Blair Witch" is an examination of the technology that liberates creativity (with video cameras widely available, almost anybody can make a movie) but also obscures as much as it reveals (details in the movie's low-definition video images are difficult to decipher).

>From Blair Witch's internet promotion, I expected a movie with the raw intensity and gut-wrenching imagery of "The Last House on the Left" or "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." However, that's not what "Blair Witch" offers. It has only the slightest touch of gore and violence. However, "Blair Witch" still packs a punch-it's just that its intensity lies in the subtle way it works on the viewer's mind rather than in horrific images. While I was watching the movie, I did not think it had affected me at all, but when I got home I turned on the lights in every room. The effect lasted until the next night. An really good horror film doesn't just scare you; it crawls inside your head and rearranges the wiring.

One last aspect of interest: "The Blair Witch Project" takes a step toward the interactive multimedia that will doubtless be the dominant artform of the next century. It's website <http://www.blairwitch.com/> takes the position that all of the events depicted in the film are true and expands on the mythology of the Blair Witch legend and on the search for the missing filmmakers. It offers photos of and interviews with characters who don't appear in the film and even Real Video of television coverage of the search. The mythology will be further explored in a television documentary ("The Curse of the Blair Witch" on the Sci-Fi Channel), a "true crime" book, and a comic book. In other words, the movie is only part of a larger work. That is a situation quite different from the familiar pattern of a movie based on a novel or a comic book adaptation of a movie; those "tie-ins" retell the same story in a different format. Expect to see more movie/book/web/video projects which ask the audience to explore different forms of media to get the whole story and which give the viewer more choice in how to conduct that exploration.

© 1999 Christian L. Pyle

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