The Blair Witch Project Review
by Chuck Schwartz (chuck AT crankycritic DOT com)August 1st, 1999
www.CrankyCritic.com
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Number of Pages: 3
Date: July 31, 1999
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Cranky Critic® movie reviews: The Blair Witch Project
not rated, 87 minutes
Starring Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Joshua Leonard Written and Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez website: www.blairwitch.com
IN SHORT: The buzz was better than the movie.
Cranky has written before of how those of us who make our living reviewing movies are a small, compact community, who share the buzz on "small" or independent flicks that may otherwise be overlooked. Over the last six months there's been major buzz about a no-name flick -- that means no star actors or production folk. It's no reflection on talent -- called The Blair Witch Project. Word was this documentary style horror flick was tremendous, which explains the packed house in the screening room when we got our first look at the flick this past June.
The story concept was great: Three budding filmmakers, Heather Donahue (director), Michael Williams (sound), and Joshua Leonard (camera) are shooting a documentary on an 18th century "witch" named Elly Dedward when they vanish forever into a Maryland woods. A year later, their film and tape is found and is edited into a coherent form by the team of Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, revealing the physically deterioration and psychological self-destruction of eight lost days during which the group finds themselves hunted by an unknown entity.
The only problem is, the history of the "Blair Witch" isn't well documented in the film. The "filmmakers" spend more time focussing on a 1940s child killer who stalked the town and don't make a strong link between that "possession" and others that have occurred over the past two centuries (I'll get back to that). Residents of the town of Burkittsville (formerly Blair) are interviewed about what they know of the witch or the killer in the first half of the film that is very entertaining. Once they get lost in the woods, and I'll not give most of that away, the film begins to feel like something that was made up on the spot.
Which it was. Myrick and Sanchez gave the three actors film and video equipment to shoot with and story notes from which they were then left to improvise. The net result are scenes that sometimes look totally natural, and sometimes look like a bunch of scenery chewing. "Mike" goes through mood swings that a) make you wish he had brought a Valium drip with him and b) detract from the better than usual improv job done by "Heather" and "Josh". That pair are more consistent in their characterizations but the overall picture just isn't scary.
No one ever implied that BWP was a slice 'n' dice flick. If that's what you expect in your scareflicks, you won't like this.
This is one of the few times that the website is a vital resource, and more entertaining, than the film. There's a tremendous amount of material documenting the "witch" or the alleged possessions (there are more than one). Having the background details down cold will help fill in the gaps for you and may raise the tension levels high enough that you get a fright or two. Cranky got the material just before his screening, and knowing the details only pointed out the failure of the improvisations.
On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to The Blair Witch Project, he would have paid...
$1.00
and, as we used to say in school, an "A" for effort. The sum of the parts do not make for an enthralling whole.
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