The Blair Witch Project Review
by "Berge Garabedian" (drsuess AT microtec DOT net)August 9th, 1999
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
RATING: 5 / 10 --> Not a good movie
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This film made a major impression at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. This film made a major impression on moviegoers when it opened wide on July 30th, with a box-office gross of close to US$30 Million, with only a $30,000 filming budget. This film also made major impressions with most movie critics who agreed that this film was one of the creepiest rides of a lifetime.
I must've missed that movie critic memo. This film made only a minor impression on me.
PLOT:
Three young filmmakers go out into the woods to film a documentary about the legend of the Blair Witch. They are lost and never heard from again, until someone finds all of their videotape footage. This film is a compilation of their footage from the woods.
CRITIQUE:
This film simply did not "do it" for me. I thought it was an original idea with an extremely authentic look and acting from its main characters, but God help if I didn't really find it all that interesting, scary or even entertaining. The last fifteen minutes of this film get a little creepy, and certainly leaves for an impression, but unfortunately, you have to sit through an hour and more of watching these three kids walking, talking shite, getting creeped out here and there, and whispering in the dark. I am assuming that all of this activity absorbed others into the characters and their plight, but I just thought it was pretty boring. It was like watching a camping trip video of some friends that I could care less about. I felt little tension, little suspense and absolutely no scares whatsoever. This is definitely NOT a scary movie.
If there was ever a film to which you could stick the motto "Don't believe the hype", it would be this one. And I'm not saying that the film is garbage either. It's like I said, I thought the style and premise were interesting, the actors believable and solid in their roles, with funny moments here and there, but overall, the film just didn't do much for me. It got a little spooky near the end, and certainly tied itself nicely to a story told at the beginning of the film by a town person, but don't go into this film thinking that you are going to get your pants scared off of you, cause that's not its primary intention. In fact, if you have a problem watching a camera jittering about for an hour and a half, you may just get nauseous watching the film stock shot here.
Did Mrs. JoBlo like it? Nope. I even caught her staring at the ceiling of the theatre every now and then. All in all, you obviously needn't take my word for it, since there are many huge fans of the film surfing the Web as we speak, but in my humble little opinion, the movie did not make any special impression upon me, and certainly did not entertain my sorry ass for its duration. And I think that is ultimately the main criteria of any film-- was it entertaining? In this case...no. See it on video, if interested.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars:
In case some of you still aren't sure...Is the film a real documentary or not?
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is entirely fictional. The entire thing is the brainchild of the films' co-writers/co-directors, Ed Sanchez and Dan Myrick, and was made over the past two years. The three student filmmakers are all played by actors. The actors used their real names in the film, and the conditions were a bit different than your average shoot. First off, the actors actually had to agree (it was written into their contracts) that they could be messed with psychologically. Then, they were sent off into the woods for eight days, and literally shot the film themselves (Shot at the Seneca Creek State Park in Maryland). Over 18 hours of raw footage was generated from the excursion in the woods. The only contact that they had with the crew was through notes and minimal rations left for them to pick up daily (they also carried a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite receiver), so they couldn't really get lost, and so that the crew knew where they were in the forest and where to head for instructions and food.) They knew their "characters" well, and knew the general setup of the "story", but everything that happens as the story unfolds was a surprise to them. The film was shot in October of 1997 and the directors spend more than a year editing the film down to its final product.
Has the legend of the "Blair Witch" also been fictionalized? Yes, it was also created by the filmmakers, as were all the supporting documents and all the events in the Blair Witch mythology (See http://www.blairwitch.com/). The filmmakers wanted to create a sense of history to add to the depth and believability of the film.
This movie is the feature film debut of all three of its young stars, Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard. Michael is already set to co-star opposite Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding Jr. in a film entitled NAVY DIVER, due out in the year 2000. Not too bad, eh?
An alternative ending was shot for Artisan Entertainment, but the studio left the decision as to which ending to use to the filmmakers, so they went with their original ending. Maybe we will see this and some of the deleted scenes on the DVD release. Needless to say, ideas for prequels and sequels are already being seriously tossed around.
Review Date: August 8, 1999
Directors: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez Writers: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez Producers: Robin Cowie and Gregg Hale
Actors: Heather Donahue as Heather Donahue
Michael C. Williams as Michael C. Williams Joshua Leonard as Joshua Leonard Genre: Thriller
Year of Release: 1999
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(c) 1999 Berge Garabedian
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