The Blair Witch Project Review
by John W. Collins (number DOT 6 AT mindspring DOT com)August 13th, 1999
Just what is a horror movie?
Over the past one hundred years, many movies have been given the moniker, "horror film," but few have deserved it. They were given that title mainly due to their subject matter, but a vampire, werewolf, zombie, ghost, maniac with an ax, demon, or even the Devil himself does not a horror movie make. There have been many a valiant effort. Some even managed to truly scare their audience, but they have sadly fallen short of what a true horror movie is suppose to do. A true horror movie's objective is not to just frighten you, but to upset you; to make you feel uneasy as you are watching, and to make that feeling follow you, even after you have left the theater. It is not supposed to gross you out with gory make-up effects. It is not supposed to amaze you with what can now be put on the screen with state-of-the-art computer effects. It is not supposed to make you feel like you have been on a roller coaster after it is all over. A horror movie is supposed to make you feel like you have been hit in the face with that roller coaster.
The "politically correct" 90s, where everyone is supposed to feel happy, and you are not supposed to upset anyone, have not been a very good time for "Hollywood" horror movies. Not to mention the ones that are suppose to "rock the boat" and come right out and slap the audience in the face. So, I was beginning to believe that the 90s were going to be the first decade since the modern horror movie began (the 1920s)that we were not going to have a true horror movie; a classic in the genre. But thankfully, I was wrong.
The Blair Witch Project just did make it with less than six months left in the decade, but there it is, standing as an example of what a horror movie should be. Made on a budget of sixty thousand dollars, and by a group of unknowns, TBWP, is well on its way to earning more than one million dollars in only its first month of release. It is setting box office records and has people standing in LONG lines; lines that have not been seen since another horror classic was in theaters, The Exorcist.
The back story is simple enough. In 1994, three student film makers went into a wooded area of Maryland to make a documentary about the local legend, the Blair Witch. They never returned. The movie consists of the footage that they shot and that was supposedly found one year after their disappearance. What follows is a movie that succeeds where all other so-called horror movies have failed. It is nearly a textbook on how to make an effective horror film; on how to manipulate your audience; on how to take ordinary places and circumstances and make them terrifying by turning the familiar into something unfamiliar. In a true horor film, it is not the film maker that frightens the audience. They can put in "surprises" that make people jump in their seats, but that is not horror. In a horror film that is doing its job, it is the audience that is frightening the audience.
Since the entire movie was shot with a video camera and a regular film camera, TBWP. has a "reality based" feel to it. People are used to seeing that only on television, not at a movie theater. Then there are only three characters throughout the majority of the film, so you have a very intimate setting and at times you feel like a voyeur. Then since this is all "amateur" film making, there is no blaring soundtrack of intrusive, popular songs. There is also no Dolby surround sound, so you are forced to pay attention to dialogue. There are bits of dialogue that you cannot make out, so like the characters you are watching, you are not quite sure just what is going on in some spots. All of this works to pull the audience into the movie and forces them to be a part of it; something modern audiences are not used to and that adds to the feelings of unease that are already brewing because this movie is breaking so many rules. Then, this is not a movie where action scenes are pilled on top of action scenes. When something exciting is going on, the camera movement is jerky and disorienting, and you can't always hear what is being said.
The audience anxiety grows.
Then as if to add a final insult, there are no breathtaking, wowie- zowie special effects. Just trees and raw human emotion. You watch as the three film makers become more lost and frightened and you are forced to observe their slow decent into near madness. A situation that no one is comfortable with. And because you already know that these people never make it out of those woods, you begin to wonder just what IS going to happen to them? What horrible fate awaits them? You find yourself rooting for them, even though you know that they are doomed. Now the movie-going experience is completely out of whack. Characters in a horror movie that you really like and care about? What it all adds up to is that without even noticing it, you have become involved. You are now a participant, be it willing or unwilling. There is now a sort of audience participation going on and that is the key element in any successful horror movie; or any other movie for that matter. By this time, the audience is not really sure what is going to happen next. Some are truly scared because of that very fact; they don't know. To its credit, TBWP is not predictable. Some are mad because they ARE scared and not used to that feeling in a 1990s horror movie; others are mad because this movie is breaking all the rules. Where is all the blood? Where is all the slam-bam action? Where are all the bodies? How dare they. Others are just praying that this whole damn thing will be explained to them at the end. But ALL are riveted to their seats because no one knows where all this is leading. We are all exactly where the movie wants us to be; off balance, tense, and uneasy. We have been manipulated and placed in a situation that many don't want to be in. Some are not even sure how they got there. Then the final trap is sprung and we watch as the final fate of the three characters that we have lived with for the past hour and a half unfolds. Not wishing to give anything away, let's just say that it is an ending that will be written about and discussed in film classes for years to come. But the end credits roll, the house lights come up, and the ordeal is over.
If only it was that simple.
The effects of a true horror film last long after the credits have faded from the screen. The images stay with you, they make you take those quick glances over your shoulder as you make your way to your car. Then if you go get something to eat afterwards, what you have just seen is all that you can talk about. On the drive home, it is all you can think about. Then when you are "safe" at home and in your bed and the lights go out, you try not to think about what you have just witnessed anymore. But it is no use. All the uneasy feelings refuse to go away. And now that you are in darkness, they are magnified. You are no longer in the relative safety of a crowed movie theater. You are alone, in a state of undress, and laying there wondering if there is something lurking out there in the dark that is surrounding you. Just like the three film makers you had just seen had wondered when they put their lanterns out. You try to tell yourself that conventional wisdom is right, and that there is nothing in the dark but the darkness. But you can't shake the feeling that conventional wisdom just might be wrong. After all, it was wrong in the case of the three young people in The Blair Witch Project. But that was only a movie. Or was it?
The Blair Witch Project gets a very much deserved **** and will join films like Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a true horror film.
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