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The Blair Witch Project
review by Anthony D.
Rated R
Studio: Artisan
Running Time: 87 minutes
Starring: Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, Joshua
Williams
Directed by Eduardo Sanchez & Daniel Myrick
Retail Price: $24.98
Features: Commentary by directors Daniel Myrick &
Eduardo Sanchez, Production notes, Theatrical trailer(s), TV
spots, Includes both the theatrical film, The Blair Witch
Project, (87 min.) and the TV documentary, Curse of the
Blair Witch (approx. 44 min.), "Newly discovered" footage,
Animated interactive menus, DVD ROM features, exclusive web
site access...to the map, excerpts from the dossier,
excerpts from the comic book.
Specs: 1.33:1 Full Frame, 2.0 Dolby Digital English,
Chapter Search
Described as a horror movie, yet containing NO violence;
also depicted as a thriller, it is NOT an edge of your seat
experience. What "The Blair Witch Project" purports to be is
not what it is either: In October of 1994, three student
filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkitsville,
Maryland, while shooting a documentary...A year later their
footage was found. So what can what say of a film that even
its filmmakers don't know how to catergorize?
Yes, in "The Blair Witch Project," three student
filmmakers do go off into the woods near Burkitsville,
Maryland to film a documentary about the local legend of
"the Blair Witch." Heather(Heather Donahue), Josh(Joshua
Williams) and Michael(Michael Williams) are armed with
cameras and other filmmaker accoutrements, and little or no
sense of direction. Before getting lost, however, they meet
up with a few locals with fascinating tales of "the Blair
Witch." It seems that this witch has a fondness for
children: as objects of torture, and possibly dinner! The
Blair Witch is a relic from the 17th Century who was
banished from the town of Blair, tied up in the woods, and
left to the elements in the midst of a deadly winter...and
yet come spring, no remains were found...ever. According to
the legends, The Blair Witch has returned in spectral form,
every so often, to extract her revenge on the people of
Blair through violent acts directed at children. Some
villagers who have claimed to have seen the witch herself
are portrayed as being one step closer to madness than
Carrie White's mother, Margaret! Others however, are old
enough to remember the time in the 1940's when a well-known
hermit, walked into the town, and exclaimed, "It is over."
The hermit then told the townspeople that he had been
"visited" by a woman who forced him to take youngsters into
his house, hide them in the basement, and in a key plot
element: force one child to stand in the corner, facing the
wall, while he (Parr) killed another child, then another,
then another until the total body count was seven. Parr was
tried and convicted, and put to death; but the legend of
"The Blair Witch" lived on until nearly fifty years later
when Heather decided to film a documentary on that legend
for a class project.
Unfortunately for Heather her dream project is never
realized. During the seven days depicted in "The Blair Witch
Project," Heather and her two-man crew manage to become
disoriented by the terrain, disarmed by each other's
failures, awestruck by a forest glen, decorated with
stick-figure totems, surprised by "gifts" of sticks and
bones, as well as being helplessly pursued by strange cries
in the night. The cries cease when Joshua disappears, but
are replaced with a voice similar to Joshua's calling the
names of Heather and Michael. They follow the sound of
Joshua's voice to an abandoned house in the woods where they
find...?
Since "The Blair Witch Project" "pretends" to be the film
shot by Heather, Mike and Josh, and found one year later,
"The Blair Witch Project" has no choice but to end in that
basement, with a shot that will baffle a few viewers,
infuriate a lot more...but present a diamond in the rough to
viewers who have managed to forget the pretense, and allow
the film's "throw-away" lines to have meaning. The terror of
"The Blair Witch Project" is there, but like a diamond, it
has to be mined.
Filmed with a budget of merely $22,000, cast with unknown
actors, and opening with a truly web-based audience, "The
Blair Witch Project" came into theaters with high
expectations, and for a while, critical acclaim (ah, how
quickly they turn!) And became one of the top-grossing films
of 1999. In terms of its budget, surely it would rate as the
top-grossing film of 1999. Wisely, just before the Blair
Witch backlash could reach its zenith, Artisan Home
Entertainment released its Special Edition DVD of "The Blair
Witch Project."
"The Blair Witch Project," being shot on various formats,
16mm, HI8 video, all hand-held, looks as good on dvd as it
did in theaters - - which, is both a good thing and a bad
thing. Since it is meant to look like a student film, the
good news is that it does. Because it looks like a student
film, with nausea-inducing hand-held camera movement that
could give the viewer a worse case of whiplash than a
pan-and-scanned copy of "The Sound of Music," well that's
the bad news. Can I say that colors are stable? Sure, when
they are supposed to be? Are the colors vibrant? No, being
shot in the woods in the fall, colors are bland, but stable.
The use of black and white photography is rendered well, if
deliberately on the soft side. To be perfectly blunt, "The
Blair Witch Project's" digital transfer - -in its variety of
formats (including window-boxing), looks nearly like a
low-budget horror film, from the Roger Corman clique of
fillmakers.
If you're looking for a DVD that will test the limits of
your sound system, keep looking. "The Blair Witch Project's"
sound design keeps with the pretense of being a student film
- - so of course, the Dolby Digital 2.0 surround track
delivers just that. There were times when at the very least,
I could decipher the eery sounds that the trio were reacting
to, and one hundred percent of the time I could hear every
use of that wonder police-ledger acronym, "For Unlawful
Criminal Knowledge," which surely rates a place in the
record books - - Brian DePalma's "Scarface" notwithstanding.
At least when Artisan promises a "Special Edition," they
have the goods to back up their claim. The theatrical
trailers and teasers are true teasers - - nothing is said
about the plot, nor the actors. Brief scenes, mostly black
and white, which make the viewer think that "The Blair Witch
Project" MIGHT just be something they want to see. A
surprise, for me anyway, is the neither smarmy nor snide
"Director's Commentary" track, which is scene-specific
through out the film. It took me aback because these guys
spent so little, tortured their improvatory actors and
succeeded in making an entire nation aware of their little
film, and yet, they could be so smooth, so savvy and a
pleasure to listen to. Also included are a couple of Deleted
Scenes, billed as "Newly Discovered Footage" which served no
purpose to the film; Production Notes (text), Cast and
Filmmakers (text, but for once acknowledges the fact that
Heather, Michael and Joshua are really actors) and a text
"Mythology."
The best of the Special Features, is the brilliant
marketing ploy, "Curse of the Blair Witch" originally shown
on The Sci-Fi Channel. This is a pseudo-documentary,
expertly produced and directed about a myth that doesn't
really exist. Tracing the history of this non-legend, proves
to be enlightening and entertaining...even if it is only
smoke and mirrors. Which brings this reviewer back to his
feelings about the film called, "The Blair Witch Project."
It's all smoke and mirrors. Nothing more and nothing
less. The filmmakers forced themselves into a corner with
their brilliance. Let me clarify: the brilliance of "The
Blair Witch Project" is not in the film itself, instead that
spark of creativity is lit in the filmmakers' radical
approach to The Blair Witch as a property. Myrick &
Sanchez conceived a rural legend which gave birth to the
twins, a website dedicated to all the legends of
Burkittsville and "The Blair Witch Project" the film we are
now discussing. One cannot banish one to cyberspace, and
dispel the other to the silver (or home) screen - - they
co-exist more as Siamese Twins than as fraternal twins, and
must be recognized as being one and not two. And this is the
film's fatal flaw: although many households in the world are
now cyber-ready, an even greater amount is not, and
therefore had no access to the marketing ploy that made "The
Blair Witch Project" such a marvel. If I were not a
cyberly-inclined kind of guy, and had never been aware of
the Witch's website (which is an awesome site), my overall
rating for the film would be incredibly lower. (I still give
the film a low rating because, it presents me with a
backstory that is much more interesting than the events of
the film, three unsympathetic "characters"exploring, and
breaking down the bonds of fellowship, who constantly harp
and shriek at each other, and except for that final shot,
fails to deliver a jolt to the system.) Because of the
dichotomy that the film is, I would like to give it a higher
rating, for, in its brief running time, it forced me to pay
attention and to think. Not that there's anything wrong with
thinking; but "The Blair Witch Project" asks far too much of
its viewers to be a pleasurable experience. If you want us
to like the unfortunate "characters," give them at least one
redeeming feature. If you want us to be terrified, don't do
it with sticks and bones. If you want us to be effected by
the horrifying conclusion, at least give us a clue or two
more that THIS is where the film is leading. ("The Sixth
Sense" manages to do all of this, granted on a higher
budget, and with a literate script).
For the record, I hold an appreciation for "The Blair
Witch Project," which is not to say that I heartily
recommend it. I do recommend it to people who will
concentrate on it, and whom I know will "get" the
ending...but I cannot recommend the film to casual viewers
hoping to find a film that will do for camping what "Jaws"
did for midnight swims in the ocean.
 (3/5, NOT included in
final score)
(3.5/5)
 (2/5)
 (4/5)
(3/5,
NOT an average)
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