"Wicked
'Witch'"
by Scott Mantz
"The Blair Witch Project"
Heather Donahue,
Michael Williams, Joshua Leonard
Directed by Eduardo Sanchez and Dan Myrick
Its easy for
films these days to get lost in the shuffle. Audiences are more
jaded than ever, and studios are desperate for original material.
Every once in a while a film comes out of nowhere and strikes a
nerve. "The Blair Witch Project" is one of those films. Ever since
its acquisition by Artisan Entertainment after a midnight screening
at the Sundance Film Festival, buzz around "Blair" has been spreading
faster than the Eubola Virus.
Rightly so.
The filmmaking technique is fresh and original. The result is a
genuinely frightening piece that is sure to breathe new blood into
the horror genre, long out of steam with hip-teen satirical slasher
pics. Budgeted anywhere between $30,000 and $100,000 (depending
on who you ask) "Blair" is one of the most innovative films to come
out in some time, and it is sure to inspire hoards of would-be filmmakers
in possession of a camcorder.
Its what you
don't see in "The Blair Witch Project" that scares you. It taps
into your psyche and lets your imagination run wild. By using their
hand-held cameras to document each day, we witness the disintegration
of the human spirit into paranoia, desperation, and utter terror.
As the story
goes, Heather, Josh and Mike are three student filmmakers shooting
a documentary about a witch who supposedly haunts the woods in Burkittsville,
Maryland. They disappear and are never heard from again. A year
later, their footage is discovered, and this film is what they shot.
Its Heather's
project, and Mike and Josh are her crew. Things start simple enough,
but the trouble begins when they get lost in the woods and run out
of food. They start hearing things, but at night its so pitch black
they can't see their hands in front of their faces. They're cold,
hungry, exhausted, and terrified, and they start to turn on each
other. Finally, Josh disappears. They hear his screams in the distance,
but still cannot see anything.
Its common knowledge
by the now that this is purely the work of fiction. However, the
unique approach to push the film as an actual event has been so
successful that its become a phenomenon. The official web sight
contains police footage of the investigation and the recovered film
canisters. A special on the Sci Fi Channel was so thorough, it probably
cost more than the actual film.
Had this been
made inside the Hollywood studio system, it might have starred Janeane
Garofalo, Mathew McConaughey, and Oliver Platt, with Michael Bay
as the director (that's not gonna happen!). Fortunately, using unknown
actors adds to "Blair's" credibility as a true story, and the hand-held
camera approach brings you right into their frightening world. Lets
just hope they don't get any bright ideas for a sequel.
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