{"id":138272,"date":"2024-08-02T22:14:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T21:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/?p=2040883"},"modified":"2024-08-02T22:14:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T21:14:15","slug":"blair-witch-at-25-found-footage-shocker-still-gives-us-the-creeps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/02\/blair-witch-at-25-found-footage-shocker-still-gives-us-the-creeps\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Blair Witch\u2019 at 25: Found-Footage Shocker Still Gives Us the Creeps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez\u2019s \u201cThe Blair Witch Project\u201d (1999) was not the first horror film to utilize the \u201cfound footage\u201d angle.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Others came before it that also claimed to be \u201creal,\u201d documentary footage of a frightening anomaly that was caught on camera. However, even with film history reminding us of other works that pushed this angle (more on this later), \u201cThe Blair Witch Project\u201d succeeded in a way that not only created a specific sub-genre of horror film but found widespread popularity by being among the first films to utilize the Internet as a marketing tool.<\/p>\n

Also, and this is most important, the film is still scary decades later.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

The first thing we see is \u201cIn October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Md., while shooting a documentary. A year later, their footage was found.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the title card (which also adorned most of the posters and trailers leading up to the release), it begins with a blurry shot that switches into focus of documentarian Heather O\u2019Donohue. It\u2019s a perfect start, as O\u2019Donohue, playing herself (as do her two male co-stars), is the true focus of the film.<\/p>\n

Set on Halloween, with a film crew of three – O\u2019Donohue, Michael Williams (embodying the face of fear) and Joshua Leonard (the necessary skeptic and, arguably the one who suffers the most for his doubts) – investigate the growing myth of the Blair Witch.<\/p>\n

If all you remember about \u201cThe Blair Witch Project\u201d is the forest-set squabbling, shaky camera work and histrionics, it\u2019s a pleasure to remind viewers how involving the first act is. The footage is always handheld and alternates between color and black and white.<\/p>\n

The early interviews with the townsfolk are engaging, good humored and well-paced. At one point, there\u2019s an interview with a woman who identifies herself as Mary Brown – it’s chilling, as she presents woodwork that, in my \u201999 mindset, presented an obvious clue.<\/p>\n

Is Mary Brown the Blair Witch?<\/p>\n

The leads journey deep into the Maryland woods and, with every passing day, discover they are lost and that someone or something is making nightly visits to their campground. Then one of them vanishes.<\/p>\n

While not the first \u201cfound footage\u201d faux supernatural documentary, \u201cThe Blair Witch Project\u201d was the first to catch on like this. Pre-\u201cBlair Witch,\u201d there was Charles B. Pierce\u2019s still wonderful, if awfully quaint \u201cThe Legend of Boggy Creek\u201d (1972) and Dean Alioto\u2019s simple, chilling \u201cThe McPherson Tape\u201d (1989).<\/p>\n

Post-\u201cBlair Witch,\u201d we not only got the quickly made, ambitious but conceptually misguided \u201cBook of Shadows: Blair Witch 2\u201d (2000), but the obvious rip-off of \u201cThe St. Francisville Experiment\u201d (2000), \u201cCloverfield\u201d (2008), \u201cREC\u201d (2007) and the American remake \u201cQuarantine\u201d (2008), \u201cParanormal Activity\u201d (2009) and \u201cChronicle\u201d (2012), to name just a few.<\/p>\n

There were also genre films that applied the technique as a storytelling device, ranging from \u201cHalloween: Resurrection\u201d (2002) to George A. Romero\u2019s \u201cDiary of the Dead\u201d (2008) and M. Night Shyamalan\u2019s \u201cThe Visit\u201d (2015).<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

Whether you go as far back as \u201cIn Search Of\u2026\u201d consider the infamous \u201cCannibal Holocaust\u201d to be the true originator of this genre (I don\u2019t), the devious novelty of watching a \u201creal,\u201d found encapsulation of the unnatural has always been irresistible. The Blair Witch was only one of many media Pandora\u2019s Boxes to come before and since.<\/p>\n

Because \u201cThe Blair Witch Project\u201d was shot on film and in the overly familiar digital mode that just about every subsequent found footage horror movie has been since, it has a scrappy feel, akin to Romero\u2019s \u201cNight of the Living Dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donohue\u2019s is the film\u2019s center. She is sometimes irritating but also intelligent, engaged and authentic. While her work has been often parodied, O\u2019Donohue gives a terrific performance, and her big scene (you know the one) may have been filmed at an unflattering angle but her straight-to-the-camera confession is still heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

The shots of the documentarians filming themselves turns the camera into a character and storytelling tool, not a POV.<\/p>\n

It all begins like a droll camping trip video and becomes increasingly strange (another odd theory that circulated the year of the film\u2019s release that still holds up – if it\u2019s not Mary Brown, then maybe it really is just O\u2019Donohue (the character, not the version of herself she\u2019s playing\u2026you know what I mean).<\/p>\n

As the filmmakers get lost (\u201cI agreed to a scouted-out project!\u201d), the tensions build. In the age of YouTube, Tik Tok and reality TV, this is less arcane than one would imagine.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

The complaints lobbed at the film in \u201999 still hold up. The camera shakes too much, the characters get on our nerves and the third act reveal is more cerebral than finite.<\/p>\n

Considering the way the characters are often presented in an unfavorable light (Heather\u2019s shrill self-importance contrasted with the sulking whine of the men), it\u2019s no wonder audiences thought this was real.<\/p>\n

Still, \u201cThe Blair Witch Project\u201d (especially if viewed with the lights off) is scary, as the distant noises that surround the camp at night, the sudden appearance of the Stick Men and the morning \u201cgift\u201d outside the tent are still jolting.<\/p>\n

The camera is weaponized, as it not only captures the horrors but occasionally becomes the tool in which the three use to survive; their cameras are also used by us as a character study and by them as a confession booth.<\/p>\n

Someone notes, \u201cI can see why you like this camera – it\u2019s not quite reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, it’s easier to look at the screen than face the truth in front of them. At one point, the trio decides to head east, because they recall The Wicked Witch of the West. The final scene plays like \u201cHansel and Gretel.\u201d The ending is still seriously terrifying, an immersion into a haunted house with the final shots creating unbearable tension.<\/p>\n

Because the footage is allegedly real (and that was what many believed in \u201999, even after the film played in theaters!), we lean in closer, looking at the possibilities.<\/p>\n

This is a Rorschach Test<\/a> of a horror film, as some felt cheated and declared it the Emperor\u2019s New Clothes, while others deemed it an instant classic.<\/p>\n

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How much should the stars of The Blair Witch Project been paid? @Forbes<\/a> has estimated what they made\u2014and how much they COULD have made, if their original contract was honored.<\/p>\n

My latest on what happened, w\/interviews from the stars themselves: https:\/\/t.co\/DUYuhBrswr<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Lisette Voytko-Best (@lisettethebest) July 28, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n