The Blair Witch Project | ||
written and directed by Eduardo Sanchez and Dan Myrick | ||
Rick Norwood
I usually give reviews a star rating, but I'm not going to do that in this case. I didn't enjoy
The Blair Witch Project, but many people did, and if you like it at all, you will probably like it a
lot.
You've heard the buzz. You know it is a low budget horror film that is now the cover story
in Time magazine, a rags-to-riches tale I would be a Scrooge to resist. You know that the poster
outside the theatre suggests it is actual footage shot by three young people who died in the
woods under mysterious circumstances. If you watched the credits after the movie, you know it is
really fiction, and that there was a whole production crew on hand for the shoot. A lot of gullible
people seem not to have stayed for the credits, and still think it is a true story, but they are not the
kind of people I am writing this review for. I assume a certain intelligence on the part of the folks
who visit SF Site. So, there are two questions. Is it art? Is it fun?
The artistry of the movie is a subject the people who rave about it have seldom
discussed. Yes, it is art. An actual film shot in the woods by three film students would look
nothing like this. It would be slicker, and more arty, and artiness is the antithesis of art. The shots
would be held too long. One of the students would have climbed a tree and shot the other two
walking below. Instead of being arty, The Blair Witch Project is artistic. There is a good balance
between tracking shots and very quick cuts. Our interest is held by juggling between colour and
black and white, between day and night, between forward motion and circular motion. As a result,
the hour plus in which nothing really happens goes by quickly. The acting is professional. But it is
acting. We know from films taken on actual battlefields and during real disasters that people under
stress seldom show us their emotions. It is the job of an actor to let us see and feel what most
people hide. So, yes, it is art.
Is it fun? I didn't find it so, but then, it didn't scare me. The scariest fiction of my life
were the stories told around the campfire at summer camp. When the counselor shook his hands in
my face and shouted "You got it!", I jumped. I doubt that fiction will ever scare me that much
again. I've seen too many movies. So, if you are still in that happy state where movies can scare
you, by all means see The Blair Witch Project. But be aware that it has a very thin plot, much ad
lib dialogue, and nothing ever happens on screen. What you imagine the film is like from the buzz is
exactly what you get.
I should also mention that there is no clear supernatural element. It belongs
to the lost-in-the-woods-with-rednecks-lurking genre of horror, like Deliverance (****) and Texas
Chainsaw Massacre (*). You can imagine that the rednecks are witches if you like, but there is
nothing on screen that says that.
Why is this film so hot? I think Hollywood has gotten too slick. Even the most boring
movie has a big budget and a high level of professionalism. Part of the appeal that 50s movies
have for us today is that they lack that slick look we've seen too much of. The Blair Witch Project
doesn't look like anything else at the multiplex, and I am willing to give points for originality, even
to something I don't like.
Unfortunately, following the success of The Blair Witch Project, we can expect a whole
slew of jerky, out-of-focus, copycat movies, until we begin to appreciate slick again.
Rick Norwood is a mathematician and writer whose small press publishing house, Manuscript Press, has published books by Hal Clement, R.A. Lafferty, and Hal Foster. He is also the editor of Comics Revue Monthly, which publishes such classic comic strips as Flash Gordon, Sky Masters, Modesty Blaise, Tarzan, Odd Bodkins, Casey Ruggles, The Phantom, Gasoline Alley, Krazy Kat, Alley Oop, Little Orphan Annie, Barnaby, Buz Sawyer, and Steve Canyon. |
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