The Blair Witch Project
8.04.99

I can't imagine there will be a lot of movies that get their own Rambling dedicated to them (not that it's such a great honor or anything), but The Blair Witch Project (TBWP) had to be one of the most intriguing, original, and disturbing films I've seen in a very long time.

Immediately, there are some people reading this who have seen the movie and think that I'm so incredibly wrong about the movie. There are people reading this who may have been just as disappointed and angered by the movie as was one guy in the showing I was at who jumped up at the end of the movie and screamed out, "BULLSHIT!". And to be perfectly honest, I can't blame you.

I don't want to write a spoiler here, for those that have not seen the movie yet, so if, while you're reading this Rambling, you get the feeling that I'm dancing around thoughts, you're right. And you'll thank me for it after you've seen the flick. Or not.

But I'll warn you, off the bat, that if you go into the theatre expecting to see a typical horror movie, if you're looking for blood and guts, if the only horror movie you ever really liked was called I Know What You Screamed Last Summer 2... you're going to hate this movie and probably chuckle your way through it, not finding any redeeming value in it whatsoever.

But if you think The Exorcist is still the best horror movie ever made and it still scares you, if movies like Rosemary's Baby, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and Angel Heart F'd with your mind, if you can appreciate more "out of the box" creativity... prepare to experience an incredible film.

I say "experience" because that's what a good movie can do to you, make you experience the story, put you in the actors place, so you're lifting your feet off the ground when the killer is swiping at the actors feet with an ax, make you say out loud, "what the fuck was THAT?" when strange noises interrupt the actor's sleep. TBWP will make you experience Fear (provided there aren't too many of those chuckling idiots around, pulling you back to the reality of the theatre). You'll laugh and cry and shudder and gasp with the actors.

But using the word "actors" when talking about the three filmmakers in the movie (if I have to do a synopsis for you by now, you REALLY need to get of your computer more) is rather inaccurate. The three were led to location with a basic story line for the day and were let to pretty much improvise the movie. Eight days in the woods with directors that were off in the distance, lessening your rations, and pretty much torturing you at night with noises and... well, I wouldn't want to give much away. The point being that when these three are freaking out because there's a lot more strange shit going on than what they bargained for, it's not because that's in the script. And that's one of the greatest things about this movie. You're watching three people who, through the open sequences, you're led to immediately associate with and understand, completely fall apart. "Hysterical" doesn't begin to describe it.

And this could be any one of us. I don't care if my Marine friend says he could've found his way out of the woods. I don't care if people are saying they should've just let the camera and ran. These people had a reason to be out there and a reason to keep filming, and a damn good reason to be scared. And it could be any one of us. Imagine being lost in the woods for six days longer than you planned on being out there, running out of food, wet and cold, and all the while, someone, or something, is hunting you down. And we're not talking about Deliverance here. Like one of the filmmakers notes one day, "rednecks aren't this creative."

It's funny how some people got SO macho after watching the film... "I would've done this", "I wouldn't have done that"... it's really funny. Thinking about it, has ANY of them ever been put in the same situation, like the one I just described. Sure, maybe military training would help with the confidence level when they were lost, and even help with finding your way out. But somehow, I can't be sure that military training would help too much when your lost, your food is gone, and some ghost insists on ultimately fucking with you every night. I dunno. I'd probably lose my mind somewhere along the line, and I'm not too proud to admit that. But it's really funny how some people, who didn't experience the film the way it was intended, for whatever reason, felt the need to point out that it could never happen to them.

Granted, there are some points that could've helped them that almost every movie-goer thought of... follow the river, lose the REALLY heavy camera, don't go in... oh wait... wouldn't wait to give too much away for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, would I? There IS a need for some suspension of disbelief here. Then again, all these ideas of how to make the movie end differently are coming from people watching this happen from the outside while munching on popcorn and Twizzlers, not living it.

If you can allow yourself to become a participant in the film (and the film does a great job on it's own of dragging you into it) you will be scared. And you probably won't go camping again for a while. And you'll probably piss yourself if you're walking home alone from the theatre and you hear a weird noise coming from the nearby darkness.

And that, I think is the films greatest strength, it's realism. No demons or killers that can't be killed even by electrocuting them by shoving a lightning rod through their heart... just the unknown. And that's what everyone fears, isn't it? How do you run from something that's all around you? How do you fight something you can't see? OK, so maybe we're talking about the ghost of a witch here, and maybe that's not real to you. But like it was put in City of Angels, "Just because you don't believe in it, doesn't mean it's not true." And when in a situation like these kids were in, everything starts to be real.

Being shot as a documentary just adds to the realism... adds to the Fear. The camera shakes all over the place when the holder is running for their life. At night, with just a spotlight from the camera, you're not going to see more than just a few feet of space at a time, making you wonder what in the hell is out there, all around you. When a person is petrified for their life, it's all about tears and shaking and hurried, shaky breathing and snot bubbles and stuttering and apologies and prayers. No acting. When Heather loses her shit near the end of the film, she's really losing her shit, and there's not a sign of acting involved. That's real. That's scary.

I can understand why people would hate the movie. And I can understand why I heard girls sobbing loudly a few rows behind us at the end (Heh, the ending. No one will talk to you about the ending if you haven't seen it, and neither will I). I wasn't at either extreme. I loved the movie, but I didn't scream or fear or my life or anything. I blame it on the assholes around me giggling their way through the movie, reminding me that I was in a theatre, not in the movie. But I did go home and not want to fall asleep for fear of what would happen in my dreams. And I think I was lucky for that. I'm pretty happy about the phenomenon that this movie is becoming. My prediction is that "cult classic" won't be sufficient to describe this a few years down the road.