I appreciate what Blair Witch was trying to do, but it failed.

[JD]

Talking about The Blair Witch Project as a film completely missus the point of The Blair Witch Project.

But it is a film, Larry. A low budget, experiment of a film.

The thing is it's not supposed to be a film. It's supposed to be a document of a home recording... that's what makes it a film. If this were just found footage, then, no it's not a film.

 

[Kerr Avon]

I'll take a movie that made millions at a cost of about 60 grand any day as a failure.

And it was a good movie.

 

[CB2001]

Problem #3 (SPOILER): There was no Witch. Say all you want about it being like Jaws because it's scarier when you can't see the danger, but here's what proponents of this movie don't understand about Jaws: for most of the movie you don't see the shark, but then BAM! There's a giant freakin' shark! Holy crap!

So, basically, you were wanting this ending.

I do commend it for one thing: it reminded people that you don't need a whole lot of money to make a movie that is interesting. Originally, it was going to be shot like a normal feature, with a 3rd person POV (typical of most movies). But due to the amount of money it would have cost to make it possible (especially when you're shooting out in the woods, where you'd need to light scenes and have a generator out there to power those lights). So, by using a consumer video camera and standard black and white film stock (which is cheaper than color stock), and by changing it into a sort-of first person POV film, they were able to pull off more scenes in a shorter amount of time with the limitations they had to work within than they would have if they had done it as a typical feature. It's much like John Carpenter and his crew for Halloween. If it hadn't been for the using the new steadycam system, Halloween would have costed a lot more for them to make and taken more time to set scenes up for (especially the opening scene, which hadn't been done like it was before that moment). The point is the filmmakers new their limitations, and due to the technology, they were able to pull off a lot more than if they had done it normally.

 

[sskunky]

What gets me in the film is if they had just followed the river instead of crossing it all the bloody time they would have got away scott free! :lol

 

[Larry Young]

But it is a film, Larry.

Well, sure. I'm not saying it isn't. I'm just saying that if one applies standard film criticism to it, one is missing the point of The Blair Witch Project.

The thing is it's not supposed to be a film.

Exactly.

 

[cayman shen]

This found footage thing wasn't groundbreaking. Perhaps there weren't a ton before; maybe BW popularized it, but that's all. Check out Man Bites Dog for a much, much better (and earlier) example.

 

[Westies14]

Man Bites Dog was mockumentary, too though. It had interviews. More Spinal Tap/Waiting for Guffman by way of violence.

 

[micdavis]

Well when.....

It's been a while since I saw it (I only thought about it after all these years......

I'm not sure how intelligent of an argument can be made against something in the first place.

At least revisit it before you go ripping into something.

 

[cayman shen]

Man Bites Dog was mockumentary, too though. It had interviews. More Spinal Tap/Waiting for Guffman by way of violence.

Yeah, I see what you're saying. I'm confusing mocumentary and found footage a bit in that example...although without getting into the end and spoiling it, I can't elaborate

 

[Kerr Avon]

What gets me in the film is if they had just followed the river instead of crossing it all the bloody time they would have got away scott free! :lol

Or like Star Wars if they had just shot the escape pod with the droids. Or like Back to the Future, if Doc Brown hadn't made deals with Libyans. Or like 28 Days Later, they hadn't let the murderous monkeys out of the cages.

Sounds like boring movies to me.

 

[SVTStingRay]

theres a reason why they didnt show the witch. if youve seen pictures of the witch they created, it was more laughable than scary.
Woods Movie - The Making of the Blair Witch Project

 

[nickytea]

Wait, so Cloverfield didn't really happen?

 

[Kerr Avon]

theres a reason why they didnt show the witch. if youve seen pictures of the witch they created, it was more laughable than scary.
Woods Movie - The Making of the Blair Witch Project

Where on that site can you find the pictures of it?

 

[Lvbolts]

I think everyone made some great points but if you watched and graded the movie after a decade of it being out the whole point of what they were trying to do is not there in regards to the advertising. I thought it refreshing that you never saw the witch, it was one of those "Was there a witch or was one of the students doing it." I thought for the budget the concept was different and tried something that you did not see back then.
Here is a piece my friend put together for me. He actually went to the house and brought some pieces back for me. He said being in that house even in the day time was scary.

 

[markomac]

I think I may have to rewatch this one day. I for the life of me can not remember what the ending was. Apparently it was a good one.

 

[niennumb1]

I remember way back they said it cost them $33,000 to make and they even returned the video camera to circuit city or wherever they bought it when they were done!

Film made over $150m or $160m which made it one of the biggest profit margin films ever at the time vs. cost to make.

That's pretty darn successful. I wonder how much Paranormal Activity raked in compared to production budget?

Just goes to show you that it's not the tools, but how you use those tools to make something unique!

 

[Ford W Maverick]

moffeaton, I was unaware of that. I guess I need to throw out that particular criticism.

 

[Lear60man]

Ford,

Watching it now is like knowing how a magician does a particular magic trick. It takes all the 'magic' away.

I saw the BWP when it was in limited release in LA back in the day (1999?). The now wife and I, got tickets via a friend and only learned about the premise from people waiting in line. We had no clue about it being a real film. All we 'knew' at the time was that it was a collection of footage from a bunch of missing college students. So we were primed for the intent of being gullible, and we were.

At that time in film history, nothing like this had been done before. It was truly groundbreaking. Needless to say, people were so scared that they left the theater. In a packed house, I would say about 20-25 freaked out watchers left. Not bored, but freaked. I would equate it to being in a movie theatre circa 'Exorcist' or 'Jaws'. By the time I saw these movies I was older and a little jaded. Thus they were comical.

When released before the truth, the BWP hit its mark in using subliminal scare tactics. Im sorry you got to see the plastic teeth on the movie vampire so to speak. We we scared to death until a few day later when we learned the truth. But a what a fun few days!

 

[CB2001]

At that time in film history, nothing like this had been done before.

Yep. Prior to that, there wasn't any other movie like that. :lol No, really, there wasn't any other movie like that prior to BWP. :lol :lol

 

[Larry Young]

When folks say "nothing like that had been done before" in film history, they are talking about the effectiveness of the advertising campaign.