In the beginning was the Sundance festival. Then came the web
page. The marketing campaign followed. By the time The Blair Witch
Project finally opened in New York, people were camping outside
the theatre where it was showing. A film which cost a $40,000
dollars to make has gone on to take more than $100 million in
the U.S. and looks set to become the most profitable film ever.
So why didn't the big film companies see this one coming? Perhaps
it has something to do with a middle-aged belief in that technology
represents the future. It also represents nascent evil in films
such as The Matrix, The Phantom Menace and Virus. These films pit humans against machines. But for a generation brought up with PCs, Macs and the World Wide Web, technology is not frightening;
it can be mastered. This generation watches blockbusters for the
spectacle. What it does fear is that which is not known, that
which is suggested. The past not the future.
The Blair Witch Project masquerades as a video diary of three
film students who fail to return after an attempt to unravel the
legend of the Blair Witch, said to haunt the Black Hills Forest
near Burkittsville, Maryland. The exact history of this mythologised
figure is somewhat muddled, but has something to do with missing
children, disembowelment and curious twig figures. Imagine Deliverance
shot with a handicam and you get an idea of the atmosphere.
Aided by the actors' naturalistic representation of three scared
and lost adolescents, co-directors Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel
Myrick recreate the video format perfectly. But while the acting
is entirely convincing, the trio's emotional range fluctuates
wildly. One minute they are buoyant with jock humour, the next
they are screaming with fear. And they scream a lot.
With little incidental music (just sound effects) and no attempt
to compete with contemporary, effects-laden horror flicks, fear
and terror in The Blair Witch Project is of the old-fashioned
kind: created by your imagination.
Reviewed by Iain Tibbles
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