Audiences on the time might have been fooled, however 25 yr later, everybody is aware of The Blair Witch Project is a work of fiction. However even with out that “true story” gimmick going for it, the film stays surprisingly potent, each taken by itself and when thought-about within the context of not simply 1999’s different horror releases, however the found-footage onslaught that followed in its wake.
Made on a shoestring price range (it will definitely turned some of the profitable indie movies of all time) by writer-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, The Blair Witch Venture arrived throughout a transitional time for the horror style. The runaway success of Scream—one other low-budget, high-yield launch, as horror movies typically are—introduced slashers again into trend in 1996. Whereas the development was nonetheless percolating (1998 introduced I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer season and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later), teen audiences that slashers focused had begun to shift their attentions towards rom-coms, and 1999 delivered a bounty of these (only a few: She’s All That, 10 Issues I Hate About You, and By no means Been Kissed).
With masked killers taking a little bit of a breather, 1999’s horror panorama had a variety of choices, together with nostalgic epics like Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hole and Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy; edgier fare like Antonia Hen’s Ravenous and David Cronenberg’s Existenz; creature options (Deep Blue Sea, Lake Placid, Bats); films that eyed “the longer term” as Y2K loomed (The Thirteenth Flooring, Finish of Days, Stigmata, The Omega Code—and although not horror, this was additionally the yr of The Matrix); and two high-profile examples of basic horror remakes crashing into 1999’s model of high-tech particular results (The Haunting, Home on Haunted Hill). The yr additionally introduced a pair of standout ghost tales. There was David Koepp’s Stir of Echoes, a Kevin Bacon-starring thriller chiller primarily based on a Richard Matheson story—and, in fact, 1999’s solely film to come back shut to eclipsing The Blair Witch Venture when it comes to buzz and shock worth: M. Evening Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, which in contrast to Blair Witch notched six Oscar nominations, together with a uncommon horror nod for Finest Image.
With a marquee star in Bruce Willis and a extra conventional fashion (no handheld shaky-cam or dirty snot-rocket close-ups), The Sixth Sense matched its crucial success with an enormous business haul, with solely Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace beating it on the yr’s checklist of high earners. Everybody wished to see the film with the large twist and excellent their imitation of Haley Joel Osment’s “I see useless folks” whisper. And in 2023, even with that twist lengthy since spoiled and parodied and ripped off in all places, The Sixth Sense nonetheless feels remarkably timeless because of its performances (Osment and Toni Collette particularly), Shyamalan’s elegant method to style filmmaking, and a narrative that’s actually about grief and trauma… with genuinely scary moments sprinkled all through.
But when The Sixth Sense claimed all of the mainstream horror laurels, The Blair Witch Venture was weaving its personal magic within the unbiased house—and sparking the imaginations of filmmakers who realized not gaining access to sure sources (fancy cameras, budgets for units and costumes, A-list actors, and so on.) may truly work to their benefit. Blair Witch didn’t invent discovered footage, as any Cannibal Holocaust or Final Broadcast defender will let you know, however it opened up the realm of potentialities for the creators of Paranormal Exercise, REC, Cloverfield, and the V/H/S sequence, to not point out the handfuls of smaller movies that didn’t spawn franchises however actually made audiences shriek with delight.
As style junkies properly know, not each discovered footage horror film is value watching, and the moment recognition of the style resulted in lots of unmemorable titles. You may’t simply shove a digital camera at actors and inform them to run round and scream; whereas which may be an oft-repeated motif—inventing causes for characters to stubbornly proceed filming themselves is one other—there needs to be a compelling story able to luring viewers in and holding their consideration. The Blair Witch Venture’s “this truly occurred” feint is not any extra actual than the “true story” claims at first of The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath, however there’s a grittiness and a way of spontaneity that makes it really feel prefer it may be genuine.
With the assistance of the true MVP of any found-footage movie—the editor, the unseen hand that shapes the story lurking in presumably hours of “recovered” tapes—The Blair Witch Venture introduces us to its three-person forged, who play characters named for the actors (Heather Donahue, Mike Williams, and Josh Leonard), and its premise: younger documentarians exploring a spooky native legend. Due to an exposition dump early on, we be taught that there’s a motive the neighborhood has saved the Blair Witch story going; the world’s had an uncommon string of tragedies, together with a serial little one assassin within the Nineteen Forties, and folks from all generations have their very own tales about unusual sightings within the close by woods.
However Myrick and Sánchez, who directed their actors with the assistance of walkie-talkies, additionally start constructing rigidity between the characters from the very begin. Heather, Mike, and Josh begin off excited and assured, however as they turn out to be extra drained, chilly, hungry, irritable, and frightened after changing into hopelessly misplaced, it turns into virtually too irritating to observe them scream at one another. Simply if you’re beginning to marvel if the true horror of The Blair Witch Venture is how annoying everyone seems to be, the movie reminds you that this isn’t simply folks fumbling round within the wilderness—it’s a haunted wilderness. Folklore is made truth by the ominous sounds the trio hears once they’re making an attempt to sleep at night time, and the unusual talismans (piles of rocks, these immediately iconic stick effigies) they discover round their campsites. Is there some sort of evil within the land that’s protecting them from discovering the trail again to their automobile? That’s the implication as The Blair Witch Venture turns into a disorienting, emotionally fraught trek by means of a panorama that feels more and more hostile. A bodily villain by no means seems; we by no means see the Blair Witch in any kind. However the feeling {that a} malevolent drive is on the market clings to the sting of each body.
And, in fact, there’s that ending—the last word proof that it is advisable take note of all the things stated offhandedly within the movie’s first quarter-hour, lest you miss some of the highly effective “oh shit” realizations horror has ever pulled off. The truth that Blair Witch simply ends in that basement with that picture—somewhat than rewinding to indicate you what you’ve missed, like The Sixth Sense does after its personal “gotcha” finale—makes it all of the extra searing. We all know now none of it was ever actual. However in that second, even watching it 25 years later, it nonetheless feels prefer it may very well be.
The Blair Witch Venture streams free with adverts on Amazon Freevee, Plex, and the Roku Channel.
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