Well now, guess what!!! I saw the Blair Witch Project (BWP for my typing ease). Actually, by the time
you read this, I'll probably have seen it twice, as I am going again.
Amazingly, I loved BWP. I thought it was an absolutely superb example of filmwork and amateur acting,
I simply wish it was named differently, for truly, the story in the movie hasn't much to do with the Blair Witch legend. (YES,
IT'S A LEGEND, A MYTH, A STORY. IF YOU BELIEVE IN THIS LEGEND - INDEED, IF YOU WOULD BELIEVE THAT WITCHES ARE AS SUCH - PLEASE
LEAVE MY SITE AND NEVER COME BACK.) Ahem... Please excuse my outburst. As I am an AOL chat-addict I am extremely tired
of little people coming into the Witchcraft chatroom adn asking "Is the Blair Witch Project real?" or "What happened in the
end?" even declaring "I am the Blair Witch." It's to the point where I automatically ignore any mention of the film in that
room. I do so hate it when a film gets trampled over by propaganda and this is, indeed, an extreme of the propaganda monster.
So much so that I took the time to research the actual Blair Witch myth and the story of the hermit and the children he is
said to have killed. But we won't get into that, if you wanna know, you can look it all up the way I did. On with the film
review:
Now, I must admit, I went to this film prepared to run up to the booth and tear it apart with my teeth.
I began the movie offended at the title, at the propaganda, and particuarly at the people behind us who were utterly convinced
that this was true and that on the way home, they were going to be killed by the BW. I must admit, the prospect didn't exactly
make me feel bad. I longed to duct tape their mouths.
The film began and I was more concerned with my popcorn and Diet Coke than I was with anything they
were doing, however, I began to listen when they started to interview the townspeople because I was curious how much of the
propaganda from magazines and websites there had put into the film. This was my first and only disappointment. There isn't
any actual story about the Blair Witch. The information you are given at the beginning of the film is that people believe
in her, that a fisherman has seen atmospheric differential caused by the temperature differential between the river water
and the air, which he called the Blair Witch, that an 'eccentric' lady was touched on the arm and then flashed by a female
Sasquwatch (Yes, I spelled that wrong), and that there once was a hermit who lived in the forest who came into town to admit
he was the cause of the commotion and the killing of 7 children. So, perhaps a better name for the film would have been, "The
Blair Hermit Project." It would certainly have been a better fit, however, I think ticket sales would have fallen off distinctly
and we can't have that happening. There is no mention of the legend the producer/writer/directors put out about how the BW
was drug off into the forest and rather burned, but not really, and then left to die. There is no mention that the supposed
BW lived in the late 1700s. Que sera, sera.... No movie is without plot flaws.... I was just wishing for less major ones.
Anyhow, when they actually get out into the forest, the character Heather turns into the SuperOverbearingBitch
of the Universe and her insistence of the trail they follow is beleivable at times, but I found it also just a set up for
the later happenings. The character Josh reminds me insanely of my friend Patrick, but that doesn't really matter. Mike is
portrayed very well as a pansy-assed little boy. But we'll skip all the first filmings and the first happenings and go right
to the stress scenes... which are my faves.
As conditions worsen and the characters realize they cannot find the way out of the forest, the fighting
that occurs between them is exactly what I would expect from my friends and I, should we ever be found in the same situation,
hence I loved it. It was real-to-life and extremely convincing. Anyhow, after whatever it is has taken Josh away, the way
that Heather and Mike exhibit their dire stress is the best part of the entire film. They've run out of food, they have no
map, something makes sounds at them every night, and, what seems to them to be worst of all is that they have also run out
of cigarettes. (The cigarettes, in my opinion, were the best devices of the entire movie because of the hopelessness that
they portrayed when lost and the hope that Mike and Heather got from them when found again.) Mike has a classic way of letting
his stress out - he rocks back and forth on the ground. Heather, after she finds the peice of what is assumably Josh (although
none of us could ever venture a guess at what PART of Josh it was... could you?) runs to wash her hands and then obsesses
about her getting her gloves back on, which was also another detail that tickled me as well as riveted me. It didn't seem
to me that Heather ever told Mike about the peice of Josh, which I liked, as it took away the motivation for Mike to be truly
terrified in the end and gave him the motivation to want to find Josh.
Anyhow, I'll stop my analytical synopsis now and just question a few other things. SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN
'EM TO ME!!
Also, what was with the handprints on the walls upstairs in the house? That was another one we couldn't
figure out!!
What did this movie have to do with witches at all??????????
Did ya like it?
Do you think I'm full of shit and that the BW is real?
Did anybody else catch the continuity of Mike standing in the corner while Heather was killed and the
story of the hermit?? That was GREAT!! With the attention span of people today, I would have expected that detail to be left
out entirely by the end of the movie.
Overall, I really did like this movie, however I will never buy it, as it is truly a theatre movie.
Also, I applaud the actors as well as the producer/writer/directors on their acheivement of such a magnificent break from
high-budget, under-hyped films.
