Young Americans are not scared of much- school shootings can roll off us like water, the evil human beings inflict on each other is run-of-the-mill 6 o'clock news, we are raised in a culture that claims to worship a vengeful, elitist god while almost everyone is hypocritical and uses the power of spirituality as a way to abuse others. Everything that happens can be explained away by coincidence, pranksters, bats, hunger, exhaustion and imaginations run wild with fear- or you can choose not to explain them away. And, finally, you never know whether the Witch exists or not. What happens to them is terrifying because they are so every day, so interchangable with millions of other college kids. Their mundane existence, captured in the beginning of the film, roots them in reality.
The characters were not even necessarily likable, but they were *familiar*- Heather is the girl I sit next to in film class who thinks she has all the answers. The scarf goes slack, the woman is lying dead on her floor, and that's it.TBWP is about what you *can't see*, about how your fear of the unknown is so much worse than what the unknown could probably ever be. She struggles, but within a minute or two, she's drug down and strangled. The scariest thing I ever saw until I watched this movie was a reel in a collection of horror shorts: a woman walks into her house carrying groceries, drops her keys down her heating vent, bends down to try to get them, and something grabs her scarf. 'The Excorcist' has only a couple scenes that I find frightening, but my mom breaks out in goosebumps at the mere mention of it. 'Psycho', while interesting and a classic, is not the least bit scary to me.
My mother's friends told me it wasn't scary, but that 'Psycho' terrified them. So maybe people have a problem with young peoples' language, but what else is new? That's not a flaw of the movie- it's realism and part of why so many more young people found TBWP scary.I think at least some of the dissention in opinions is caused by generational and cultural differences. As for the cussing- the lines were ad-libbed, the actors are college-age, and all three sound exactly like every American college student I've ever known. I must not get queasy very easily, as I had no problem with it. By and large, the camera is not *that* shaky, at least to the point where you can't understand why- they're tromping through the woods and they're scared half to death. Sitting in a theater surrounded by my friends with popcorn in my lap and watching Mike and Heather run around some creepy old house, I felt for the first and last time in my adult life *real, creeping fear* when I myself was not in danger.Many have complained about the shaky-cam, the cussing, how nothing 'really happens', and that it's not scary. I saw this movie shortly after it opened in wide release. In the summer of Star Wars: Episode 1, this was the movie that originated several cultural symbols. Isn't that how it usually goes? Īnd an interesting but inferior sort-of sequel.
One thing for sure, you can expect many imitations of The Blair Witch Project in the future. Most are full of fake scare tactics and multiple twist endings that keep the audience shouting and screaming at the screen. That's unusual for a modern horror movie. Except for an occasional gasp, the moviegoers were absorbed in this film. One thing I did notice about the audience in the theater is that everyone was very quiet. At times the film really makes you feel the sense of dread the film makers are experiencing. You will have to respect it's originality, and it's manipulation of our deepest fears. The true horror behind this film is the unknown, and those dark places where you know something is lurking.If you are a seasoned veteran of the horror cinema, The Blair Witch Project may be less frightening than for someone who has not seen many scary movies. There are times when there is nothing but a black screen, and all we can do is listen to their scared voices and the unexplained noises going on around them. We see what the three film makers see as they make their way through the deep, dank woods in search of a legendary witch.