Re: the Blair Witch Thang

Sally Khudairi (sk@zotgroup.com)
Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:28:34 -0400


in our previous episode, Alexa quoth:

>Actually, the BW deal has me a bit perplexed.
[...]
>Can
>anyone here straighten out whether or not this is a "fabricated" story or if
>it is "based on a true story" but embellished?

Glad you asked. I saw the BlairWitch trailer during the Star Wars/Ep1 matinee
and thought it was wholly inappropriate to show at that time. The theatre was
filled with children and that trailer is *terrifying* -- in partiuclar that
offset closeup of Heather Donovan with the flashlight in her face. Yikes! A
friend saw it in NYC and was absolutely mortified.

Even after reading this, I still refuse to see it...I want to sleep at night.

Here's the deal, as explained by the Boston Phoenix
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/movies/99/07/15/THE_BLAIR_WITCH_PROJECT.
html

- S

>Hex, lies & videotape

[...]

>Such is the appeal of independent filmmakers Eduardo Sanchez
>and Daniel Myrick's bold, brilliant, ultimately doomed The Blair
>Witch Project, a film concept so fresh and obvious (Anna Campion's
>Loaded in 1994 had the same basic premise but a much different
>treatment), it's amazing no one has come up with it before. No
>credits or title sequence frame what purports to be the ultimate found
>footage, shot by of a trio of students who vanished while making a
>documentary film about the Blair Witch, a 200-year-old legendary
>apparition haunting the backwoods and the subconscious of the Black
>Woods of western Maryland. The gimmick is so ingenious, though, that
>it doesn't work; as with cutting-edge special-effects extravaganzas,
>wonder is replaced by fascination as to how the illusion is crafted. We
>know this isn't real, so fright gives way to assessing how clever the
>filmmakers are at trying to sustain our disbelief.