Blair witch project good film or pants?

[mazhar munir]

So tell me people what do make of the Blair Witch Project? Is it an elite film or should it just be forgotten. Good? or Pants? A good critic would give reasons or an explanation!

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m.munir

[shirt]

Well...

To say that "The Blair Witch Project" was a good film, would be like saying MS Windows ME is a good operating system... as much as you may want to argue it, in the end everyone will pretty much agree that it licked my hairy ass.

Now, the film was one of the scariest fucking things I have ever seen in my life. I have never been so afraid to drive on deserted roads after watching a film. Mind you I lucked out and saw the whole "Blair Witch" Docudrama thing on AE the night before I went to the theatre. Scary it is, good film it isn't.

What makes the Blair Witch so amazing is that it was made for practically nothing. Consider the amount of film they would have used on that 16mm camera for example....

Then somehow, the two directors/producers lucked out and made the film into GIGANTIC fireball hurling towards earth... almost unstoppable... just fact that the film made it into theatres is nuts! But it gives hope to us. If we come up with a semi-original idea like theirs... then we can too, make it to the big time. Lets just hope that hollywood doesn't send Bruce or Ben after our fireball to blow it up like it did to the Witch.

[Curtin-Parloe]

Scary?

Only two cinematic events have ever scared me...

The Exorcist
The drunk scene from Dumbo

cheers

Paul

[sdchown]

The Exorcist was not scary.

Horror movies are broken into four categories:

Suspense (Makes you Jump)
Scary (Makes you poo your pants)
Funny (Makes you laugh, but you don't know why)
Disturbing (Makes you uncomfortable)

The Exorcist falls into Disturbing. Scream falls into Suspense. Alien falls into Scary. Return of the Living dead falls into Funny.

Thats why I love horror, it encompasses every other genre - Action, Humour, Drama. It effectively engages the emotions of the viewer, more so than any other kind of movie, because it makes us scared. Its the easiest emotion to manipulate, and probably the one that provokes the most genuine reaction.

That said, the Blair Witch falls into that little know fifth category - irritating and crap.

Later
Stephen

[eddie]

hmmm.. the drunk scene in Dumbo really is the scariest thing ever made.

For the record I though the BWP was great.

Its a shame all the hype had dried up by the time it came to the UK, cos I would probably have fallen for it as being a 'documentary'.
and it would have been perfect.

The Texas chainsaw massacre pretends to be a true story too, and had a similar response when released.

I think BWP will go down in history as a moment of evidence for the enormous foolishness and hungry gullibity of American Teenagers. How stupid we all are on this planet to pay so much attention to illusion and artifice. An artifact of its time riding the wave of the internet fascination.

Something like it will probably happen again, but not for a while. As for the filmmakers, what else have they done? Last thing I heard was they weren't interested in making another film because 'its such a pain in the arse' (interview with Jonathon Ross).
So we shall see if they were one hit wonders or not. I think they probably are, and just got very very lucky.

But its still a great film. Even though I knew the whole fiasco before watching it, I found the end weird and scary. It just took a lot of effort to give the film the benefit of the doubt. (ie it was hard work to watch)

[ilpostino]

I watched Blair witch whilst under the influence of purple hills and very nearly crapped my pants. However I wasn't scared alone in the forrest when I went home that night, and I live in Nomansland!

I guess it was the fact that we saw nothing (oh genius) and that left my mind to imagine that it was a bunch of guys making sounds with sticks and rocks.

However I did find it scary at the time but haven't been back for another viewing (I'd rather bake cookies). Obviously a great commercial success, but if it hadn't made it that far I reckon it'd be available for download on some blokes web site.

[Xendar]

I thought the Blair Witch Project was an excellent film. I also think it worked perfectly. Whether or not it was part fluke that worked so well, I'm not sure.

The problem it did have was the hype surrounding it. Yeah, on one hand everyone went to see it, but on the other hand the hype built it up to be something it's not. And I thought it was very scary.




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Mark Smith
Neon Films - Low budget films in West Yorkshire
www.neonfilms.co.uk

[Jim Bird]

Hi,

Good script and sound track, c**p pictures,
which were well edited and filmed.

It was a financial success so you can't
knock it on that score.

Jim Bird.

[foolmaster]

What Plot?

[sdchown]

No.

Pants are underwear. Its leads to some confusion though. When I came to England I kept saying stuff like "I'll be waiting for you in the pub, you will be able to recognize me easily. I have green pants on" and people would be all "Woah. I am not interested in the colour of your underwear".

To say something is Pants means it is not good. Simple really.

Here's another anecdote. Where I come from (Cape Town) you differentiate between 3.5" disks and 5" disks by calling them stiffys and floppys, Floppys and the bendable kind and stiffys are well...rigid. People in England found this hilarious as well for obvious reasons. Anyway the call both kinds of disks floppy's here.

Anyway, my mate was at work (he's also from South Africa) and he had a 3.5" disk in his back pocket. When he sat at his desk, he broke the disk in his back pocket. Angry, he said aloud

"Shit! I have had a stiffy in my pants all day and I just sat on it and it broke!"

Much hilarity ensued. He has apparently never lived it down. True story.

Later
Stephen


[This message has been edited by sdchown (edited July 26, 2001).]