Whatever your opinion of the film itself, no comprehensive study of the changes that have occurred in the last two decades of movie-making would exclude '
The Blair Witch Project'. It used a faux-documentary style that would inspire movies like 'Rec', 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Cloverfield'. Its marketing campaign relied heavily on its website, thus making it one of the harbingers of all the online and viral marketing now commonly employed. And, most significantly, and while figures vary, it cost less than $25,000 to make, and took well over $200 million at the box office, about a thousand times what it cost. That last detail in particular struck a chord. The implication was that almost anyone could make a box-office hit, and if the restrictions of low-budget filmmaking were employed imaginatively they could be turned into advantages. No one who sees 'Blair Witch' is likely to say it needed a bigger budget; it could probably have been made on an even smaller one, especially with modern digital technology. Of the films influenced by it, the most interesting case may be 'Cloverfield' simply for the fact that its the one that did have a massive budget, but that deliberately tries to look as if its all caught on one home video camera. On some levels this was nothing new even in 1999. Horror movies have always tried to find new tricks to scare people, and that includes the notion that the illusion of reality makes things more settling than over-the-top frights. As has been observed before, the movie owes a debt to '
Cannibal Holocaust' (1980) another horror movie about found footage, albeit with much more full-on gore. The makers of 'Blair Witch' caught on to the eeriness of the very idea of found footage, and realised that all we need to know is the set-up (...A year later, their footage was found) and then even the most innocent scenes become ominous because of the sense of portent.
The plot, as if it needs to be repeated, surrounds three aspiring filmmakers who are making a documentary about a legendary witch responsible, according to some, for the disappearance of several children over the years. They venture, with their cameras, into the woods where the children vanished and get lost themselves. Eeriness ensues. Part of the hype surrounding the movie on its release was the deliberate ambiguity as to whether this was being sold as real or not. Watching it again, it seems unlikely all that many people were duped; the performances in the movie, largely improvised and pretty convincing, are clearly performances nevertheless. The cynicism we bring to such movies now may suggest another difference the past decade has brought: we know all the tricks these guys can pull. Like many of the best horror movies, 'The Blair Witch' achieves most of its effects through suggestion. Very little is ever seen, and nothing supernatural is explicitly shown. Every shot in the movie with one exception is filmed by the actors; while some people found the shakycam on display here a little quease-inducing, the darkness and undefined shapes that it picks up have the audience constantly looking for something out there in the dark. It tries to get under your skin by having your imagination create all the real horrors.
At this I think it is still fairly successful, now that it can be viewed separately from the hype that once surrounded it. It is certainly not a perfect movie; theres a point where the arguments between the three in the woods become slightly repetitive, and even at 80-odd minutes it could have maybe lost five. However other aspects stand up surprisingly well; even though its camerawork is deliberately shaky that doesnt mean important aesthetic decisions werent taken. One of the best of these was the two-camera set-up; theres a High-8 camcorder (the movie is set before DV became the standard) and a black and white 16mm camera. The juxtaposition of these mediums increases their power; there are a few rather beautiful, eerie 16mm images, while the digital video has a grainier, more immediate feel. The two cameras are employed brilliantly in the final scene, allowing us to see both characters points of view. Yes, we are jaded now, but we were jaded then. The point with a movie like this is people wanted to be scared, and they wanted a movie to trick them into making them feel crept out again. Blair Witch pulled off that trick, and has enough focus, immediacy and originality to make it worth revisiting.
Quality
Of course, this is a movie that is deliberately unpolished, so the Blu-Ray simply gives you the best representation of that unpolished look. The sound might be a more logical reason to pick it up, enhanced as it is in DTS-HD, but its a 2.0 mix that again is supposed to capture the sloppiness of the caught footage. This Blu-Ray allows for the best possible version of the movie on a large, full-HD screen, but it also begs the question, if a movie is supposed to look like this, why upgrade from DVD?
Extras
An entertaining commentary about the films production a story almost as well known as the one in the movie, involving real tensions between the actors and the directors doing their best to scare them as well as a faux-documentary about the Witch herself, released at the time to covertly market the movie. There is a history of the Witch also found on the DVD release and a deleted scene (given the first print of the movie ran two and a half hours, this would appear only to be the tip of the ice-berg, but it wont inspire you to seek the rest). The only exclusive appears to be four alternate endings, which are all simply variations on the ending they chose (and they made the right choice). Given the time that has passed since it came out Id have preferred a doc about the release of the movie and its runaway success over fake stories about a woman accused of witchcraft who achieves vengeance through the use of... witchcraft.
The Blair Witch Project is available on Blu-ray now.