Blair Hype
Project
by Michael
Summers
ONCE
UPON A TIME, AN INTERESTING, WORTHY MOVIE WAS BURIED UNDER AN AVALANCHE
OF HYPE. . .
If I have a
talent, it's for mockery, sarcasm and ridicule. So, then, what am
I going to say about the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, a movie I actually
liked? Because whatever complaints you might have about BWP, it
doesn't invite mockery. Satire? Sure. The new crop of sitcoms and
SNLs this Fall will deliver truckloads of humorous take-offs on
BWP. I could also see where someone might be misled (or exasperated)
by all the hype this movie has generated. But the hype that doesn't
really have anything to do with the movie itself, and the movie
itself is very impressive. It's also difficult to explain the appeal
of BWP without telling you what it's not. By now, you already know
the plot of the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and if you don't, the less
you know about the movie going into it, the better.
One
thing you do have to know: DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE. THE BLAIR WITCH
PROJECT is not a horror flick! I was never horrified watching BLAIR
WITCH PROJECT. I was scared, creeped-out, unsettled and very, very
tense (more on that later), but BWP doesn't have the full-on depiction
of human suffering and bloody death required for horror. The "horror"
is all once removed from the audience, hinted at in the re-telling
of an old story, screaming in the dark, handprints on a wall, bits
and pieces of. . . something not quite identifiable. That is the
movie's greatest strength, and one of the things that makes this
movie worth seeing. It's a testament to the people who made BWP
that they can evoke a reaction by these hints and suggestions, scare
us with what we DON'T see. So, in a day and age when any fear we
can imagine can be brought to full life on the screen, BWP works
by evoking that feeling you might have had as a kid getting chased
by a dog at night, or hearing an unexplained thump, or being. .
. well, lost in the woods.
Which brings me to my second DON'T-BELIEVE-THE-HYPE
point: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is not a monster movie, or even a
ghost story. A great deal of the tension and fear comes from the
breakdown of group dynamics between the unhappy campers lost in
the forests of Maine. The fact that there is SOMETHING out there
raises the bar. The witch, or whatever it is that is hunting them,
is not the primary source of conflict, as it was in a movie like
JAWS, or ALIEN. It's an "evil force," and because the characters
can't see it, they don't have anything to lash out against except
each other. . . I'm getting too "wanky critic" here, so I'll just
cut to the third and final point.
Is the movie indeed "scary as hell" as one
poster blurb claims? Yes, it is very scary. Actually, "intense"
might be the better word. The movie works its way up to a level
of tension and never lets up. In fact, at times it's so tense that
it's almost not fun to watch. I felt a little rung out by the time
the end credits rolled. It's one of my reservations about the BLAIR
WITCH PROJECT, the thing that makes it difficult to pronounce the
movie just plain "good." It's innovative, a fresh, creative approach
to the "scary movie" (as opposed to "horror movie") genre. I saw
THE SIXTH SENSE very soon after I saw BWP, and though SIXTH SENSE
wasn't a bad movie, all I could see was artifice and film craft;
get a certain camera angle and lighting, cue the music up, and you
can make an audience jump at the sight of a flower arrangement.
But I'm well aware that innovative and interesting does not a good
movie make. I also have a couple of regular complaints about BWP
that have nothing to do with how the movie was filmed, namely what
I saw as a distinct lack of "pay-off" at the end.
But those aside, you should see BWP. The
movie is an "experience," an experience every movie fan should check
out. And see it soon, too. I guarantee you that this is going to
be one of the most imitated movies in Hollywood over the next few
years. You can bet on at least one shaky video camera scene in every
monster movie and horror flick that comes out between now and the
next STAR WARS. So see BLAIR WITCH PROJECT while it's fresh and
new, before increasingly cheesy movie tie-ins and exploitative sequels
cheapen it, and before it becomes so bloated by the weight of its
own hype that it's impossible to simply see BWP for what it is:
a very striking movie. 8/10/1999
Read
another of Michael's striking
reviews
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