Oh Man, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, one creepy little weird film! FATHER GEEK caught a screening of this strange feature the other day after Harry boarded his flight to the Golden Tulip, I liked it alot, but it may be too Cinema Verte for general tastes, it almost feels like a doco. The great American Northeast, man, this is alot more scary than any Bigfoot movie I've seen. Of course maybe the bears just ate'em, or maybe they stummbled into some stressed out hippie's pot patch, or maybe they uncovered some milita exercise. I don't know, and thats why it's so unsettling.
Houdini here once again with a final report from Sundance. After a failed but persistent attempt to catch Doug Liman's GO, the screening was packed and even the master of illusion failed to get in, I did manage to catch the big buzz hit of the festival BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.
Let me just say that I went in expecting the film to leave me cowering under my chair and it failed to do that. However, it is a pretty interesting film that builds to a kick ass conclusion. Unfortunately, the film seems more like a sociological experiment than an actual horror movie. You know, the lets take three actors and strand them in the woods and mess with their heads and see what they do. Maybe I've read and heard too much about how the film was made for it to have the desired impact.
The audience I saw it with for the most part thought the film was very cool and it will be interesting to see how Artisan markets the film. At the screening I was at, the directors said the film may get a summer release. BAD MOVE!!! This film begs to released near Halloween, when the "legend" of the Blair Witch, with some astute marketing, can carry this film to pretty big success on an indie level.
Not much more can be said that hasn't been said already, except for one very effective scene where the main female character records how sorry she is for getting everyone in deep with the titular evil. Creepy framing and intense acting add up to the most extremely effective eyeball close-up since TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Definitely worth a look.
Houdini, signing off into the great beyond.
