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 Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2000 7:39 pm Post subject: |
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I'm sure this has come up before but I just gotta ask. Why do you like this movie? I am 41 years old and have been watching horror movies for as long as I can remember. My favorites are the classics that didn't give everything away. I will also be the first to say that special effects can ruin an otherwise great movie. But a movie about teens lost in the woods does not scare me in any way. Maybe because I live in the country. My house has woods on three sides. I can crank my movies or CDs all the way up and no one will hear.
I was bored to tears by this movie. Ed Wood made better movies. Please, someone tell me what I missed. Do all Blair Witch fan live in towns or what?
Submitted By: Tommy Hawk |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2000 1:49 am Post subject: |
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Let's be realistic for a minute. You might not have found TBWP scary but, as good as the classics are, it's not as if they're going to give you a lot of sleepless nights either. I'm 23, which is little more than half your age, but it's old enough for very little of what I see in horror films to actually frighten me. When I was younger, I got scared from watching certain films, but it just doesn't happen anymore. That's not to say that I'm completely without fear. I'm scared of lots of things (crowds, social events, being helpless, paralysis, disease, etc.). However, zombies, ghosts, monsters, and so forth just don't have the same effect.
About the most I can hope for, in regards to a film being scary, is for the film to be really creepy. I'm fully capable of being sucked in by the atmosphere of a movie and, should a film actually manage to be creepy, it makes me appreciate it all the more. However, atmosphere doesn't result in me either screaming or lying awake at night. I'm just too old for that.
Some films do disturb me, but not in the same way horror films are supposed to frighten people. For example, movies that glorify adultry (Bridges of Madison County comes to mind) bother me. It bugs me the way people cheer the individual having the affair, and get upset when the philandering couple doesn't live happily ever after. I found Last House on the Left disturbing, just because its depictions of human suffering were a little too real for me. And Sophie's Choice happens to be the most disturbing and frightening film I've ever seen. It's definitely scarier than any horror film I've ever seen.
If you didn't like TBWP, don't sweat it. Different things appeal to different people. Just because TBWP had commerical appeal doesn't mean that it was designed to entertain everyone. It just means that it had the potential to be successful with a large audience. There will always be exceptions to the rule. I have a sneaking suspicion that, had the film not been marketed to such a mass audience and become so trendy among a large teenage population, more people would admit to liking it. Anyway, while it didn't terrify me, it did entertain me. When it comes to movies, that's all I ask.
Submitted By: Spectre |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2000 7:08 am Post subject: |
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Go Spectre, go Spectre, go Spectre!
Submitted By: creeping death |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2000 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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I don't expect a movie, any movie, to keep me awake at night. I just can not understand a movie like the BWP being called the greatest horror film of all time. That puts it above every Universal classic, every Hammer classic, every Italian horror, even films like The Exorist, The Sixth Sense, The Hitcher, and Henry, Portrail Of A Serial Killer.
If you feel that all a movie need do is entertain, that's great. The truth is I was not entertained in the least by that movie. Many others were not either. For a movie critic to say that one movie is better any other ever made is crazy. I don't care if it's Citizen Cane, Frankenstein, Mary Poppins, or The Blair Witch Project.
Submitted By: Gregorie |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2000 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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I also don't think you can write in stone that one movie is better than any other. A statement like that doesn't take into consideration that every film has both its strong points and its weaknesses, not to mention that not everyone likes the same thing. If you don't like zombie films, then odds are good you won't feel Dawn of the Dead is anything special. It's the same with any film in any genre.
Personal taste is relative. Whether or not TBWP is better than every Italian, Hammer, Universal, and every other kind of horror flick is simply a matter of individual opinion. Maybe the critic who made the statement just doesn't care for the types of films you mentioned. That doesn't make him wrong, it just makes his opinion different than yours. Not everyone liked TBWP, but not everyone hated it either. Seeing as how the film was a huge success, I think it's safe to say that more people liked it than not. Still, you can't please everyone. Take Henry: POASK, for example. Critics raved about it, even though I couldn't stand it. It doesn't mean it's a bad movie. It just means it didn't appeal to me. Again, it's all a matter of personal taste.
Incidentally, I'm not sure what you expect from a film. When I lay my money down, I expect to be entertained. That, is after all, what movies are designed to do. If you're expecting a particular movie to change your life, then you'll most likely be disappointed with most of the films you see. If you don't like it, you don't have to watch it. However, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Submitted By: Spectre |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2000 11:50 pm Post subject: |
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I have to say, I am 20, and I am very open minded when it comes to my horror movies.But I thought the blair witch project was the most over-hyped,over-publicized,un-creepy, un-entertaining, horror movie of the decade.I went to see it with an open mind, and half way through the movie I was falling asleep, I won't go as far as to say it sucked, because that is my own opinion, but i will say that it provides very little entertainment, most of the film was just the college kids being lost cursing and fighting amongst themselves, it was very poorly scripted in terms of action,and spacing of sequences.I thought it drug out a lot also, the suspense got very old.It was a homemade hyped up movie that didn't deserve all the attention, I presume it was because the originality which was definitely there, but scary? Creepy? c'mon, that is a bit much....
Submitted By: Tucker |
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| Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2000 12:46 am Post subject: |
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you are right on!!! that film was horrible. I saw it in the theater and some women behind me where actualy crying because they where so scared... I realy did not like this film. It is nice to know that I am not allone in my pesimistic oppinion...
Submitted By: Flick |
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| Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2000 11:51 pm Post subject: |
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Tell me about it. While I'll admit that many hollywood horror films(The Haunting for example) show way too much and thereby fail to capitalize on our innate fear of what we cannot see, Blair Witch showed nothing at all. Half the time I couldn't tell what the hell was going on, and that's just not scary. As for the supposedly brilliant ending that people went on and on about, call me a simpleton, but I didn't see what was so exceptional. The teens ended up dying just like in the old folk story...YEEHA.
I will only point out though that while it may have been dull for many of us, Flick's observation of the women who were crying certainly suggests that this movie did SOMETHING right. In fact, to cause such a strong emotional reaction, it had to do a whole lot of things right! As soon as someone figures out just what those things were, please enlighten me.
Submitted By: Jason |
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| Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2000 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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i think spectre already explained why it was succesful- its entertainment value (and the entertainment value of every movie) was relative- it depends on your perception. you didn't miss anything, those women weren't seeing something in the movie that you didn't, they just reacted to and iterpreted elements of the movie differently. for them that was a frightening experience. i didn't loose sleep over it either, but i will say for the record that i am part of the camp that actually liked the movie. it was more of a horror movie than any others released by hollywood in recent years because it at least ATTEMPTED, not even successfully to many people, to establish actual atmosphere instead of just shocks. for me that still puts it a few considerable steps above other movies, even if it isn't the best horror movie ever made. but it is definately just how your perception of the movie is. for example, some people would say that the exorcist is one of the scariest movies ever made. but i wasn't that frightened by most of it. save for a few moments i didn't find it frightening. of course, none of what i or anyone else here says is meant to change your opinion of the movie, it is just to explain why some people might like it
Submitted By: dan |
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| Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2000 12:48 am Post subject: |
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I thought that Blair Witch sucked. I can see what they were going for, and I'm glad it didn't follow the Hollywood trend right now, but I still thought it sucked.
Submitted By: ASH |
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| Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2000 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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I don't guess BWP was for everyone, not do I suppose that you need to be a tenderfoot, or particularly intellectual to appreciate the film either. However, it is the only film that has ever genuinely frightened me. Most horror movies work by generating tension and 'shocks' in order to 'scare' the audience. Whether done skillfully or not, I don't think most of these films ever truly frighten many people at all. They are the equivelant of a carnival funhouse - entertaining, but not really scary.
What I think the BWP accomplished so well was establish a mood that was thoroughly believable. You don't have to be from the city to appreciate the frightening aspects of being, not only lost deep in the woods, but also being stalked and harrassed by an unknown, supernatural force.
We are all familiar with horror films whose entire stories are hinged on the inane, and improbable actions of the characters. In BWP, the characters act just the way 3 niave, and cocky college students might act in such a situation. Would I have done some of the numbskull things they did? Probably not. However, it's just as true that once they reached a certain point, they were already doomed - the outside force had already manipulated elements, so that there was no escape.
In addition, the film is full of many deeply unsettling, though lowtech, sequences: the murky sounds hooting out of the woods at night, the grasping hands of children against the tent, and the final, ubrupt image of the boy facing the corner of the abandoned basementjust before the end of the film are just a few. I am fairly seasoned when it comes to horror films, I enjoy them generally, and am frustrated when they aren't sometimes any better. And I will watch them over again if they are good enough. However, I do not have any desire to see BWP again - precisely because it achieved it's goal almost too well. I don't desire to experience that level of unease again.
Is it a great film? No, but it is well done and unconventional. Whether it lives up to the hype is in my mind an irrelevent question. Hype is nothing more than a tool of marketing, fueled by, and profited by the media. But that's ok, movies are a business after all.
I respect that the film accomplished what it set to do in a way that no other film has ever really done. By the end of the movie, I felt I was beginning to actually get an idea of what it was like to experience a level a fear that approached madness. Not that I felt it, understand, but I was given a window into that reality.
In the end, I feel that BWP's merit lies not in being the most frightening horror film I've ever seen, but rather the ONLY truly frightening film I've ever seen.
For what it's worth
Submitted By: Bob Schnell |
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| Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2000 11:09 pm Post subject: |
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For the record: I liked BWP. Fortunately, I can't say that it's the only film that's ever frightened me [no offence, Bob], but on a scale of 1-10, I give it a creep-out rating of 8.5.
Yes, it definitely drags in places, but that's another aspect of sharing the characters' experience: their boredom and frustration.
One thing I guess I should mention is that I don't watch much tv, so I didn't really get saturated by the advance hype.
Also, I waited until it came out on video to see it (alone).
If I had seen it in a theater after having my expectations raised to the heavens, then I might have been as disappointed with it as some of you are.
Before I go, I have a question for Jason:
What makes you so sure that BWP's "Victim #1" is dead?
Bye now,
RomanyX
Submitted By: romanyx |
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| Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2000 10:32 pm Post subject: |
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going along with what bill said id like to add that the little hand prints all over the walls were creepy too. many moments were, like he said, very unsettling in a subtle way. like the the implications of an image or sound kinda creep up on you and you come to reallization of what is going on and if you really think about it i creeps out. it doesn't really require intellect, but you really have to heavily get into the movie rather that just watch it, like you have to let your imagination run wild. so the atmosphere it achieves is one of genuine dread or fear rather than just shocks (if you liked it, i reallize it didn't create that atmosphere for everyone) another example of this subtle sort of creepiness is one that many people might not have noticed. it is at one point when they are fleeing through the woods at night, and the girl reacts to something of screen yelling "what the hell is that?!" this may not really seem significant but she really screams it with this sheer terror in her voice that is like nothing i have heard before, and it makes you start to wonder what it is that is so horrific and it sort of creeps you out (at least it creeped me out) it creates the feeling like you are afraid of what you might see, but you are compelled to look... actually something that the character ellaborated on later in the movie
Submitted By: dan |
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| Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2000 11:52 pm Post subject: |
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sorry, don't know who "bill" is but i was refering the the coments made by bob
Submitted By: dan |
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| Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2000 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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"Before I go, I have a question for Jason:
what makes you so sure that BWP's "Victim #1" is dead?"
hmmm... I only assumed. It doesn't really change anything for me either way, so it hardly seems to matter.
Submitted By: Jason |
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