The Blair Witch Project was the first horror of my
generation that I remember becoming part of the zeitgeist. So it was nice to
finally have something to talk about with my peers, even if most hated it, even
if I got the living pish kicked out me for liking it. All that mattered was I
came out the cinema that day a complete wreck, and it felt great.
The Blair Witch Project’s pioneering viral marketing
campaign was so successful that audiences were unable to determine whether or
not the footage they were watching was real. A modern sequel was never going to
be sold like the original, especially in a climate where social media is
ubiquitous and the majority of folk using it are chomping at the opportunity to
spoil things for others because nobody will touch their genitals.
In an unusually creative turn for a commercially released
film, Blair Witch was initially shot and marketed as The Woods. The actual
title wasn’t revealed until its first public screening at Comic-Con; the
audience thought they were watching a random horror called The Woods. Nice
touch, lads.
The lads, writer
Simon Barrett (left) and director Adam Wingard (right).
Wingard and Barrett are the most exciting and consistent
collaborators in the genre, so when a teaser for their new film The Woods was
released I got intense palpies. Imagine the nick of me when I found out it was
actually a direct sequel to one of my favourite horrors; I felt like the mouse
that caught the Babybel or whatever. The original had some potential to build
upon and I knew these lads were perfect for the job.
The Blair Witch Project was also the first commercial found
footage film and on a superficial level it focused primarily on people being
lost in the woods. After a few watches I tapped into the metaphysical subtext,
these people weren’t simply walking in circles and finding themselves back at
the same spot - they were falling deeper and deeper into the curse they were
already fated to live and die through, a nine circles of hell sort of deal but
on a far less operatic scale. The idea of capturing something like that on
physical media still fascinates me, these crusty students getting lost in the
woods didn’t just take a photo of a ghost, they captured another realm.
Mike going tonto at
the first circle. Coward.
When I sat down to Blair Witch I tried my best to mute all
expectations, which I’ll tell you right now ruined any chance I had of fully enjoying
the giant Aero I just bought from Poundland. The last film Wingard and Barrett
made was one of my favourites of the decade and Blair Witch was a sequel to one
of the best horrors of all time for fuck’s sake. But I was immediately relieved
when Blair Witch picked up on the metaphysical theme in the opening five minutes.
They presented the notion that the house the missing crusties found at the end
of the original never existed, despite countless search parties on foot and in
the sky. They were instantly on the ball and I could enjoy what was left of my
Aero.
In addition to the perpetual progress of technology, the
entire found footage format that The Blair Witch Project pioneered has changed,
they were never going to be able to pull off the hoax of the original, so if
the jig’s up, what do you do? Blair Witch didn’t follow the tracks of its
predecessor, there was no shoehorned fan service, instead, it developed themes
and tones, but most importantly, Wingard and Barrett appreciated that what
fundamentally made the original work was simply how terrifying it was.
Mind that? Mind how
terrifying that was? Fucked me right up for months.
Blair Witch isn’t a film about people getting lost in the
woods, it’s a film about people being chased through the woods. It excels at
being
I’m gutted that creative marketing, inventive storytelling
and carefully crafted raw fear have proven fruitless and haven’t cracked the
wall of mainstream homogenised horror. People just don’t know how good they
could have it.
-Danny
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