Saturday, 28 January 2012

Blair Witch Project
(1999)

RATING:80%
FORMAT:DVD


Interesting, experimental and effective horror-movie about a group of arrogant, stupid and naive college students out to make a documentary about the supernatural.

The poor psychodynamics of the trio are well-handled as they move from acting like adults to expressing actual fear that the adult world is more scary than they had ever imagined. Their inability to use their fear to galvanize them into positive action is as crippling physically as it is psychologically. They are unable to read a map, have no cell phones and fail to take basic survival precautions; fitting-in perfectly with their thoughtless characters. Their basic unlikeability creates an audience identification problem such that, although we feel their fear, we do not really care whether they live or die.

Genuinely scary because of its documentary format, this is amply complemented by the fact of this movie being a means of breaking into the movie business, in the same way as the characters in the narrative wish to do. The problem with the first-person gimmick used here, however, is that it has minimal application, since no matter what bad thing is happening, someone must still have the presence of mind to be operating the camera - an unrealistic expectation at the very least. Yet this film works so well because of what is not shown; making it a disquisition on blind fear and panic, as such.


Copyright © 2012 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Curiosity - exploring - identifying - evaluating - integrating - profiting...

Not what you think, believe or agree with, but what you know and what you understand. With neither, you are nothing but a leech on the good nature of others.

Frank TALKER is also the author of Sweaty Socks: A Treatise on the Inevitability of Toe Jam in Hot Weather (East Cheam Press: Groper Books, 1997) and is University of Bullshit Professor Emeritus of Madeupology.

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