Review of Blair Witch Project, The: Special Edition

Video

This is one hard movie to discuss video quality with, since it is entirely shot on 16mm black & white film stock and 8mm camcorder cassettes. The choice of medium is of course fundamental to the presentation of the film, it could not really be taken any other way and maintain its impact, so lets move quickly on.

Basically what you get here is shakey camcorder camera work intercut with slightly steadier but grainier film footage. And its all there because this is shot entirely from the point of view of its lead characters, don`t expect any smooth pans here. Although not necessarily the first example of this unique original method for fake-documentary film making, this is definitely the most publicly visible and mainstream example, and the best done so far.

Audio

Oh man, if discussing the video quality was hard, the soundtrack is going to be even worse. Everything you hear is all from a stereo microphone mounted on a camcorder, and therefore we aren`t talking 5.1 Dolby Digital here. The sound is very good considering its source, and the plain stereo track adds excellent atmosphere and realism to the proceedings. Hay it ain`t no Godzilla, but then how many people ran out of the cinema when that was screened.

The bizarre and eary noises the three students hear at night can be particularly frightening, they are a good example of something which sounds so much more believable because of its poorer source recording.

Features

There is nothing on this disc, apart from the commentary track, which will spoil your first time viewing of The Blair Witch Project. In fact I recommend you watch The Curse of the Blair Witch first, since it will help everyone but the most observant of you get the ending. There is one additional piece of footage included, which adds nothing to the film but is interesting none the less, I guess that`s why its not been reintegrated into any directors cut yet.

The quality of the animated menus is superb, they are incredibly atmospheric, definitely worth leaving on for a fair few minutes before you watch this for the first time. The trailers are knocking around for those that missed them, and the notes are interesting although they simply iterate much of what`s already in audio or visual form elsewhere on the disc.

But once you`ve seen Blair Witch, you just have to view it all over again with the commentary track. This far exceeds the level of information and insight that any making-of featurette or documentary could attain, due to the nature of the filming. Anyone unconvinced that the participants aren`t very good actors ought to be made to listen to it. This will also help film buffs appreciate the shear mammoth task editing footage down to 87 minutes can be.

Conclusion

What we have here is the last few days (of course it isn`t but bear with me) of three film students lives all shot from their perspective, primarily through the eyepiece of Heather Donahue`s camcorder. To avoid making you completely sick, the directors have cleverly edited in 16mm footage shot primarily by Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams which is a lot steadier. And as many people will no doubt have said, you don`t get to see anything, it is all left ultimately inconclusive.

So is this account of the three students hunt for the Blair Witch scary? If you haven`t been scared of anything movie-wise in your adult life, there is little chance this will be the one to make you hide under the sheets. If you found Silence of the Lambs scary but thought The Exorcist is just interesting viewing, then again there is no hope for shrieking here. But if either of these did send a shiver down your back, or at least give you feelings of excitement, there is a very high probability of your heart rate going wild for the latter 2/3rds of Blair Witch, mine certainly did.

Everything here is shot as real, portrayed as real, and improvised with such convincing acting, this is a masterpiece of modern horror. It`s easy to think that with so many endless hours of footage for the editors to choose the best bits, these three unknown stars were just lucky to hit their marks, but with so many excellent performances during so many key scenes from all three of them, you can`t help but admire their skills.

So a great film then, and as good if not better than The Exorcist, added to an excellently atmospheric DVD with a must-hear audio commentary track, getting it a big thumbs up from me.

And if your wondering if I bad dreams the night after? No, but I did dream Blair Witch dreams, it definitely had a big enough impact on me to fill my thoughts sometime later.