Well,
this is the final Saturday of the month of October, and I have to say that I'm
very happy about that. October hasn't
been that great of a month at all.
Truth be told, if I were to rank all the months out of the year from
best to worst, October right now would be at the bottom. With everything going on with my mother, and
the terrible tragedy that took place earlier this week, it certainly hasn't
been an October to remember.
But
since this is the last Saturday of the month, I thought that I would post at
least one more movie entry. And as
promised, I would amp up the intensity of the films with each week.
However,
some of you might be wondering why I chose this particular film to
spotlight. Some of you might not find
this film to be very frightening at all.
Some of you could probably name at least a dozen films that are filled
with more blood than a blood bank, more guts than a whale's stomach, and more
violence than a standard episode of "The Jerry Springer Show".
But
do you want to know what kind of scary movies scare me the most? Interestingly enough, they aren't movies
like "Saw", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Final
Destination". I don't particularly
like gory movies to begin with, but even if I did, films like the ones I just
listed above don't do it for me. I
mean, yeah, they do offer up a little bit of fear for all of the four seconds
it takes to disembowel someone, but after that, it's like...that's it?
No,
to me a true scary film is one that doesn't rely on blood and gore in every other
scene. In fact, some of the freakiest
films that I have ever seen have been ones that do the exact opposite. For me, a far scarier feeling is not knowing
what will happen. Sometimes, the off
screen action can be scarier that what you actually see on screen.
And
well, in this edition of the blog, we're going to be taking a look at one such
film that succeeded in scaring people in the most simplistic manner possible.
It
seems hard to believe that it has been a little over fifteen years since this
film first debuted at the box office.
The exact date of its release was July 30, 1999. It also seems really hard to believe that
this film was made on an extremely tight shoestring budget. The final total of the cost it took to make
the film was a economical $25,000.
No,
that's not a typo. The film cost about
as much as a brand new car.
Now
can you guess how much this movie made at the box office? Go on.
Guess. Don't know? Okay, I'll tell you.
How
does a cool $248 MILLION sound to you?
That must be one of the largest box office profits that has ever been
recorded in the history of modern day film, right? Not bad for a movie that was recorded entirely with handheld
cameras, featured only three main actors, and was filmed in the style of a
documentary.
This
is the blog entry about "The Blair Witch Project".
The
story goes like this. The year is 1994,
and three college students (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C.
Williams) decide to make a documentary on the mysterious legend known as the
Blair Witch, and all three of them disappear under mysterious circumstances
outside of the community of Burkittsville, Maryland. Nobody knows what happened to them, and the mystery of their
disappearance remains for one whole year.
That
is until the following October, when the footage from their video camera was
found.
So
basically we're watching the possible moment on a hand held video camera in
which three aspiring filmmakers meet their grisly end. But here's the catch. We have no idea who or what got them in the
end. Could it have been a wild animal
in the woods? A serial killer who
escaped from prison? Maybe one of the
three filmmakers turned on the other two and s/he fled to enjoy a new life
elsewhere? Or was it the spirit of the
supposed Blair Witch that caused all three to meet their untimely end?
To
think that the film started off so innocently, with the three student
filmmakers interviewing the citizens of Burkittsville (which interestingly
enough was once known as Blair). The
townspeople all share their own personal stories about life in town as well as
some historical events that took place centuries before.
Among
some of the little tidbits of information that the trio manages to get from the
local townfolk (as well as a couple of fishermen who live outside of town);
- A
serial killer named Rustin Parr earned a frightening reputation by murdering
seven children during the 1940s in a little house in the woods, and Parr
claimed that the reason why he snapped was because he was possessed by the
spirit of a woman named Elly Kedward - the supposed 'Blair Witch' that was
executed during the eighteenth century.
- A
young girl named Robin Weaver went missing in 1888 for three days and when she
returned three days later, she made comments about seeing an elderly woman
whose feet were unable to touch the ground.
-
At a place called Coffin Rock, five men were ritualistically murdered during
the 19th century under mysterious circumstances.
Certainly
these sound like impossible situations, right? Well, as the day turns to night, strange things begin happening to
the trio. They camp out near an old
cemetery where Josh accidentally disturbs a cairn that is set up near the
burial ground. They get lost trying to
find their vehicle, camp out for a third night, and they soon discover that
three cairns have been erected near their campsite. Heather discovers that the map that she brought with her has gone
missing, and Mike admits that he threw the map away, causing tension between
the three filmmakers.
But
when one of them suddenly goes missing, the other two quickly discover that the
longer they stay in the woods, the more frightened they become, which leads to
one of the most haunting climaxes ever featured in a horror movie.
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