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Night 7: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT – This Woods is Cursed | 13 Nights of Halloween w/ @Afterhrsvideo
20 Plays1 month ago
It’s Night 7 of our 13 Nights of Halloween series—and this one’s extra special. We’re joined by our friend and horror archivist Steven from After Hrs Video to help us celebrate our 100th episode of The Average Reviews! And what better way to mark a milestone than by getting lost in the woods with one of the most iconic horror films of the last 30 years: The Blair Witch Project. Released in 1999 and shot on a shoestring budget, The Blair Witch Project changed the horror landscape forever. With its shaky cam, raw performances, and groundbreaking viral marketing campaign, it blurred the lines between fiction and reality—and terrified audiences into thinking it might just be real. 🎙️ In this episode: • We dig into the film’s production and legendary DIY marketing • Talk found footage origins and what made it work • Debate whether it still holds up—or if nostalgia is doing the heavy lifting • And break it all down using The Average scoring system: story, scares, atmosphere, rewatchability, and more ✨ Be part of the conversation! Submit your own score here: 👉 https://tr.ee/iGtZ-DpOO6 📚 Want more horror? Check out our books on Amazon: 👉 https://a.co/d/bUtniBd 🎧 Check out our friends at Zencastr and get 30% off your first 3 months of Zencastr Pro: 👉 https://zen.ai/theaveragereviews 📖 Enjoy $5.00 off your first purchase when you use Tim Umpleby’s code “TIMOTHYREADS” at checkout: 👉 https://pangobooks.com/TIMOTHYREADS 🕯️ LIKE the video, COMMENT your own Blair Witch score, and SUBSCRIBE as we count down to Halloween night! ⸻ #TheBlairWitchProject #FoundFootageHorror #13NightsOfHalloween #HorrorPodcast #TheAverageReviews #AfterHrsVideo #100thEpisode #Zencastr
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Transcript
Introduction and 100th Episode Celebration
00:00:32
Speaker
It's night eight of our 13 nights of Halloween, and tonight we're headed into the woods. That's right. Bring your map, pack your high eight camcorder, and prepare to cry in a tent because we're talking about the Blair Witch Project.
00:00:49
Speaker
And this isn't just any episode. This is a big one for us. Steven is not only are one of the most influential horror films of the 90s, but this is our 100th episode.
00:01:03
Speaker
Oh, wow. And i should I should clarify, it is the 100th movie review episode. I'm not counting dread broadcast and I'm not counting our TV shows, but this is the 100th movie we are discussing.
The Blair Witch Project's Cultural Impact and Marketing
00:01:16
Speaker
That is right. Hundreds of movies, monsters, questionable choices, and tonight's movie, one of the boldest experiments in horror history.
00:01:29
Speaker
That's right. We're talking about The Blair Witch Project. A movie that didn't just scare you, it possessed you. This thing had ninety s moviegoers in a chokehold, and half of them walked out of the theater thinking it was real.
00:01:43
Speaker
With its lo-fi terror and brilliant use of suggestion, this film wasn't just a cultural moment, it was a monster. Made for pocket change and marketed like a missed person documentary, The Bear Witch Project shattered the box office, reshaping the horror genre, and birthed a new era of found footage filmmaking.
Folk Horror Themes and Guest Introduction
00:02:05
Speaker
And, true to this season's theme, it's pure folk horror at its core. Think about it. Ancient legends, unseen forces in the woods, ritualistic death, and a creeping sense that something old and cruel is watching just beyond the trees.
00:02:22
Speaker
It fits right alongside the love of the Wicker Man, the Witch, and Pumpkinhead, movies where the land itself seems cursed, and belief is as deadly as the blade. And helping us unpack all of it is our guest tonight, the one and only Stephen from After Hours Video.
00:02:39
Speaker
What's going on, guys? We are excited to have you back with us.
00:02:46
Speaker
Right ahead into the forest with the guys. wo Yeah, it hasn't been that long since we recorded together, but it will be by the time this is released, unless we get you back in for something else. Listen, I'm always game.
The Blair Witch's Lasting Impact and Budget Creativity
00:02:59
Speaker
Awesome. We are breaking down the Blair Witch Project from top to bottom, how it was made, how it haunted the audiences, and whether it still holds up in a post-paranormal activity, post-TikTok horror world.
00:03:13
Speaker
So, grab a flashlight, ignore the stick figures in the trees, and settle in. This is 13 Nights of Halloween, Episode 8, The Blair Witch Project. All right. So Steven, I'm going to ask, I'm going to give you the option.
00:03:27
Speaker
do you want to kick off category conversation or shall I based on the scores? I don't know that we want Jonathan to lead. No, no sandwich or less. That's, that's my version. This one.
00:03:42
Speaker
Yeah. yeah I can kick it off. Yeah. Okay. So the first category we are diving into is the story and how we feel about the story of this film.
00:04:00
Speaker
I would have to say, I mean, especially with this movie, um I don't know if this was a ah movie that you guys grew up on, but I just remember... in a time that we obviously didn't have social media, um this was all anyone was talking about when this movie came out.
00:04:16
Speaker
So the brilliant marketing campaign, the the buildup of the mythology, the almost in a way like the urban legend of the Blair Witch, ah I will never forget the impact that the marketing had, let alone the movie itself, once you actually get into it. So I think that there's just so many things about this movie that they they did right on obviously such a tight budget, but you could revisit this movie years later and it's still just as terrifying and if not one of the most effective found footage movies that's ever been made.
Character Arcs and Realness in Performance
00:04:57
Speaker
yeah it's hard it's hard to argue that but shall I let Jonathan argue John will this movie came out when I was like a sophomore in high school you know in a small Southeast Arkansas town this kind of thing everyone was all in their shit about it um and of course you know the older older Bible thumpers were like oh don't get into that don't watch that whatever that's why I wasn't allowed to watch it ah right um but I mean It is interesting story-wise as far as the plot itself, you know, just being this small, independent, low budget crew trying to do a documentary about something that might seem cool, but not really over significant worldwide and getting lost and then fucked up ultimately.
00:05:42
Speaker
and then it being this like this whole thing where you're just finding this footage and then only now knowing what happened to these people, even though you've never even heard anything about who they are, you know, they were even missing in the first place.
00:05:52
Speaker
You deal, I it's whatever. It was a cool concept. So, I mean, I think it was all right. Yeah. Okay. So the story.
00:06:05
Speaker
Three student filmmakers. We have Heather, Joshua, and Michael. They're headed into the Black Hills Forest near Burkittsville, Maryland. If I mess up names or locations, let me know if because I do that in real life all the time.
00:06:18
Speaker
ah To investigate the legend of the Blair Witch. So it's this low-budget documentary that...
Plot Deep Dive and Mockumentary Style
00:06:28
Speaker
quickly devolves into them losing their minds in the woods.
00:06:33
Speaker
They get lost, their supplies dwindle, and they feel like they're being hunted. Something is following them, leaving behind these piles of rocks.
00:06:43
Speaker
Thick's weird sounds. i I love that the real story is kind of told through those clips like they created a third five page backstory of the witch.
00:06:58
Speaker
including fabricated historical events and getting ready for this episode. I did some YouTube research and watched a couple other like behind the scenes and stuff like that.
00:07:10
Speaker
There are entire YouTube videos dedicated to the lore around this Blair Witch that are just as long or longer than this movie itself.
00:07:23
Speaker
And it is it is really bad. There was one that was two hours and I'm like, I'm not watching it. I'm not watching that one. Sorry. But after after I watched a 20 minute one and then I was like, oh, that was that was some cool information. And then i then I watched one that was a little bit longer. There's an hour long one and it plays out like a genuine historical like these events happen. They have the only difference is they're pulling scenes from like the video game and the movies. But At first, i there were a couple of stories that I looked.
00:07:56
Speaker
but was like, is that real? Like those photos look legit. Those legends sound legit, but it's all fabricated for this film based kind of on the Bell Witch legends.
00:08:07
Speaker
So the Bell Witch turned into the Blair Witch for this. Well, and. no, I was going to say it's just fascinating because just when this movie was being rolled out, like this basically pioneered viral marketing before.
00:08:21
Speaker
We had social media, you know? Yeah. So all of this information was also kind of compiled onto one of the earliest examples of a movie's website.
00:08:35
Speaker
They put up this website, and I'm sure we will get into the website more when we get to the cultural significance of all of this. But i love that kind of... we're watching a documentary of these people investigating an urban legend, but we're also watching what happens to people isolated woods, spiraling, running out of supplies, just that whole idea of like, Hey, we crossed this log. We're going to just stay next to the river and walk all day long.
00:09:07
Speaker
And then we somehow end up exactly where we started.
00:09:12
Speaker
That's, creepy, that's chilling. Like I'm in the woods a lot. I go out to the woods to hike and run. We have a park that's 20 minutes away and I usually see one other person there and I know my way around it. But when you are just getting familiar with an area, it is very easy to get lost in the woods.
00:09:32
Speaker
It can happen. So
00:09:36
Speaker
i relate to that a lot. I like this story. I think this story is very clever. i think I can't think of another story like this prior to
Originality and Influence on Found Footage Genre
00:09:46
Speaker
1999. ninety ninety nine No, I don't. I mean, as far as like folk horror, don't think that there was anything like this, but I would say as far as found footage, I mean, you had earlier ah films like Cannibal Holocaust or yeah the McPherson tape.
00:10:05
Speaker
um Those are all films that come to mind. But this, I think... took it to that next tier as far as like how effective it was with their marketing well and this was the first major uh i guess commercial found footage film because we had the cannibal uh that movie's a rough watch man that was yeah that was a one-time only film for me i'm good ah But the McPherson tapes are a great watch. They're just very different.
00:10:37
Speaker
So for me, when it comes to the story of this film and its uniqueness, not counting the many imitators after, but for this film, the the documentary setup of searching for an urban legend and what unfolds,
00:10:59
Speaker
unlike anything prior to it. So I have to give it a five on the originality.
00:11:08
Speaker
Right. So like said, where I'm sitting with it, it's okay. I'm at a three. Okay. Wow. um this is This is why we're sandwiching him in the middle. Yeah, I don't know. It's okay. It's okay.
00:11:22
Speaker
um I mean, I think the the way that the story brought found footage into the mainstream in a big way, um combined the format with early internet marketing, making it feel real. Obviously, you know it's relying on realism and ambiguity.
00:11:39
Speaker
um And that the effectiveness of the story works on so many levels for it being a low budget horror film. um I believe mine for my scoring was, was five for this. Okay.
00:11:51
Speaker
And I don't know. I just feel like the way that they built the mythology, even leading up like in the beginning when they're talking to the townspeople and you start kind of like crafting together like the mythos, essentially the Blair witch.
00:12:07
Speaker
It's so creepy. ah I don't care how many times I've seen it. It's still just very chilling. No matter how many times I've i've you know seen this movie. Yeah. all right
Realism in Acting and Sound Design
00:12:18
Speaker
All right. 553.
00:12:21
Speaker
Into the character arcs. So, Steven, you want to keep going? Do you want me to take it off? We can keep Jonathan in the middle, however. oh i I can um un cover this. so Character arcs.
00:12:33
Speaker
i would say with this you know we're given very limited time i believe the movie itself is an hour and 14 minutes it's short yeah very brisk mercy mercifully so yes but it's very immersive during the time that you get with these characters um so you have heather mike gosh i would say that while it's very interesting to see how these characters definitely this this film definitely tests them um you know we're we're seeing essentially how the isolation is affecting people and in various ways yeah and the deterioration basically of sanity for all these characters and how each one kind of handles it in their own way
00:13:22
Speaker
um i I think that that for what it is with these actors not really having a ton of, of, you know, experience, I thought it was really effective.
00:13:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:38
Speaker
Well, oh boy. can't wait. can't it's i can' wait. I'm not going to rip you apart. It's just like the fa it's it it's the fact that it's it's found footage as a documentary style kind of thing.
00:13:52
Speaker
but knowing it's not real takes away from on this. I'm going to get into that later. Okay, cool. yeah because just There's a certain sense of authenticity and a certain kind of appeal to something that feels real.
00:14:07
Speaker
And knowing that it's fake, it's just acting, it's low budget shit. It just, it doesn't really hit home for me very well. now And you know and then there's no arc. They just, they get pissed off, frustrated, lose their shit at each other. And then that shit starts happening and the paranoia sets in and then they they're done disappeared and who's we just all have to know that they're dead and that's it i'm just kind of like okay okay most of it's most of them just bitching at each other jonathan you're unsatisfied i am so unsatisfied that's that's okay you you're in the same boat i was for satisfaction sir children of the corn
00:14:45
Speaker
i have zero love for children of the corn so all right but i have to argue about the arcs a little bit we have heather starts out as the ambitious director she's relentless in documenting everything but she slowly loses confidence until we see like that iconic scene of her sobbing into the camera apologizing because every decision she has made throughout the film has led them to this moment she's been the one no we're doing this we're doing this we're doing this and we see how that wears on her as she watches it all go south
00:15:25
Speaker
Josh is the laid back cameraman, but as he gets afraid and the frustrations arise, he's much less chill, leading to him vanishing before the final act and some very raw reactions from him.
00:15:42
Speaker
And then Mike is the skeptic, the one who kicks the map into the creek when he loses his temper. And then when they lose Josh, he just shuts down and becomes completely calm giving like you don't know if he's just descended into complete madness or given up and accepted that they're never leaving.
00:16:06
Speaker
So I do think there's pretty good arcs for all three of them. And these are our only three characters. We don't we meet some townspeople who give sound bites and that's it.
00:16:17
Speaker
But it is i think it's pretty raw and I think it's pretty pretty brutal, unreal. I love the actors weren't told how their characters would end up.
00:16:31
Speaker
They received daily instructions on where to go and how to act separately. So they didn't know what was going on with the other characters. That is awesome. ah His missing status in the film was not known by the other two actors.
00:16:50
Speaker
he just went missing and they were told to react they it's genuine basic uh and the actors were sleep deprived and underfed we can question that with the lawyers later to kind of lead to helping them get into character get into the story so i do think there's good character arcs i think I think it's got real good character arcs.
00:17:18
Speaker
I am.
Sound Design and Terror Enhancement
00:17:19
Speaker
I'm at a four on this one.
00:17:23
Speaker
I'm at a four. Well, okay then. ah I'm a one.
00:17:31
Speaker
Man. no Yeah. told Jessica, crap all of this movie. We couldn't persuade you at all with our, with our talk.
00:17:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:44
Speaker
Steven, you remember yours? i i don't offhand. It should email you your results, but hold on. Give me one. That's okay. You were a four on character as well.
00:17:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think and think the only um the only thing that I would say, you know, obviously the short run time kind of works against the character arc, and you you're given such limited time with these characters, but what you do get, I think, is effective for the type of movie um that that's being presented.
Editing Techniques and Psychological Tension
00:18:15
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. It's very much a, you don't need to know, know, their home life you don't need to know this detail to know what's going on in this story so we're split opposite ends on this one jonathan with the one steven and i with the four this is what makes it fun all right the music and sound design this is this is one that okay we had this conversation before even started recording and i made in our scoring system
00:18:49
Speaker
I made it music and sound design one category for movies like this parallel activity those movies that have no score because they still have a sound design so that is why these are lumped in not every movie has music you might ah and if you're watching an older silent film it doesn't have sound design it just has music so that is why they are lumped in together in this case so this one is definitely going to be more about the sound design and even for this movie
00:19:23
Speaker
bucks the traditional sound design evaluation thinking about the sound design so Steven what ah what ah what were your thoughts process going into the sound design for this um well this one's a little bit tough I would say compared to like most of the movies that I've covered with you guys so um what I was trying to kind of hone in on were the nighttime noises that we hear so the distant cracking branches the shuffling sound um upon rewatch know some of the sounds appear from like multiple directions so i feel like in a a lot of ways it's almost it's effective almost as on a psychological level you know for for you know what the characters are going through um the children like like voices and laughter that you hear later in the film i feel like that that is really creepy no matter like
00:20:17
Speaker
how much you do or don't enjoy the film. um And i would say the footsteps, the surrounding sound tension, and just the overall raw audio that we're we're given is, i think that that works on, on to a certain extent, right?
00:20:36
Speaker
ah I think it builds the atmosphere and, and really kind of creates that unsettling tension that they're, they're all going through during these like really terrible circumstances.
00:20:51
Speaker
Yeah,
Improvisation in Script and Performance
00:20:52
Speaker
i agree. Okay, so for me, there's no music. So i mean, that is kind of a bummer. Although it would have been had nice to have something a little more chilling at the very end there.
00:21:03
Speaker
I feel like so just the cut to silence. Yeah, don't know, like, that's just me being weird about music and shit. But sound design was okay. I don't maybe for me, maybe it's a sound system issue. But like, I could hear some of like the tree branches breaking and stuff but like the some of the kids stuff.
00:21:21
Speaker
I couldn't quite hear. And like, I was trying to hear. So maybe it's a sound system issue on my own. But how there just wasn't much there. Yeah, it's all nature sounds. So I'll just live whatever is right there. So maybe it's okay.
00:21:33
Speaker
know it's whatever it's just kind of there it does its thing natural sound I love this I love this because it it's to you that's a reason to not score it super high and that's fine to me that's one of the things I love about this movie I growing up camping all the time, laying in bed at night in the tent, unable to see the woods around me and just hearing the snapping of twigs outside or voices of other campers. Nope. I sleep dead to the world. Once I fall asleep, I'm out. So like when I go camping I've been out with friends and that shit, like once I'm done, dude, I'm not going to hear anything unless somebody wakes my ass up. Jonathan would be the first victim of the Blair Witch. Exactly. Everyone else is running.
00:22:22
Speaker
I would be Josh. I would be Josh. Yeah. I think like those sounds are terrifying. They will keep you awake yeah unless you're Jonathan and you fell asleep right away. the The like laying in the tent not able to see or just in the dark woods and hearing something behind you.
00:22:42
Speaker
I don't like it in the daytime because I'm in the woods. I want to be alone. So also having it hunt you, follow you, never be able to see like, oh it's just another hiker.
00:22:54
Speaker
That is
00:22:56
Speaker
And I like that it uses the real audio from what their cameras captured. This is an area that it's like, I totally understand why someone might say it's a zero on this category, because some of it's muffled, some of it's way too quiet. You mentioned the children.
00:23:18
Speaker
I there were a couple of times I was like, I can't quite hear that. And then it would get a little louder. And i was like, OK, there it is. But to me, it's also going along with that idea of what we can't see is always scarier than what we do see.
00:23:34
Speaker
And that idea of like they can hear it. Why can't I? I think that kind of freaks me out a little bit like it must be awful based on their reaction. So it doesn't bother me that much.
00:23:44
Speaker
But I think. the amazing thing about this is it set the standard of what a found footage movie should say this was the blueprint and we mentioned this is not the first found footage movie it's not but this is the one that skyrocketed it that was I put an extra ED on the end of that. This is the one that shot it up in popularity. This is the movie that became a cultural found footage phenomenon.
00:24:22
Speaker
It's possible that without this movie, we don't get paranormal activity. was just about to say that. Yeah. And so this sound design of just letting it be real And the fact that I found this on the internet, so could be true, could be made up, I don't know.
00:24:41
Speaker
But it said the directors who would sneak into the forest and play sounds through hidden speakers to get the actors' reactions in real time. So some of those reactions are genuine and I I don't know if what they're playing on the speakers is what ends up in the final cut of the movie or they cut that and just got the reactions.
00:25:02
Speaker
I don't know. It's the Internet. Somebody could have made it up on Reddit, but I, I love that idea. So I am actually as crazy as it is the fact that there is zero music and it uses real life sounds to freak us out.
00:25:19
Speaker
I'm actually at a five on the sound. Okay. Okay. I am. I am Tim. You're selling me on it. i I kind of was like a little like a unsure of how we can go about grading this, but I think this is the blueprint for how you do a horror movie without music.
00:25:38
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's just slowly chipping away at you by all of those sounds that you can't escape. I think it's genius honestly i think it's so good it's like less is more I mean yeah it's the unseen that is like the most terrifying aspect of it it's kind of um is um has like some parallels with Texas Chainsaw mean if you watch that movie at face value I think for a lot of us on first watch you assume that that movie is a lot gorier than it actually is but a lot of it you don't you don't see anything um yeah it's kind of building everything up in your imagination or
00:26:15
Speaker
you know your your viewpoint so i think that's why the first texas chainsaw is a masterpiece yep but yeah i was a five where are you guys land damn man you sold me on this i might have to is it too late to bump it up a notch you know it isn't pump it up and okay i had it at a three initially but i'm gonna have to uh i'm gonna have to kick it up to a four on this one and okay right on so yeah i got kind of sold on it too <unk>s like from a one to a two no well i actually i actually scored it at a two but i i feel like he makes good points there guys and i'm willing to concede and i'll go on this one okay so jonathan is up to a three
00:27:05
Speaker
and then stephen what were you was at a three but you you sold me on this okay i'm i'm at a four now Okay, so there there we go. I'm glad I put some persuasiveness to use there.
00:27:21
Speaker
All right, so on to the next editing and special effects. this This one, again, is an interesting category for this film because there's zero special effects to be spoken of.
00:27:32
Speaker
So we're talking about the editing here. wow went wow So go for it, Steven. um I would have to say, you know,
Impact of Improvisation and Innovative Storytelling
00:27:42
Speaker
if we're talking about editing, obviously it's a little bit, I mean, it's not a little bit, it's all real, unedited, found footage, but I would say the way they go about it is very carefully constructed. and um It's definitely illusion that this is found you know found footage or that this these events actually happened.
00:28:01
Speaker
um And I would say that the structure itself feels... very like like subtle and naturalistic in the way that it takes place. So obviously we have like the setup at the very beginning.
00:28:16
Speaker
get about halfway through the movie. ah We start descending into like the paranoia. And then obviously at the last third of the movie is where things go off the rails.
00:28:28
Speaker
um But I think that they do a very effective job at conveying that. you You're getting three very different tones with the editing as time goes on in the movie.
00:28:41
Speaker
And obviously, as as you guys have seen, you know, those scenes where um Heather's running through the woods, frantic. I mean, it's about as raw as you can get.
00:28:52
Speaker
And i feel like in a lot of ways, it kind of captures what it would be like. I mean, especially by the end of it, where it's just... You're just looking for a way out with with how terrifying everything is.
00:29:04
Speaker
So I think that they the directors did a really, really good job at that. um It's nothing that I would consider top tier, but it works within the setting for this movie. um yeah Tim, I'm waiting for you to sell me on this now.
00:29:21
Speaker
ah This was one, ah yeah. Well, I'll let Jonathan go and then then I'll dive into it. the fact there's no special effects is kind of sad but you can't really hate on it you know it's just you wish there were something other than just what you see structurally throughout the whole thing in the setup um the editing it's okay i mean it is what it is it mean it's a found footage thing so stuff's gonna be piecemealed together you know as part of the whole setup it's all right just
00:29:52
Speaker
I don't know. Just, just, just not much flair to it to me. It just doesn't really experiment in the way it's set up. Jonathan did not love this movie is what I'm.
00:30:03
Speaker
Jonathan, when this movie was initially out, not to to get off topic, but was like for you at that point, was this something that like, did you seek out seeing this movie or like, did it have that big of an impact on you when you initially saw it?
00:30:18
Speaker
uh this is the first time i watched it oh no way okay i didn't care about it back then and like where we grew up you had to go at least a half hour south across state lines into baxter louisiana to the theater if it was available and it was kind of a big deal then so i mean a lot of people went and it's just i was a young broke high school teenager and i just didn't care yeah i just to here yeah All right.
00:30:45
Speaker
So that is an interesting perspective because i also have a story growing up about this movie that I'll tell later. But this movie, the special effects are entirely psychological.
00:30:59
Speaker
There's no monster, no blood. There's no jump scares. Instead, it is just slow and subtle. I don't even want to say disturbing, but eerie visuals, the bundled sticks, the stacked stones, the children's laughter.
00:31:19
Speaker
The house is fantastic because it's real. It was a real location that shot at. ah It was the Griggs house in Maryland since since been demolished, but that's where they shot it.
00:31:33
Speaker
I also think I have to take into effect for the editing and special effects. It was shot on a high eight video camera. and a 16 millimeter black and white film camera.
00:31:45
Speaker
So some of those black and white sequences were shot on black and white. It was edited over eight months down from 20 hours of footage to 81 minutes.
00:31:58
Speaker
Jeez. I think it's tight. And I think,
00:32:06
Speaker
without getting into the cultural significance, the reason this worked so well in 1999 is that this kind of plays like somebody found this footage and cut it down to the essentials and released it to the public.
00:32:22
Speaker
Like playing with their marketing scheme. You see that the early on we see some of the background stuff of getting to know them a little bit, and then we see those documentary style set up And then we just slowly to them like setting the camera down or talking to the camera, her scene of talking into the camera. Well, I'll get to that in acting ah but like there's, there's a lot of good stuff here ah that I think it is editing to go from 20 minutes and know about the production and its initial release.
00:33:04
Speaker
It's hard to this one is one. It's hard, but I'm at a four on it because I think the final result is edited pretty well. There's probably
Directors' Approach and Risk-Taking
00:33:14
Speaker
a couple of things. It got a lot of crap for the shaky cam, but we that's yeah, that's neither here nor there for me. You're filming in the woods walking. It's going to happen.
00:33:24
Speaker
Also, the fact that I'll get to that on direction. Never mind. I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm a four. i'm a four I I'm sitting at a two.
00:33:36
Speaker
I am at a of three for this one. Okay. So on two, we're, Hey, we got two, three, four on that. That's better. That's better. You know what? i actually have a stack of like old high eight tapes.
00:33:50
Speaker
Oh really? Yeah. Old like apartment parties and other stuff from hanging out with friends and the stupid shit, man. You should like clip some stuff with that make like a, want to be found footage kind of thing out of it. Yeah.
00:34:02
Speaker
That'd be fun. i some Some crime investigation shit. All right. So onto the script. This is depending on how much you know about it. This is a fun one to score. So Steven, go for it.
00:34:17
Speaker
So there's obviously no traditional screenplay with this. um My understanding is is, that a lot of this with the actor,
Cultural Impact and Viral Marketing Legacy
00:34:26
Speaker
so with Heather, Josh, and Michael, essentially everything's improvised.
00:34:31
Speaker
like all the dialogue based on like minimal daily instructions that they were receiving during filming. Um, One thing that I picked up on is that they were told to stay in character. Don't share your instructions like with what um they were receiving from the the directors and crew and to react naturally.
00:34:51
Speaker
So um what I found like was effective with this is that there's obviously a lot of like overlapping raw dialogue. um This, I feel like, is how things would usually play out in an actual crisis, um especially you know dealing with the circumstances that they're going through.
00:35:10
Speaker
uh, the fumbling language. So there's a lot of like shouting, crying, unfinished sentences, and then the very character driven moments. It's not so much, I think riffing off the plot so much. It just seems like it's more of, um, us really as characters, the way that it comes off.
00:35:29
Speaker
Um, And I know we were talking about this earlier, but it it just feels like it's very natural and raw when it comes to this. lot of movies, you know, we've we covered some other films before in the past, but very different approach with this.
00:35:45
Speaker
um And I think that there are a lot of aspects about that that work to its advantage. I completely agree, Jonathan. I mean, I really have to say when it comes to script. I mean, with it supposed to be being like more of a natural doc footage, like found footage thing where nothing's supposed to seem scripted.
00:36:07
Speaker
i don't know. I just, I don't have much feeling one way or the other on it.
00:36:14
Speaker
would have more to say in it in the script in regards to the acting more so. Fair. It's whatever for me. No, I think that's really fair, especially in this movie where the script is entirely improvised.
00:36:31
Speaker
There was no script. ah Like Steven said, each day the actors found new directions placed in milk crates along the trail.
00:36:42
Speaker
separate instructions that put them on each of their characters that they weren't supposed to share with each other. And they were supposed to react on these bullet points and have genuine talks, arguments, fights, whatever.
00:36:57
Speaker
So it was all kind of just real. And so that it's very hard to score the script. Also, I can say that that makes this script entirely unique.
00:37:12
Speaker
I'm not. so This is the only movie I can think of off top of my head like that, but I'm sure there are others that exist that go off. And I'm sure we've talked about some of them that have a lot of living.
00:37:26
Speaker
um Deadpool had a lot of ad living. I think that is different than this being in entirely
00:37:34
Speaker
i improvised entirely. It's like, hey, today you're going to walk in circles. You're going to lose your mind. That's all you have to go off of. The rest of it is genuine.
00:37:47
Speaker
So that on top of I felt watching it that the script felt so real. felt like they knew each other. It felt like they were friends. They had just this quippy back and forth.
00:38:03
Speaker
There was never one of the things I liked and this, like we're saying, this does go hand in hand with the acting for this film is that there's never a moment where I felt like they were waiting for somebody to say their line.
00:38:17
Speaker
It's not like I'm talking and then the line comes and then the next person. There's moments where all three are just like screaming at each other over a top and it felt very real.
00:38:30
Speaker
And that I think is part of what works for so many people in this movie is the real nature of the dialogue. And when you do your research and find out the dialogue feels so real because it is.
00:38:47
Speaker
It is real dialogue. They use their real names. Those aren't made up names. They were calling each other their real names yeah to help keep dialogue flow going.
00:39:00
Speaker
So I think that is kind of a genius move when it comes to doing this very non-traditional script. This is super experimental as far as film goes.
00:39:12
Speaker
It could have been the opposite of what it is, which is a controversial movie as far as if it's good or not, but it is a defining film higher subgenre of horror so that kind of contra that kind of script approach definitely had an impact i think but so for me i'm actually because of the uniqueness of it not the fact that oh well the now iconic i'm so sorry monologue is
00:39:51
Speaker
Probably my favorite part of this film. I. for everything. But that monologue was completely improvised.
00:40:02
Speaker
There was no script for that. She wasn't even supposed to film it that way. She was too scared to fix the camera. She was genuinely that scared out in the woods at night, apologizing, doing that monologue that was unscripted. And it is one of the best scenes in the film.
00:40:22
Speaker
So for me, I'm I'm surprising myself here. I'm a five on the script because of its because of its unique approach to the script.
00:40:38
Speaker
Well,
00:40:42
Speaker
I'm feeling a little more sold again. i was at a two, but I feel like i for three would be more appropriate. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'll do a three.
00:40:53
Speaker
Adjusting. I would have to give four. um You know, this, I know we were talking about some of the other found footage, like mockumentary style films ah earlier on, like Cannibal Holocaust and Man Bites Dog is another one that I could think of all over top of my head.
00:41:12
Speaker
ah Those are obviously not completely improvised the way that this film is. I agree with what you were saying earlier is that I think if you didn't have this film the way that they went
Audience Reactions and Film's Legacy
00:41:24
Speaker
about with like, you know, we're talking about script, but um if you didn't have a movie that laid the groundwork down like this film did, I don't think you would have paranormal activity. So um i have to I have to give it four because I think it's it's very smart in the way that they went about it for this movie.
00:41:42
Speaker
Perfect. So we said the acting and the script go hand in hand, and we kind of touched on that a little bit. But Steven, you want to talk a little bit more about the acting in the film?
00:41:55
Speaker
Yes. um Above all else, you know, we have our our main characters. So ah Josh, Michael, and Heather. And, you know, again, there was no formal script with this. So they're going off of like all improvised dialogue. um But for actors and actresses that have very, very little experience when it comes to this, the way that they conveyed such emotion, distress,
00:42:29
Speaker
like basically, ah you know, high levels of of anxiety and terror. i ah It's like catching lightning in a bottle in a lot of ways, and it feels very raw the way that they they could you know projected that um on film.
00:42:46
Speaker
Hmm. Yeah. Okay. So... i always I just love it because when we get to Jonathan, I just... like i see heels turning How do I want to say this? like Yeah, I can't wait to see what he says.
00:43:03
Speaker
So, don't know, man. i think maybe... There's some aspect to it knowing when it came out and like how big a thing it was when I was a teenager and not having seen it and now seeing it now when I'm not a punk ass kid, kind of like how they are in this film, I think maybe has a certain effect on how I feel about it.
00:43:22
Speaker
Forever be a punk ass kid. Because for me, I was just being annoyed with them. was really annoyed with the characters throughout most of it. i was like, I don't want to hear these dudes talk. I'm getting just fed up with this. Like, I'm so bored and just it just seems like some some blah kind of bullshit. And i don't know, maybe it's just me being a cranky old man or something, but maybe that speaks to how.
00:43:45
Speaker
the acting is as being good in a way because I'd be an old craky old man about how annoying they are. don't know. I don't know. Mike, when he's little flip out, little tantrum about kicking the map in the river, felt kind of forced and a little too much for me.
00:44:03
Speaker
had a hard time for that part of it. In the early part of it, they all seem a little too alike in just like casual attitude and mannerisms.
00:44:15
Speaker
even though um god what's her name the the main girl uh Heather Heather yeah Heather yeah she's she's a little more direct and forceful and like you know chicken charge kind of dude versus the other guys but for most part they just all kind of the same kind of mannerism for me so it just it was a little low end for me yeah okay so I We mentioned the script and the acting go hand in hand for this movie. Heather is the most iconic performance with that.
00:44:47
Speaker
I'm sorry that to me, that moment right there being entirely improvised is a five star performer. Her I'm so sorry monologue into that camera feels so genuine.
00:45:04
Speaker
and just raw and terrifying. Uh, but I felt like all of them felt so natural that believability of the dialogue with each other goes to their performances.
00:45:21
Speaker
So they were each paid just $1,000 initially. initially When the film blew up, they received a share of the profits, but they were paid $1,000 to be in the movie.
00:45:31
Speaker
During the auditions, their audition was, you've been in jail for nine hours, plead your innocence. And their impro improvisation to that was how they landed their part. So the way they improvised their innocence, why they were in jail, all that, is what landed them their roles.
Final Thoughts on Modern Horror Influence
00:45:54
Speaker
So most of them have really gone on to do things super recognizable. Heather Donahue did some shows like taken in the early two thousands and, uh, she was in some, it's always sunny.
00:46:10
Speaker
She eventually left acting to become a writer and cannabis advocate, o Joshua Leonard, Built a strong indie career he did. if I stay, he was in some beats motels and actually has directed ah couple of films.
00:46:26
Speaker
And then Michael is working in social services and teaching. So you can't really go on and be like, oh, Academy Award winners. But.
00:46:38
Speaker
going into the so cultural significance, they had thousands of people believing that this was real. hmm. That is quality acting.
00:46:52
Speaker
I have seen so many found footage movies that I turn off in the first hour because feels so fake and forced and wooden and not good. And their performances, I think are convincingly genuine.
00:47:08
Speaker
So for me, i am actually, and most of it is probably that I'm so sorry. And the boring, just dumb conversations that are happening as they're walking through the woods, those little things add to the believability that these people were real And I think they're taken for granted in the performances. So I'm actually um actually at a five again on the performances. I think they are they are to be credited as to why so many people believed this was real footage.
00:47:46
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. All right. So I was ready to dump on it, but the both of you have enlightened me more so. ah the randomness of this whole way they did this and the fact that the monologue at the end was not scripted that that gives a little more credence there and so i'm changing from a two to a three again hand in hand again with style it's working tim doing doing the nerds work over here
00:48:19
Speaker
Um, so I, I have to go off of what Tim was saying. So, um, a lot of the things that I know and when it came to the acting was the conflict and emotional breakdowns, how real they felt, ah the emotional authenticity of them dealing with the paranoia and isolation.
00:48:39
Speaker
um they definitely displayed, the irritability and fatigue as time went on and, I think above all else, kind of going off what you were saying, i think Heather really elevates this in a lot of different ways, not to take anything away from the other two actors, but I think especially her close-up,
00:49:04
Speaker
She's apologizing, um you know, shot by herself in the dark. There's real no direction. the shaky framing. her her nose is running. you know, she's she's whispering, like, just completely terrified.
00:49:19
Speaker
That is when i felt like it just nailed the, or hit the nail on the head effective this style of filmmaking was.
00:49:31
Speaker
um I have to give it a four for this, you know, just because I feel like Heather was the one that elevated the the overall cast.
00:49:42
Speaker
But again, it's not to take away anything from the actors other actors. I just felt like she was more effective. Okay. That leads us to almost the final...
00:49:58
Speaker
production element of the film is the direction from Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. Steven, you have comments on the direction. This is this is again, this movie is a weird one to categorize like this.
00:50:17
Speaker
Yes, I would agree. So I think for the time between Myrick and Sanchez, this style of filmmaking in a lot of ways was revolutionary, I feel like.
00:50:29
Speaker
In contrast with we had, ah would have been what, three years earlier, we had like the the impact of Scream at the time. So there was that push on on slashers.
00:50:41
Speaker
This is completely against the grain when it comes to that, the found footage. a concept I don't think had been really relevant since, what would you say, probably closer to the 80s?
00:50:53
Speaker
i mean, Cannibal Holocaust was even the 70s, wasn't it? Maybe it was filmed in the and released in the It was in 1980. Okay. Yeah, it's early...
00:51:08
Speaker
in nineteen eighty okay yeah so it's early early eighties and then the, you, the McPherson tapes were early nineties, weren't they?
00:51:23
Speaker
I believe late, late eighties, early nineties. Yeah. Um, but I feel like it's the idea of when I was kind of reading into their philosophy on, on directing, it's like what you don't see is scarier than what you do.
00:51:38
Speaker
Right. So the way that they built up the, the, legend of the blair witch and or i guess the witch um and just it's all leading up to us like basically in a lot of ways it's like a slow burn all the way up until the end when um everything was down in the house um you know i would say a lot of their directing it's location based you feel very immersive it's atmospheric I think the payoff ultimately is, is a result of, of how excellent the direct, like the, the directing is.
00:52:14
Speaker
I don't think if you had approached it in any other way, would you have been able to like really nail the, ah the ending? So I have to get them their flowers where they're due.
00:52:25
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:52:29
Speaker
So, yeah. This is already your favorite category for the favorite movie. Tim, I'm trying here. I'm trying to sell Jonathan on this. you know just Jonathan, you want me to go next?
00:52:42
Speaker
Yeah, why don't you go ahead? Let me be the end on this one. Yeah. So the thing about this movie is it's not directed in any traditional sense.
00:52:53
Speaker
Like Steven said, it's kind of an entirely new approach to a movie. They used GPS trackers, sent to the actors from location to location, left hints and clues and notes that were supposed to affect them psychologically and otherwise.
00:53:11
Speaker
Their goal wasn't just to scare us, they genuinely wanted to scare the actors. I don't know if you could do that in 2025. Like it's gotta be against some union something, but was the directors were recent film grads, no studio backing.
00:53:33
Speaker
The $60,000 budget was funded with credit cards, friends and favors. That's a incredible. And their approach, they called it structured improv improvisation.
00:53:51
Speaker
So and I think that makes a lot of sense. It's kind of they risked $60,000 on an experiment that they didn't know would work until they these actors came out of the woods and gave them the footage.
00:54:08
Speaker
Like that to me is insane. They're not on there. Like, can you do this? Can you do that? These actors were the cameraman.
00:54:20
Speaker
It wasn't so i in my previous research, they hired actors who knew how to work equipment. So that was part of the hiring process.
00:54:31
Speaker
So the idea that the director is not behind the camera watching every shot and every take and making sure that it all is fitting the narrative.
00:54:43
Speaker
It, it makes me feel icky inside. I don't like it. It shouldn't work. Like the director is responsible for making sure everything comes together the way the story needs.
00:54:56
Speaker
And these guys chose to do that in the most offhand way. And again, this is one that I'm like, they weren't in charge of shots. They weren't in charge of like, you know what? That take didn't work. Try it again.
00:55:11
Speaker
It was... they basically created an escape room for their actors and then filmed the entire thing. Well, better yet, had their actors film the entire thing.
00:55:25
Speaker
And then they went back to the editing board and said, okay, the pieces we need to make the story. Boom, done.
00:55:33
Speaker
I, that, that is what makes me so uncomfortable about the way they directed this. And,
00:55:42
Speaker
I think it's like it was a big risk. It was a big gamble. And i think it paid off. They changed the genre of found footage.
00:55:53
Speaker
And that wasn't the payoff for them. The payoff was the massive box office home that they got from it, but also an icon of a movie.
00:56:04
Speaker
So Yeah, this is this is another one that's like you can say the fact that they didn't direct it. They weren't there calling all the shots means it's a zero.
00:56:16
Speaker
I I couldn't argue with you that because they weren't there. It was in the actors hands, but also everything happening was part of a or puzzle written by the directors. So it's another one of those where this movie kind of throws a curveball at the scoring and how do you approach it so jonathan how did you approach it see the movie just didn't inspire me to think as in depth about it as you guys you have so much for to say it i i feel almost kind of ashamed but not really it's just pricks consider what we know we know but do know now even then
00:56:59
Speaker
It still feels like, hey, you guys take these cameras, go walk that way and shoot some shit. And then, yeah, okay, cool, whatever. And then we'll just piece together the rest of whatever happens. It just, I didn't feel like you already said, like it's a very unconventional way to direct a film because they weren't there doing anything.
00:57:17
Speaker
And it's just them running around the woods with cameras. I just just don't have any positive feelings about it. I just don't care. And it's just, it's kind of a dumpy for for me Sorry. Hey, that's okay. So spoiler alert for tomorrow's episode.
00:57:38
Speaker
You haven't scored anything in this episode as low as what I scored children of the corn. So it's okay. I scored the direction. here I gave it a four.
00:57:55
Speaker
i gave see I gave it a five. I think that I was so close to a five, Steve. I swear. I think that there's just so much about this movie that um all leading up to the very end in that iconic shot, I just think that it took the right time.
00:58:16
Speaker
um pairing of directors to be able to effectively plan this because it's like what you were saying earlier as a huge gamble and if it hadn't a paid off they're going to be ah a significant amount of money ah to see how culturally significant and successful this film has become. And it's, it's a staple of nineties horror in so many ways.
00:58:43
Speaker
I mean, yeah a lot of that I would, I would attribute to the direction. So um that's where I'm at five on it. Failed $60,000 to American express where they're at plus interest. yeah 90s was like what one person we're probably fine yeah yeah yeah who knows uh geez all right so i guess uh what was yours challenge oh what are you giving my score did you yeah so maybe do one direction okay maybe i glitched and didn't hear it's happening okay cultural significance then this
00:59:20
Speaker
ah been dancing around this the entire film because it's hard to talk about a lot of these aspects and not talk about how culturally significant this film was so steven take us away Yeah, so definitely had a significant cultural impact. I feel like going back to what I was saying earlier, redefined horror for, and a lot of ways, a new generation. So at the time there was a lot of post scream slashers that were coming out at the time. So I know what you did last summer, urban legend.
00:59:55
Speaker
The Blair Witch Project brought back that raw, mis-terror, so um there's there's no visible monster, no gore, no music. um It's just the fear of like what we're unable to see and the psychological breakdown that takes place with all of these characters.
01:00:13
Speaker
um I think that it proved that you could terrify the audience without showing anything. um We talked about earlier that the cultural impact of this is that pioneered found footage a lot of ways that other films before it hadn't. I mean, I know we touched on a couple, but with this being improvised, um I think that that's like its own achievement all in its own tier.
01:00:41
Speaker
um And I feel like, you know, obviously before social media, you know, this revolutionized movie marketing, especially online. So to have a movie build out this this mythos and this kind of like out of mystery behind it before this movie even came out I think is just it's fascinating because it's in a lot of ways it feels like ah as like some sort of an experiment that they did for for viral marketing yeah and it blurred the line i feel like between reality and fiction because we really didn't know
01:01:22
Speaker
leading up to this movie during the movie it wasn't really until after this movie came out that when all the dust settled now we actually know what was real and what wasn't so um and obviously this this movie's been spoofed to death yeah you know scary movie uh the simpsons are a few that i can think of off the top of my head um you know heather's monologue has been I mean, like, yeah, spoofed and in so many different TV shows and movies.
01:01:56
Speaker
ah Isn't it in one of the scary movies? Yes. Yep. Yep. And it's, it's, you know, it's just, it just goes to show like this movie was just so important in the nineties. And I would, I, without a doubt, I would have to say it was super impactful.
01:02:13
Speaker
Yep. Jonathan, you want to, you want to go or you want me? No, I'll go. It's fine. um This is an okay category for me for this one. Okay. so I don't know too many iterations of found footage type film, something that I've ever really focused on.
01:02:30
Speaker
i know there's one out there. what was it? 2012 was VHS. I have on a list I've been wanting to watch. yeah good So yeah, it seemed like it'd be cool. Would consider the ring found footage?
01:02:42
Speaker
would would you consider the ring found footage since it's a tape that you find like the people are fan or receiver watching or technically no contains found footage elements but I think I think it's more used as like a plot device I wouldn't consider yeah like traditional traditional found footage yeah okay just I think that the traditional found footage is like everything you were about to see was recovered after the scene of a tragic massacre or whatever like that is
01:03:16
Speaker
the found foot. So yeah, so I don't feel too much significance on mind end of it because I like said, I don't know many too many iterations of it aside from the ones that you guys have already mentioned with the McPherson tapes and cannibal and all that.
01:03:28
Speaker
um So it's hard for me to really feel too much into this one. Although there is one one series that comes to mind, though. Did you guys ever see Marble Hornets on YouTube?
01:03:42
Speaker
Mm hmm. watch marble hornets because that that's definitely a found footage kind of thing or of like almost like alternate reality found footage kind of thing and it was really trippy and when i first started that one dude like there's a lot of videos and it's it gets creepier and creepier oh my gosh it i would definitely recommend everybody watch that one because it that one actually creeped me out in in some of those videos because it feels so real, even more so than what we see in the Blair Witch. So I feel like Blair Witch may have been a good inspiration for that series, because that shit that actually kind of made me a little paranoid and little sketched with some of the stuff they have in there.
01:04:25
Speaker
So, yeah. So they've definitely had some impact, I feel like, there in in the positive way. But I don don't know about anything other on a wider scale. So for me, i told you i had a story with this going back. I was about 10 when this movie was in theaters.
01:04:45
Speaker
ah I remember my neighbor who was a couple of years older than me. I don't know if he was 13 or 15. I was the same age as his sister.
01:04:59
Speaker
but i remember him coming over and standing in the front lawn of my house talking to my dad about this movie and he was talking about like yeah it's real these people went missing like it it was terrifying like that's 13 as a teenager okay but this movie was also marketed as if it was real. Like Steven said, it wasn't said until after the movie was out that it it was not real.
01:05:34
Speaker
Their website was genius for not just the early days of the internet, but today it is a genius idea of like the posters were missing posters of the actors using their real names.
01:05:53
Speaker
the website had fake police documents and all of this like a lot of the blair witch lore was from the website the original website was visited over 160 million times by the end of ninety ninety nine crazy
01:06:15
Speaker
If we're talking, everybody was talking about this movie, and I remember that from being nine or ten. Jonathan, you said people were going to see it even though it wasn't on top of your list. It was there. There was buzz about this movie, and it has, as we've said throughout, it kind of laid the groundwork. It was not the first found footage movie, but it was the first one to have such a cultural impact that it inspired hundreds, if not thousands of found footage movies using the same methods, even though it's not, Hey, let's go to the woods, get lost and film it.
01:06:58
Speaker
It is. We're only going to use the cameras audio. We're going to use, you know, the director is going to be one of the actors that kind of approach to the film instead of doing a traditional film.
01:07:13
Speaker
that's found footage. It changed the way that is made. We follow people on Instagram in the horror community coming up on.
01:07:24
Speaker
They've been on the dread broadcast with us who every Friday do found footage Friday spotlights of other found footage movies. We've talked to a producer who is currently working on a found footage movie down in Texas.
01:07:38
Speaker
Like not so far from Fort Worth. Yep. So I think 90% of the cultural impact of that subgenre and not everybody loves that genre and I get it.
01:07:54
Speaker
I can understand why some people just skip over the found footage movie. I get it I enjoy a good one. Just watching the taking of Deborah Logan, showed it to my brother and sister.
01:08:06
Speaker
Taking a Deborah Logan is a fantastic little found footage movie. But even that is pulling from the Blair Witch, starting with like, we're here to shoot a documentary like that.
01:08:18
Speaker
It's all there. And then, like we said early on, I don't think paranormal activity would exist without this. And I think I can go further.
01:08:30
Speaker
I'm not sure ghost hunters on sci fi would have existed without this. I'm not sure Zach Bagans Bagans, whatever the fraud.
01:08:41
Speaker
He's a fraud. Whatever his show is. I'm not sure he'd have a following without the entire found footage genre. And now that's turned into YouTube.
01:08:54
Speaker
YouTube stuff. We are ghost hunters all the time. And I think that all those are people doing real. Some of them are. I love watching them. I'm not coming down on them, but some of them are using apps that spit out random words that mean nothing.
01:09:10
Speaker
That doesn't mean anything. If you're getting sick, you can get some good footage on there and it happens, but most of it not. um I think a lot of that can go back to this movie.
01:09:23
Speaker
I think it all spins from this film. Otherwise, we'd be going to uninhabited islands and talking to people who've never seen a cell phone before, and then being eaten. And that would be our found footage genre because we'd be basing it on cannibal Holocaust instead.
01:09:40
Speaker
So thank you, Blair Witch for not inspiring that genre of film because it's not my favorite. But On top of that, the box office filmed for 60,000 made million. i think something around that.
01:09:57
Speaker
insane inspired a quick turnaround for a sequel. That is one of the worst films I've ever seen, but the demand was there.
01:10:08
Speaker
I have no love for book of shadows. I'm sorry. I've tried many times to like that movie and it hurts me a little bit, but it's kind of fun as a nostalgic watch, but it is not a good watch. um Yeah.
01:10:23
Speaker
So as far as cultural significance goes, I think it was maybe two years we talked about the mummy and how the mummy was the Brendan Fraser mummy was a defining example of a five star cultural significance movie.
01:10:41
Speaker
I also think the Blair Witch Project is a five star cultural significance from convincing the people of the 90s that this was a real missing persons case.
01:10:55
Speaker
to but the basically found the whole idea of internet viral marketing. And then just the fact that we are still talking about a found footage movie shot for $60,000 in the 90s.
01:11:12
Speaker
We're still talking about it today. The most recent sequel was 2016. I mean, it's it's a big deal. i think this movie is a big deal. I don't think you would be able to pull off that same level of viral marketing. Now and it was, it's, it reminds me of like the tail end of like that line between when we had social media and when we didn't, and it's, a good old yeah, but it's, it's like the last of its kind in a lot of ways. I mean,
01:11:45
Speaker
um you know, paranormal activity was very effective in a different type of marketing and, and increasing the demand for more theaters to show it. Um, but that didn't have the same level of impact as this movie did by any means.
01:12:02
Speaker
I still think like if I'm out hiking in the woods and I see a weird stack of rocks or some bundles of sticks hanging from a tree, I know either I'm being followed or somebody saw this movie.
01:12:14
Speaker
Like I still, I still know.
01:12:20
Speaker
So Steven, did you give a number? Uh, so for my, my it factor, I gave it a five just because not only was, this film very important for movies, it horror in general, but also it has such a seismic cultural impact, um, in a multitude of ways, the way that it left a lasting legacy, uh, for future films, as well as we were talking about, like, there's so many parts out of this movie that were, um you know, other films and TV shows paid, uh, homage to.
01:12:57
Speaker
Jonathan. I'm a three. it's It's good. It's it's okay. I have no issues with the it factor part of it. you know and you just I just keep thinking back now to the late 90s internet dial-up and Angel Fire pages and Lycos and Yahoo, Chess and whatever, ICQ.
01:13:18
Speaker
Nostalgia. Boonscape. All right. So now we're at our score out of 10. You can give your final score while you're at it and then we'll, so wrapping it all up here, entertainment value out of 10 with your final thoughts on the film, Steven.
01:13:40
Speaker
So I gave this a nine, uh, just because of the impact that it had on me when I initially saw it way back when the, just the pure amount of, of terror that I had first watch.
01:13:56
Speaker
even all these years later. um i think something that I just love about the Blair Witch Project so much is that it does feel real in a lot of ways. Maybe it feels a little dated, but for what it is, it feels very real.
01:14:11
Speaker
ah The atmosphere for this movie is just unmatched and just how scary it would be to be put in this same set of circumstances. The fear of getting lost or being watched.
01:14:22
Speaker
um it's just really creepy. The actor or the, uh, the actors, the acting is really raw and it gets under your skin. The longer, ah we get through the movie and last but not least, uh, we haven't really had a chance to talk about the ending and the and the different ways that you can interpret that. But, do it um I swear that was that ending.
01:14:49
Speaker
is so creepy i i don't care who it is or how tough someone is that ending remember the first time watching that i just remember that was just on up in my head getting ready to go to bed that is very very creepy
01:15:07
Speaker
do you know what your final score was overall nine oh final score overall are we doing that you say we're doing those together with our we can do that uh maybe i'm sorry about that Steven, with your changes, you're at a 43. So like four and a half out of five stars.
01:15:23
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Okay. yeah um Yeah. I was not really all that entertained. i was just kind of bored through most of it and annoyed.
01:15:35
Speaker
doing Flat ass like a pancake on a five. um Even with my changes originally I was a 23. should be at like now.
01:15:47
Speaker
um sure as hell not gonna watch the sequel you're 26 oh you should watch the sequel as like i'm sure you can find a game for it online because it's it's it's it immediately abandons the found footage format which i think is what is so jarring to me about it uh if you ever saw burn notice on usa it That guy, Jeffrey something or other, he's he's the lead in it.
01:16:19
Speaker
It's fine. Hot goth 90s chick, but that's about it. All right, Jonathan, was that it for you?
01:16:30
Speaker
Yeah, I have nothing more to say about this. Okay, here's the part that I wasn't looking forward to. Here's the part that I was not looking forward to.
01:16:42
Speaker
I appreciate this movie. I don't enjoy this movie. So I am, I'm surprised that I'm actually lower than Jonathan. i was a four on entertainment. Wow.
01:16:57
Speaker
So this is the part that like I'm flipping the script, probably surprised and I don't blame you. um I need to go lay down. Sorry, Stephen. Sorry.
01:17:09
Speaker
i appreciate the crap out of this movie. I love this movie for so much, but I find it so boring.
01:17:21
Speaker
I really do. I'm watching it again. The first time, i don't think I ever sat through it completely until this recording because i find it boring i've turned it on before i'm like how long are we going to just look at leaves in the woods while they talk to each other and i think part of it is we've talked about knowing that this is not for real does damage it for me i think that damages the viewing because if i watch this as a documentary it is amazing
01:17:57
Speaker
If I watch this as a movie, I'm bored. I'm bored. ah appreciate the crap out of it. And I do say that's my favorite scene right there. That scene is so good.
01:18:09
Speaker
And I do say that it does grow on me each time I watch it. Each time I try, I appreciate it more. i I know what they're going for. I see that in this film.
01:18:20
Speaker
I have praised this film, given it so many fives. I love this film, but I don't enjoy this film. It is not a ah film I'm going to pull out and watch for entertainment value because it doesn't entertain me.
01:18:38
Speaker
And that is so hard for me to say after I've talked about it so favorably. And that is one of the things that like i think is unique about the scoring system that we use. I am acknowledging how unique this movie is from a production standpoint, but saying that it doesn't really work for me.
01:18:58
Speaker
And then the, the ultimate twist here that I'm sure if anybody makes it this far in the episode, I'm gonna get tons of crap for is that I like the, I like Blair witch from 2016 more than i like this movie.
01:19:19
Speaker
I jump off the stream. know and i know i like i agree this disagree yeah as a fashion but I know that it's controversial. I know it's controversial and ah hot take for sure.
01:19:34
Speaker
ah The first time I saw Blair Witch, it scared the pants off me. That movie messed me up. And maybe that's because I saw that one before I saw this one.
01:19:45
Speaker
So maybe that has something to do with it. But I can say, i obviously, Blair Witch from 2016, despite Adam Wingard going on and making the worst Godzilla movies I've ever seen in my life.
01:20:00
Speaker
um New Empire is a travesty. ah Going on,
01:20:09
Speaker
that Blair Witch doesn't exist without this one. It doesn't. that filmmaking technique, all of that lore, all of that exists because of this film.
01:20:21
Speaker
You know, can I just say that I still haven't forgiven Adam Wingard for... are you going to say showing the witch? No, no, no. Well, okay that's amongst a myriad of other things, i like problems I have with that movie.
01:20:36
Speaker
But i remember he was he was coming hot off of You're Next and The Guest. And they advertised in, i think it was through the trailer, that it was titled Under the Woods.
01:20:49
Speaker
And it looked like an original idea. and then he revealed that it was actually a Blair witch movie and it just sucked all the air out of the room. Cause I was just like, this is not what I was ah hoping for.
01:21:01
Speaker
and the movie, I, I just personally speaking, it didn't really connect for me, but I'm glad that you enjoy it though. No, that is totally fine. I i get, I know it's one of those hated films online,
01:21:15
Speaker
I love that movie is scare is scares the crap out of me still. And I for people to get all hung up on showing the witch for literally like point two, five seconds like so short. I'm like, i understand why you're upset.
01:21:33
Speaker
But even if he hadn't, the movie still would have scared the crap out of me. ah There's just something about like, I love hiking. i love being in the woods and finding abandoned houses in the woods, which we talked about days before we haven't recorded it yet. Cause we record out of order, but the movie, the ritual, which we'll get to that one also an abandoned house in the woods. Great stuff. I love it every time. i love it every time, but yeah. So unfortunately all of that to say,
01:22:09
Speaker
I appreciate the crap out of this movie. I respect this movie and the efforts of everybody into it. I will put on Adam Wingard 2016 Blair Witch before I will put this one on.
01:22:26
Speaker
So you're testing our friendship. I'm sorry, Stephen. Stephen's never going to be on the show again. no as long as you don't tell me that you like death. No, we should be good. and I do not like death. Okay. okay um Real quickly. Can we, I don't know if you guys want to, but do you guys want to discuss the interpretation of the ending?
01:22:48
Speaker
Okay. Yep. Because that's one of my issues with this film. Oh no. That's one of my issues. Okay. Okay. This film. And one of the things I appreciate about Wingard's version is
01:23:03
Speaker
this film in so abruptly, I'm going
01:23:09
Speaker
what it bothers me. And not in like, because it's ambiguous. That's not what bothers me. It's that I feel like we're finally getting to something.
01:23:23
Speaker
And then it ends. And that is frustrating. It's it's blue balling, if you will. Like we are just about there.
01:23:35
Speaker
and then the movie's over. And I'm like, okay. I appreciate whether you can argue its effectiveness or not, that Adam Wingard gets us to the house and then we spend quite a bit of time at that house and see more time manipulation that someone may be living there.
01:23:57
Speaker
Like it's far creepier to spend a little bit more time there at the end. I think all of that build up and we're just getting there and then he's standing in the corner and I'm like is he possessed is the witch there is she in the other like what is well it's part of the lore from that Lady Mary at the beginning where the guy who said that the person would adopt the children by twos and put one in the corner while he murders the other one and then when they go kill the second one
01:24:30
Speaker
was yeah mike who's that first one who's stuck in the corner while she's about to get murdered is the way i would take that so there's a whole documentary on youtube if you want to watch it called is is it burkittville something what's the name of that city that they're supposedly in yeah burkittville bur it's called the burkittville seven and it's about that the guy who murdered the children in the basement the seven bodies found in the basement and it's a fascinating like fictional documentary it's fascinating there there we go and over
01:25:10
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, Steve, Steven, go ahead on your ending. That's so it, okay. Kind of going off what you guys were talking about. So I was taking a look into this and just seeing like different theories of how people interpret how this ending or like what, how to interpret the ending.
01:25:27
Speaker
And first of which is that Austin pars, who's the one that made the, the children stay in the corner while he killed another, ah in a lot of ways, what we see at the end is the ritual being repeated. Mm-hmm.
01:25:44
Speaker
So this suggests that the Blair Witch or her influence is basically reenacting these old crimes through new victims. So our characters that we're following. um There's also the idea of time loop or reality breakdown so that the force has supernatural properties.
01:26:02
Speaker
ah The group keeps obviously walking in circles. Compasses fail and days blur. ah they you know Depending on how you look at the house may exist outside of normal time.
01:26:15
Speaker
And you could also see it as possession or madness so that the witch may be possessing or mentally influencing the group. ah we We see that scene where Josh's voice lures him even though he at that point he's already missing or presumed like dead. ah and you can't help but wonder if Mike may be possessed. That's why he's drawn to the corner.
01:26:39
Speaker
And Heather at that point is basically like unraveling. So if you really look at it that way, I think a lot of, a lot of, depending on how you view it, but a lot of different ways, like can't help, but assume that the ritual is still being carried out.
01:26:55
Speaker
um Just depends how you want to perceive what's ah actually going on. i love Shouldn't have kicked those rocks. They broke the barrier. i love it. and i go i said i like Nope. You fucked it up.
01:27:09
Speaker
I do love an ambiguous ending, even though I come down pretty hard on it. i It's it's one of those like you mentioned the time warp that happens in this woods.
01:27:22
Speaker
That's I'm sure you can hate on me all you want. I think Wingard emphasized it yeah better when he has those two people like show up dirtier and they're like,
01:27:36
Speaker
Oh, my God, I'm so glad to see you guys. And they're like, we just saw you this morning. And he's like, no. How long has it been? and he says it's been like five days.
01:27:47
Speaker
And they're like, no, we saw you this morning like that. That scene gave me chills. And I think some a little bit more of that. And I get I am talking probably far more like pop horror modern day we needed a little clearer i get that but it worked for me and the compass is not working in that and then the scene in blairwich where they snap the uh uh what is it i don't know what they're called the like stick figures yeah yeah when they snap that stick figure in half and the girl snaps in half
01:28:29
Speaker
That got me. Got me. I like that. You're not selling me on this. Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. But all all I'm saying is like,
01:28:42
Speaker
I like that movie more, but it exists because this movie laid that foundation. i appreciate the crap out of this movie. I am a 41, even though I came down. My entertainment score was low.
01:28:54
Speaker
I appreciate this movie. I have so much for this movie and what it did. So I am. 41 out of 50, so four stars out of five.
01:29:05
Speaker
Steven, you are 43 out of 50. And Jonathan, you are 26 out of 50.
01:29:14
Speaker
And then if I divide that by three. To get our average, Jonathan brings us down a little bit. A little damn it. Jonathan brings us down to 37, which would round to a four stars.
01:29:29
Speaker
Out of five. so So 37, four stars out of five for a social gathering. I do think this is probably pretty appropriate for a Halloween party since that's what we're headed into. And a church youth group.
01:29:45
Speaker
I think it's perfect for a church youth group. Those church youth group kids are going to crap their pants. lines So if I had seen this at 13...
01:29:57
Speaker
my opinion of this movie would probably be very different. I it's growing on me as an adult. I appreciate it. As I've said, i just feel guilty for not enjoying it and I shouldn't, I don't, I don't. i love this movie you got the vhs yeah the vhs yeah yeah wow did you get the did you get the beautiful 4k release too uh from second sight yeah i think so yep yep so i got ah got i got uh believe that one's but just blu-ray but okay yeah it's it's highly recommended that was one of my favorites from last time i almost dropped the money on it just because a i respect this film it is a pillar of the genre
01:30:40
Speaker
that artwork on that set was amazing. I was, I was ready to second site always delivers. I feel like there, because i I believe one other was an imprint.
01:30:52
Speaker
There was another label that releases well with the book of shadows. And as soon as I saw a second site was releasing, I was like, that's a day one purchase. I can't pass it up.
01:31:03
Speaker
Yeah. I don't think you could get me to spend much money on book of shadows, no matter what the packaging is, but, It's okay. This set doesn't come with it. So you're good. Maybe. All right. Steven, any other final words?
01:31:21
Speaker
No, I just, ah all I can say is is that this is definitely a very, um, very, very important piece that came out in the 90s. It's one of the movies I always come back to, and I put that up there with Scream and Candyman as far as, you know, the the importance behind um this movie, and I'm thankful that we have it.
01:31:45
Speaker
Yeah. I'm... I'm glad were here with us. I'm sorry I let you down there in that final category on my entertainment. Just when you think you anybody.
01:31:57
Speaker
Yeah, I talked to you up in your score even and as we went. and But it's I got to be honest. I got to be honest. It's all good. So yeah, thank you so much for being here. And like you said, have also loved Scream and Candyman. Fantastic films.
01:32:14
Speaker
ah Where can people find you? You guys, oh, excuse me. You guys can find me at after hours video on Instagram, Tik TOK, YouTube, you name it. And then am a co-host on the beyond the blood podcasts that you guys can check out on all podcast platform.
01:32:31
Speaker
And definitely do that. I did, um, man. Pet cemetery two with you guys. Yeah. Oh yeah. That was your first episode. episode That was a lot of fun. Yup. That was a lot of fun. I had done the, uh, my bloody Valentine episode with the guys. And then, um, that was, I believe my first episode is a mainstay on there. So super exciting.
01:32:52
Speaker
Yeah. And then we have got, I actually think I am with you guys for misery coming up in December. So yeah. Yeah. That's that's good. and time love that movie so much.
01:33:04
Speaker
All right, Jonathan, you ready to read us out? Let's do this. Okay, that is gonna wrap it up for the Blair Witch Project, a film that proved you or did it that you don't eat a monster on screen to scare it you don't to scare people have to death just a camera, a myth and some terrified actors lost in the woods.
01:33:26
Speaker
It's a movie that redefined found footage forever. I mean, without Blair Witch, there's no paranormal activity, no wreck, no host, no Marble Hornets even. It showed that fear could be small, scrappy, and still hit like a punch to the chest. Just not to me.
01:33:40
Speaker
And from a folk horror lens, it's such a perfect storm. It's all about isolation, ancient local legends, and the kind of dread that grows out of belief.
01:33:53
Speaker
Even if you never see the witch, feel her. And that's where the horror lives. Huge thanks again to Steven from After Hours Video for joining us on this one. And hey, if you're watching along with us for 13 nights, we want to know, does Blair Witch still hold up for you?
01:34:10
Speaker
Drop your score using one of our templates on Instagram and let us know what you think. like comment subscribe do all of the spooky things and stay with us as we head into the final stretch we're almost at halloween night and let's just say the fires are waiting and this is one of my highest scores for the next couple days hang in there this is the average where the real review happens with your friends