The Blair Witch Project «««
R, 81m. 1999
Cast & Credits: Heather Donahue (Heather), Joshua Leonard (Joshua), Michael C. Williams (Michael). Written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez.
The premise of The Blair Witch Project, in which three young filmmakers, probably college students, go out into the supposedly haunted woods of Maryland in 1994 to shoot a documentary about a mysterious “Blair Witch” is like some of those real life ghost stories I heard about when I lived in Chicago as a kid.
The tale I heard most often was the one about Resurrection Mary. According to author Ursula Bielski’s 1997 book, Chicago Haunts: Ghostly Lore of the Windy City, legend has it that for the past sixty years, drivers in a small suburb have reported, and I assume continue, seeing a young woman in a white dress and dancing shoes standing outside a cemetery attempting to hitch a ride.
The drivers would reportedly take the woman, whose name was Mary, out for a night on the town dancing and when she asks them to take her home, which just happens to be outside the gates of Resurrection Cemetery, the lone hitchhiker suddenly disappears. According to Bielski’s book, some have reported seeing her actually going through the locked gates walking to her grave while others have described the specter as being “cold” both emotionally and physically; hence the name, “Resurrection Mary.”
I never had the desire to actually investigate such a case seeing since I was only in grade school at the time, but the thought of hearing about it did leave me with kind of an eerie feeling at the time especially around Halloween.
If The Blair Witch Project was really a true story as the film suggested thanks to the mass marketing efforts of its independent distributor, Artisan Entertainment, this would probably be one of the scariest if not the most suspenseful films since director John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). An article in the July 30, 1999 issue of Entertainment Weekly says the studio already has plans to release a comic book and a trade paperback called The Blair Witch Dossier.
Like the tale of Resurrection Mary, Maryland legend (which one citizen in the film says dates back to the 18th century) has it that a “Blair Witch” sacrificed children in the woods and to this day, her spirit still haunts the area she or it resided in.
Some have probably read by now that the story never happened. The fact there is no background music and that the entire film is shot documentary style in black and white with some color footage on two hand held video cameras, however, makes us think it did. The forest itself has an uncomfortable feeling of seclusion like the Colorado hotel from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980). It is like we already know if there is trouble, no one is going to come to the rescue. The sun barely shines through the thick trees and bushes during the day, while at night the college students can’t even see their hands in front of them unless they turn on the overhead light on the video camera.
I have to admire the originality displayed by Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick who wrote and directed the film. The movie, however, isn’t really a ghost story. The Blair Witch Project succeeds better at playing on one’s worst fears the notion how people are sometimes frightened by the littlest things whether it is waking up hearing loud noises or coming home late at night to a quiet, dark, empty house with no lights on. Perhaps it is only me but the thought does kind of send goose bumps up and down my arms if I think about it for too long. Most people have always had a curious nature.
We are all in a sense like Heather (Heather Donahue) who wants to know just what is it that keeps circling around their campsite at night when the fire goes out. She constantly has the video camera running at all times chronicling everything she and her friends, Josh (Joshua Leonard) and Mike (Michael Williams) do and see from roasting marshmallows and attempting to walk across streams on rotting unstable logs to even going to the bathroom.
We follow the three as their project soon becomes a real life nightmare into the unexplained as the group notice three separate piles of rocks lying near their campsite the next morning. Each of them confirms that the stones weren’t there the night before. Then there is the field of macabre looking human stick figures made of tree branches that hang in a remote area of the forest. Through all this, the three yell and blame one another for someone else’s screw-ups as they decide which direction to take the next day that continues to lead to nowhere.
I found all this clever and intriguing but the film could have been much more had the story all been true or if the press had simply not given away the whole premise. It wouldn’t have helped if I just not read any of the reviews, logged onto the websites or watched the documentary about the legend on the Sci-Fi Channel. I would have heard about it sooner or later. It kind of ruins the surprise and the suspense.
As I have gotten older, I have become a little skeptical about the tale of Resurrection Mary because I have heard another story similar to it in Dallas, Texas called “The Lady of the Lake.” Certain elements of the story sound as though they were borrowed from the earlier version (a woman, who appears near a lake she supposedly drowned in, is also picked up by hitchhikers and disappears the moment she is dropped off).
I suppose if I hadn’t heard about the story behind The Blair Witch Project, I probably would have questioned, like the investigative reporter in me, whether the incident really happened.
Bad things, however, sometimes happen to good people (as demonstrated by the three filmmaker’s untimely demises) who poke their noses into things that should be best left alone.
Perhaps the next time I hear strange noises in the darkness, I’ll just ignore it. Curiosity did, after all, kill the cat.
©8/5/99
R, 81m. 1999
Cast & Credits: Heather Donahue (Heather), Joshua Leonard (Joshua), Michael C. Williams (Michael). Written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez.
The tale I heard most often was the one about Resurrection Mary. According to author Ursula Bielski’s 1997 book, Chicago Haunts: Ghostly Lore of the Windy City, legend has it that for the past sixty years, drivers in a small suburb have reported, and I assume continue, seeing a young woman in a white dress and dancing shoes standing outside a cemetery attempting to hitch a ride.
The drivers would reportedly take the woman, whose name was Mary, out for a night on the town dancing and when she asks them to take her home, which just happens to be outside the gates of Resurrection Cemetery, the lone hitchhiker suddenly disappears. According to Bielski’s book, some have reported seeing her actually going through the locked gates walking to her grave while others have described the specter as being “cold” both emotionally and physically; hence the name, “Resurrection Mary.”
I never had the desire to actually investigate such a case seeing since I was only in grade school at the time, but the thought of hearing about it did leave me with kind of an eerie feeling at the time especially around Halloween.
If The Blair Witch Project was really a true story as the film suggested thanks to the mass marketing efforts of its independent distributor, Artisan Entertainment, this would probably be one of the scariest if not the most suspenseful films since director John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). An article in the July 30, 1999 issue of Entertainment Weekly says the studio already has plans to release a comic book and a trade paperback called The Blair Witch Dossier.
Like the tale of Resurrection Mary, Maryland legend (which one citizen in the film says dates back to the 18th century) has it that a “Blair Witch” sacrificed children in the woods and to this day, her spirit still haunts the area she or it resided in.
Some have probably read by now that the story never happened. The fact there is no background music and that the entire film is shot documentary style in black and white with some color footage on two hand held video cameras, however, makes us think it did. The forest itself has an uncomfortable feeling of seclusion like the Colorado hotel from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980). It is like we already know if there is trouble, no one is going to come to the rescue. The sun barely shines through the thick trees and bushes during the day, while at night the college students can’t even see their hands in front of them unless they turn on the overhead light on the video camera.
I have to admire the originality displayed by Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick who wrote and directed the film. The movie, however, isn’t really a ghost story. The Blair Witch Project succeeds better at playing on one’s worst fears the notion how people are sometimes frightened by the littlest things whether it is waking up hearing loud noises or coming home late at night to a quiet, dark, empty house with no lights on. Perhaps it is only me but the thought does kind of send goose bumps up and down my arms if I think about it for too long. Most people have always had a curious nature.
We are all in a sense like Heather (Heather Donahue) who wants to know just what is it that keeps circling around their campsite at night when the fire goes out. She constantly has the video camera running at all times chronicling everything she and her friends, Josh (Joshua Leonard) and Mike (Michael Williams) do and see from roasting marshmallows and attempting to walk across streams on rotting unstable logs to even going to the bathroom.
We follow the three as their project soon becomes a real life nightmare into the unexplained as the group notice three separate piles of rocks lying near their campsite the next morning. Each of them confirms that the stones weren’t there the night before. Then there is the field of macabre looking human stick figures made of tree branches that hang in a remote area of the forest. Through all this, the three yell and blame one another for someone else’s screw-ups as they decide which direction to take the next day that continues to lead to nowhere.
I found all this clever and intriguing but the film could have been much more had the story all been true or if the press had simply not given away the whole premise. It wouldn’t have helped if I just not read any of the reviews, logged onto the websites or watched the documentary about the legend on the Sci-Fi Channel. I would have heard about it sooner or later. It kind of ruins the surprise and the suspense.
As I have gotten older, I have become a little skeptical about the tale of Resurrection Mary because I have heard another story similar to it in Dallas, Texas called “The Lady of the Lake.” Certain elements of the story sound as though they were borrowed from the earlier version (a woman, who appears near a lake she supposedly drowned in, is also picked up by hitchhikers and disappears the moment she is dropped off).
I suppose if I hadn’t heard about the story behind The Blair Witch Project, I probably would have questioned, like the investigative reporter in me, whether the incident really happened.
Bad things, however, sometimes happen to good people (as demonstrated by the three filmmaker’s untimely demises) who poke their noses into things that should be best left alone.
Perhaps the next time I hear strange noises in the darkness, I’ll just ignore it. Curiosity did, after all, kill the cat.
©8/5/99
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