Ryan McNeil
Damn do I ever feel old right now – it was ten years ago today that THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was released. It can’t really have been a decade since then, can it? I still have tee shirts from that summer! (FYI – They aren’t old anymore, now they’re “vintage”).
I thought about what I wanted to post to mark the occasion, even took a few stabs at doing a top five. After much thought, I wondered what I could possibly have to say about it that hasn’t been said in the ten years since I first saw this flick.
Instead, I thought I’d ask what you thought. Did you hate it? Did you love it? Did you love it, then hate it? Has it aged well? Do you have any cool stories about the first time you saw it or heard about it?
Please comment with any thoughts about THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT then and now.
Hated it. I think part of the reason was that I caught it after it was hyped up to be a "documentary" and subsequently debunked. Had I gone in thinking it was real, maybe I would have found it more chilling. Instead it seemed like a typical overwrought student film that predated those silly Ghost Hunter shows on Syfy.
I saw it opening night, front row, in a packed theater full of people who somehow had no idea what they were about to see. Like most movie freaks, I had already heard, read, and watched as much as possible in the weeks beforehand, so I was obviously not watching it thinking, "Did this really happen?" (as it is, I can't believe that myth lasted any longer than opening day – but it's worth noting that this was prior to the days when people could so easily look up information online).
So although I knew it was fake, much of it still freaked me out, and that night I coincidentally was staying the night at a friend's house – in a dark, cement-walled, windowless basement. I slept not a wink.
@ Tony… So the fact that the cat was out of the bag ruined it for you? You couldn't even get into it strictly as a horror film?
@ Daniel… Yeah, talk about how times change. these days a hoax is debunked withing hours, not weeks. Sorry to hear you lost sleep over it, though to be fair there are still visuals from the flick that give me chills.
Nah, I couldn't get into it. As a horror film, only the last 5 minutes was scary, and that, only a little bit.
Mostly I was annoyed by the Heather girl's whining, and what I felt was the filmmakers' stringing along using creepy situations that never payed off.
I missed this in theaters in a petulant show of principles after the Discovery channel promo fake-umentary pissed me off.
I've seen it on cable twice since, and it gets more effective each time. As a longtime hiker who's come across abandoned homes, cellar holes and ruins, it may affect me more easily, but I think it's quite good. It doesn't engender a lot of empathy for the characters, but that's its only fault to me.
@ Tony… You weren't the only one. As I recall a lot of people were left wondering "Why the hell are people scared by this?"
@ Tommy… Never heard about the TV promo. maybe if I had, I would have boycotted too! I think it was the camper in me that got creeped out so much, so you may be on to something.
I went to see it on the Sunday two days after it had opened. It was sold out and I ended up watching John Carpenters Vampires. A laughably bad film from a ounce great director! I did get to see The Blair Witch Project a week later. I remember enjoying it at the time but haven’t actually seen it again. The fact I haven’t seen it a second time speaks volumes!