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HORRORFEST '15: OCTOBER IS FOR LOVERS...of death gore fog and shadows


piranesi

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I remember us arguing about the value of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave earlier this year and watching it again, I still think it's awesome. "My revenge is complete" is one of the best lines Sir Lee ever uttered, and his demise here is one of the best Dracula deaths of all time. I remember seeing it on TV as a kid and thinking it was so much bloodier than it is. 

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The 1980s film about the bank robbers who crash at a seemingly abandoned farm? Not a bad little movie for it to have been made for the price of an used car.

I think one of the SFX guys was Norman Cabrera, member of one of my favorite surf bands, the Ghastly Ones.

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Just going to throw this in here, we watched a bootleg copy of Blair Witch Project when we were 16 or so. This was before I knew anything about file sharing, I think, so having a copy blew us away. Anyway, in short, copy was in black and white and I had no idea it was supposed to be in colour until the trailers hit tv sometime later. Probably the last movie to ever scare me and I think the B/W helped with that. Last time I ever felt really engrossed in a horror movie but that was certainly a combination of age/mood/high-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-the-lights-off.

 

The Blair Witch Project is a Goddamn classic. It's crazy how so many people have shit on it over the years. It is an utterly terrifying film. How Heather Donahue never ended up a bigger star is mystifying to me.

 

It's weird: I realized recently that two of my all-time favorite horror movies, Ringu and The Blair Witch Project, came out in the exact same year. Obviously, they're very different movies and aren't even in the same language, but they have similar ideas: you wrack up the tension and paranoia and claustrophobia to unbearable heights all through the movie and every viewer knows this is going to be fucked up...and then at the end you pay it off. And it's totally horrific, without even having to resort to blood or gore.

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IIRC, I think it was Edwardo Sanchez, one of the directors, who hinted at the idea that, ultimately, maybe there wasn't even a witch chasing the filmmakers. It might just have been bored, murderous rednecks (which is suggested several times by Mike and Josh when the pranks and messages start and it being made clear earlier on that everyone in the town knew they were there to make a movie).

 

Nothing supernatural at all was going on.

 

Mind blown.

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That's kinda weird, because the ancillary material for the movie all more or less directly states that the witch was real. The house at the end was supposed to be the home of Rustin Parr, the "he makes the children face the wall" serial killer... and his house burned down decades ago, and in fact it was in those ruins that the videotapes were found.

Much more insulting is, once again, part 2: Book of Shadows. Director Joe Berlinger stated in the DVD commentary track that the movie's correct interpretation is that there's nothing supernatural going on at all. What's his explanation for multiple people seeing the same crazy things and doing the same crazy things and having their memories edited in the same crazy ways? "It's all a mass hallucination!" he says, serenely, with no further details. Whatta buncha shit.

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That's kinda weird, because the ancillary material for the movie all more or less directly states that the witch was real. The house at the end was supposed to be the home of Rustin Parr, the "he makes the children face the wall" serial killer... and his house burned down decades ago, and in fact it was in those ruins that the videotapes were found.

 

I can't speak for the other expanded spin off material or the sequel, but if we do take the movie just as it is: What, in fact, happens that cannot be answered with a real-world explanation? 

 

Getting lost and coming across the log twice? They were shitty explorers. They panicked. Mike threw away the map. Cabin fever. They couldn't get themselves together enough to find a way out.

The crying kids? A tape recording.

Mike standing submissively at the end? Someone threatened him with a gun.

 

Not saying I buy the whole "rednecks" theory. But it's fascinating way to re-watch the movie  and think: "They're being victimized by evil, evil people who are messing with them for kicks." It turns the whole movie on its head and it suddenly becomes about something else.

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What, in fact, happens that cannot be answered with a real-world explanation? 

 

Getting lost and coming across the log twice? They were shitty explorers. They panicked. Mike threw away the map. Cabin fever. They couldn't get themselves together enough to find a way out.

The crying kids? A tape recording.

Mike standing submissively at the end? Someone threatened him with a gun.

 

Not saying I buy the whole "rednecks" theory. But it's fascinating way to re-watch the movie  and think: "They're being victimized by evil, evil people who are messing with them for kicks." It turns the whole movie on its head and it suddenly becomes about something else.

It's deliberately designed to be obscure. It's the same old strategy as the ending of the story "The Lady or the Tiger", which asks the reader to basically decide what's going on. I can appreciate that when it's well done, as I thought it was in this case. But considering the sheer amount of time and effort it would need for all these contrivances to be explained by plausible events, "it's a fuckin' witch" becomes the easier answer. Especially considering that the rednecks would literally need to be following them for days on end (don't these guys have jobs and/or lives of their own? Don't they have shit to do?) and that they'd need to magically predict that the kids would be shitty navigators and be unable to find their way out of the woods. And seriously, why would "these guys are investigating a local myth" engender the response of "...clearly we need to stalk and murder these people"?

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Very valid points. IMO, it just becomes a far more fascinating film if you say: "Well, what if there really isn't anything supernatural going on here?"  

 

I don't know: Maybe the rednecks were just pranking these annoying college filmmakers at first? Then the kids did actually get lost..and it spiraled out of control from there?

 

Are crazy rednecks on a power trip any more or less ridiculous than a centuries-old, all-powerful time-travelling witch? 

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For what it's worth, when Blair Witch came out I got a call out of the blue from an old friend of mine who always weirdly prided himself on making fun of any cult or niche thing as being for nerds and thinking horror movies were dumb, with the exception of The Exorcist which he loved. Kind of a Fat Spanish Waiter type guy in terms of taste.

 

 

He called me from across the country to tell me he saw it mentioned on the internet and immediately went to watch it and was freaked out and it was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen.

 

So it wasn't without an aura, and that's not nothing.  I ended up basically running to my closest walking-distance theater to see it and it had a busted sound system so I couldn't hear any of the creepy sounds in the woods and I think that kind of ruined the whole effect.

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Are crazy rednecks on a power trip any more or less ridiculous than a centuries-old, all-powerful time-travelling witch?

In real life: "crazy rednecks" is the answer, obviously. But in the film, "centuries-old, all-powerful time-travelling witch" does seem the more likely option. For the simple reason that they spent practically zero time establishing any reason why any human beings might want to fuck with the filmmakers; or that any of the people in this town were crazy enough to stalk, harass, and murder people in a week-long psychotic endeavor. Meanwhile, they did a whole shitload of talking about the witch, including some historical stories which (if true) were awfully hard to explain.

...have I told my own "when I first saw Blair Witch" story on this board? I don't remember.

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When I first saw the "Blair Witch," the theater was packed. At the end, there were three "what the fuck was *that?*" and seven "Is that it?" When those seven found out the film was indeed over, there ended up a total of 10 "what the fuck was that?"

I feel like "Blair Witch" like Mr. Garrison feels about "Contact."

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Piranesi, you've failed. You let FOWLER WIN, DAMMIT! A whole Halloween Horrorfest thread and not once did I see any mention of TINA other than a thread tag (does not count). Going back and reading your thoughts on both Tina and Vera gave me immeasurable comfort and joy to know I'm not alone and it made this awful slog through the three main slasher franchises more bearable. I feel like A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 came pretty close with the nerdlinger character, Sheila Kopecky, in reaching those heights of Vera and TINA. Almost, but not quite. She was too self-centered, though clearly she did care for peers. Still, more disconnected and less willing to sacrifice than TINA and Vera (I mean, DID YOU NOT SEE SHELLEY?!). 

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When I first saw the "Blair Witch," the theater was packed. At the end, there were three "what the fuck was *that?*" and seven "Is that it?" When those seven found out the film was indeed over, there ended up a total of 10 "what the fuck was that?"

I feel like "Blair Witch" like Mr. Garrison feels about "Contact."

 

This was my experience.  Most of the theater was in a state of disbelief because this thing that had so much hype failed so miserably to frighten any of us.  And we watched this mother fucker at night, too.  Since we're trying to compare a gem like Ring to dross like BWP.

 

Ring and BWP generate their respective tension in similar ways via the death clock but connection with characters saves Ring while damning BWP.  We know that Heather and her friends will eventually meet a grisly end and we also know that unless Reiko finds some way to placate Sadako, she and her son will die. 

 

However Heather and Co's incessant and annoying whining and bemoaning of their fate makes the trio look like a bunch of inept bumblers rather than victims of some unseen preternatural force or crazy locals perpetuating a myth and some members of the audience actually start looking forward to the time where Heather and Co are bumped off by the witch because that is the line of demarcation that signals that they can go home. 

 

Conversely, Reiko and Ryuji are concerned parents that refuse to accept their son's fate and stare the unknown in the face in the hope of sparing their child's life.  If you can't find some connection with that you either have no pulse, have little faith in your fellow man, or perhaps both.

 

IMO, hype and meta is what led to BWP's stellar reviews and reception (or in my case, extreme dislike) and those people who I have talked to that have watched BWP in a vacuum without the buzz or urban legends surrounding the movie (ie. the events as seen are recreated from reality.) often find the movie to be somewhat chilling but not nearly as frightening as advertised. 

 

All of that critical acclaim and who wins the 1999 Golden Raspberry for Worst Performance by a Lead Actress?  Heather Donahue for The Blair Witch Project.  BWP is one of the most lackluster films ever devised that benefitted from the absolute best promotional campaign ever devised.   We were all just marks being worked.

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My earlier back-and-forth with you, Jingus, I think JT hit the nail on the head.

I think, in a vacuum, I may have enjoyed BWP just fine. It's creepy enough in parts, and the foreboding is palpable. But you can't separate the film from the hype, and I think that the hype killed what I got from the film. And, that said, couldn't a steong argument be made that some critics are rating the hype+film combo, rather than the film on its own merits?

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I also believe that I would think a lot more highly of BWP if I watched it on it's own merits and hadn't been sold a bill of goods and lured into a theater to allegedly watch the scariest film ever recorded that turned out to be rather underwhelming and barely worth an R rating, but that is what BWP depended on to put asses in seats. 

 

I actually like the fact that BWP doesn't explain anything, nor is it obliged to do so.  The strength of BWP (and the quality that most found footage horror movies have since copied) is that you are completely robbed of the powers of omnipotence and omnipresence that you as a member of the audience are used to having.. 

 

Your POV is only as reliable as the character holding the camera and It is what the camera doesn't see (or what the camera sees that the characters don't see) that freaks you out.

 

BWP doesn't owe anyone a clear and concise picture of what is going on because our point of view is realistically fixed only on what Heather, Mike and Josh experience directly.   Your imagination fills in the blanks and it usually fills in those blanks with the most eerie thing your mind can conjure up. 

 

Textbook Hitchcock and it is the combination of acting + actuality that makes BWP stand out from other found footage horror movies.  As I said before, Myrick and Sanchez were 100% dedicated to the mission of convincing you that the events of BWP were completely authentic right down to the missing persons posters on the home page for BWP emblazoned with the character's photos. 

 

They used unknown actors and they never marketed BWP as a horror film; they promoted it as a documentary and when this "documentary" suddenly turns south on you, you find you asking yourself what in the hell are you really watching?  Is this a snuff film?  Is this a recreation?  Are these people alive or are they dead? Should I call the cops (insert about Charlie Sheen joke)? What in the fuck is going on here? 

 

Nearly all of the dialogue was ad-libbed (could've used some static dialogue or more precise direction as not even the most potty mouthed person I know drops as many F-Bombs as Heather, Mike and Josh did and they sound like broken records because they constantly bitch about the same things over and over again) and the shooting schedule was kept secret from the actors so that their fearful reactions to the scary noise cues would look legit and their physical and mental fatigue would not have to be simulated. 

 

The ill fated three looked and sounded exhausted because they were actually exhausted.

 

So it is the combo of movie + hype that arguably led to all of those stellar reviews, IMO.  Ironically, the other thing that helped BWP along was the R rating.  Remember that the late '90s to early 2000's were a time where a lot of horror films were PG-13 watered down fiascos that were high on flash, budget, effects and bankable actors yet light on scares or substance. 

 

Audiences were ready for a 70's style lo-fi, unapologetic, gritty horror film that pulled no punches and for better or worse, along came Blair Witch at the right time with the right formula... and a lot of people found this movie to be either completely unsettling or totally unfrightening and you don't find too many middle of the road opinions.

 

The R rating also served to keep the audience pools small and exclusive so the movie still benefitted from the OMG IT IS SO SCARY YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE~! word of mouth advertising that piqued your curiosity. 

 

It was no accident that THERE WERE NO ADVANCE TRAILERS~!  The whole point was for you to be completely unprepared for what you were about to watch.

 

Tim Burton's Batman and BWP pretty much wrote the playbook on the art / science of generating movie buzz that subsequent marketing departments follow to this very day and ironically it is very en vogue to knock both of those movie in retrospect and have your main criticism be colored by the backlash you have for falling for buzz and having the movie not live up to your expectations.

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  • 8 months later...

Now, I don't want to freak anyone out....

 

because it's July...

 

but if you have a Michael's

Spoiler

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We're EARLY!

 

 

or a Tuesday Morning

Spoiler

13639518_10205146791789340_1825275452_o.

HELLO!

 

near you

 

IT"S TIME TO GET IN LINE BABY!!!

Spoiler

13616264_10205146792469357_1185073136_o.AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

 

 

THESE ARE ATUTHENTIATED SIGHTINGS!!!

36 more days to Halloween [season]

Halloween [season]

Halloween [season]

36 more days to Halloween [season].....

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