, Research Paper
The Blair Witch Project
The newly released movie The Blair Witch Project seems to have caused a commotion amongst film reviewers and the actual public. It s a very interesting film about three filmmakers who are actually making the film that you watch. The emotion in the film leads the viewers to believe that it s real.
This movie can be classified as a horror film but it can also be suspense, some people refer to it as a “psychological thriller” because you never know what is going to happen next. It can t be compared to any other movie because this is one of the first films that has combined these two genres without showing anything, not like the films in the 90 s that think that the more they show, the scarier it will be for the audience. This film resembles old films that used sounds to scare the viewers.
The story behind the film is supposed to be a true story, that the witch from the town of Blair did once exist, that children were really captured and killed in her shed, that thousands of families fled that small town in Maryland just for the sake of their families. The town s name was then supposedly changed to Burkittsville. The trick the producers used to get the attention was to create a website claiming that the soon to be released film was a true story, as true as the story of the Blair witch, and that it was a documentary found a year after the three film students suddenly disappeared. They even had people post messages of things that had happened to them related to witches! The website is so skillfully arranged that it actually managed to buy enough peoples minds that they made five times the amount they invested in the first week it was out in the public.
The film is by independent directors, unknown to most of the public. Their style of filmmaking doesn t seem to be influenced by films of the 70 s, 80 s or 90 s, and the unusual and unique way to do it is part of the excitement of seeing it. The actors were hired for a minimum amount of money and they didn t know what was going to happen next, they didn t know what to expect until the morning they read their lines and knew what they had to act. The actors are new to the film world and can t be compared to anything. Their acting was quite convincing for it to be their first time acting. They act so well that one can also see changes in the three filmmakers’ minds as they slowly all go insane. They didn t use that many stunt effects, but sound effects were quite specific because the viewers didn t see as much as they heard, so everything was cautiously prepared to make the viewer be in a certain suspense without having any visual effect on them.
Since they hadn t much money to invest in the movie, costumes and makeup didn t change once. The actors wore the same clothing every single scene, regardless of the humidity or heat that was present. One of the few things that hinted that it might have been a fake was the cleanliness of the girl. For spending a week in the woods, her presentation was just too clean.
Overall, this movie is a must-see for anyone that is open to see a new kind of film, and that experiences no motion sickness because the movie is filmed in such a way that movement is present at all times. What s most captivating is that this leaves you thinking, do witches really do exist? It s your decision.