BWP Final thoughts and some suggestions

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 1999)

[Editor's note: this comment contains a minor SPOILER]
I have posted to newsgroups and the IMDb a number of times, especially concerning The Blair Witch Project. I have had a ton of response, mostly favorable, to my less than enthusiastic review and commentary of and on this film. The review was based on a screening copy I was able to pick up on the film. The video looked good while the sound left a bit to be desired. Still I felt that my tape was a 'good enough' representation of BWP.
Briefly, I thought the film was a 'nice try' but fell way short of it's own potential, and other than the final ten minutes, was simply not scary. I have to admit that the advance hype played a part in my disappointment but even if I had known nothing about this movie in advance, I would have still felt that it was just an interesting concept but nothing much more than that.
All through this and other newsgroups people have been saying that in order to fully appreciate this movie you need to see it theatrically. So....I did at a huge AMC theater with a packed house.
The presentation itself in a large theater wasn't anything helpful to my original review of the film...if anything it hurt the movie considerably more. Now....the annoying overacting of Heather....was simply more noticeable on a large screen and the sloppy editing was a lot sloppier on the big screen...and the sound wasn't much better.
Overall the acting in this movie is pretty decent but when it IS 'wooden,' boy does that come through on a huge screen! The low budget look of the film doesn't matter one way or another to me...it never did...but the sound DOES.
I believe the sound is essential in a movie that doesn't have any visual efx to speak of, so when our movie-makers are awakened by creepy sounds, we should be able to hear it in such a way as to duplicate their experience! When Heather screams "it's all around us!" we should be hearing it 'all around us' in the theater. Artisan should have taken this 'little' home-made movie and added Dolby-Digital efx! (or at lease basic surround) They do it all the time with older mono movies released to DVD....it would have been easy to do it here...and I don't care what anyone says...it would have helped the effectiveness of this film and it would have not taken anything away from the simplistic nature of BWP.
Which brings me to another important point.
I am tired of people defending this rather poorly made movie by suggesting that it's 'rawness' is some kind of important cinematic event or a horror movie 'first.' While I too am tired of overblown efx-laden movies, it has nothing to do with my general dislike for Blair Witch Project." These people that are criticizing and insulting those that do not appreciate BWP by insinuating that we're just obsessed with and desire huge budgets with lots of efx, are insane! I think that what we wanted out of BWP is something a little better than we ultimately got!
Hell....I just wanted to be a little scared...instead of bored! That's just my opinion...if you found it scary...that's fine....but don't insult and make insinuations about those people that dared to NOT be scared or like this film all that much, as if it would be their DUTY to do so.
The audience I sat with in this large AMC theater mostly laughed at the dialogue and traded comments about 'overracting' and 'i want my money back.' One young woman actually stood up in her seat and yelled "this sucks!" when the film ended. Her and her husband left the theater angrily. I didn't see anyone walking out 'excited' about this movie (and I looked hard for that reaction) and I didn't see anyone who looked 'scared' or visibly 'disturbed' (I looked for that too) What I did see were people who were p**sed off because they had been 'duped' by a movie and it's oh-so-clever marketing ploy along with mass enthusiasm from general movie-goers and critics who were 'bowled over' by the film's raw look and documentary feel, as if those traits alone made BWP something truly special in the annals of horror films...something worth 'trumpeting' like it was the greatest or one of the greatest horror movies of all time.
Yes....they felt duped...and they had every right to feel so.
Finally...here's my list of ways to improve this movie, because I truly believe that if Artisan and Haxan would have just slowed down and made some improvements to this film before rushing it into theatrical release, we would ultimately have had a better film, and one that would satisfy most viewers.
1. Add at least twenty minutes of the cut interview footage (Seen on Sci-Fi's "Curse of the Blair Witch.") and intersperse it between the hand-held p.o.v. stuff that really gets annoying at times. (I mean... c'mon Heather shoots everything and I mean everything!) This is how "Cannibal Holocaust" handled a similar idea and it worked much better.
2. Cut some of the yelling and arguing 'about being lost' scenes. I lost sympathy for the characters, especially Heather, when we have to sit through one scream session after another. These were primarily the places in the film where the acting is wooden and one can easily lose patience with the movie.
3. Shorten the time on screen of the discovered creepy things; rocks, things in trees, etc. I feel that went on too long. If you're going to make a movie with the idea that 'less is more,' then it has to be applied to everything, not just the technical quality of the film and the story development.
4. Re-edit the final ten minutes. We go from Heather's somewhat effective 'goodbye' speech directly into the discovery of the house. There needed to be a little rest-stop in-between...a 'build-up' if you will. Perhaps even a non-eventful night, followed by a short quiet day (instilling false hope into the characters and more sympathy for them from us because we KNOW that this doesn't have a happy ending.
5. Add a defined surround track...so we experience 'all around us' what the characters on the screen are experiencing during both subtle (normal woods day sounds) and terrifying moments. (screams, kids laughing, crackling, foot-steps, etc.)
6. Any why not at least one element that makes us jump? There were numerous opportunities to do so. I could have seen Heather running madly into the woods and into frame suddenly comes Mike or Josh 'or something else' colliding with her. That would NOT have put this movie into familiar typical horror movie range, it would have added a simple much needed scare.
(I know I'm probably going to get crucified for that statement)
7. Re-do the end credits that indicate far too much material that we didn't actually see; interviews with family, friends, and law-enforcement, etc. There were some really angry reactions in the theater during this part from those that stayed to watch the credits.
8. Get rid of the dumb cliched 'electronica' that we hear during these credits. Personally I like silently crawling white credits on a black screen and the 'electronica' here only 'cheapens' this movie and goes against it's own style and intent.
9. Quit this dumb rambling suggesting that BWP is real. The marketing people have relied on that to build too much into this insignificant story....and numerous people are falling for it. The average intelligent film-goer should be able to tell in about five minutes that this is just fiction and improvisation.
10. Never allow Heather to do another interview. I saw her on Leno last night and she was obnoxious, silly and did nothing for the credibility of this film.
Those are my ways to improve this movie.
This post is my opinion and I know there are many who will not share my viewpoints, which is fine. I am both frustrated and angered about all the attention BWP is getting. It's success is mostly undeserved. I believe that it's box-office take is due to the money spent by the curious who are reacting to all the hype and not much else. I also believe that BWP's success will be short-lived, profitable yes....but short lived, leaving the film a minor source of curiosity...the movie equivalent to a 'one hit wonder' Soon...BWP will just be a memory and we all, including me, will move on to something more important. Another horror movie will come along to get us JUSTIFIABLY excited.
God do I look forward to that day.
Thomas Brown Whiz NBC Radio The Advertiser Goes to the Movies