Back to the roots

Rating: 7/10 (28 July 1999)

Since there was no "hype"in France and I don't listen to critics anyway, I saw this movie with no preconceptions other than the trailer. By the way, it must be the cheaper-made movie in recent history ! Instead of being innovative, it gave me the feeling of going back to the roots of horror with stories, not by Lovecraft, but Algernon Blackwood ("The Wendigo") or Arthur Machen, who could convey this sense of unseen terror and dangerous landscapes. The idea seemed reminescent of the "dogma" movies and a series of mock-documentaries made by the French/German TV channel Arte, all showing false documentaries about abnormal events presented as the real thing - but giving the trick in the end to question the viewer's gullibility. (But the filmmakers of BWP can't have seen it, of course.) And the movie ? I thought the end was a bit of a let-down, but as a suspense story, it was quite gripping. Why all the hype ? Maybe because low-budget ground-breaking horror is an established tradition since NOTLD and there was nothing else around ?(Like "Henry", very overrated in my opinion.) Why did the media jumped on it ? Maybe the devil made them do it, or i