
Was the Blair Witch Project the last great horror film? - otoolep
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151030-was-the-blair-witch-project-the-last-great-horror-film
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strictnein
I think it depends.

When my sister saw it, it was very early on, prior to any pub or wide release,
at a festival (or something) were it was presented as basically a true found
film/documentary. She called me almost immediately after seeing it and
pestered me for months to go watch it, presenting it as truly great.

When I saw it, I knew it was fake, had read about the making of it, etc. We
were laughing at it in the theater (especially the "found my cigarettes"
part). So, while a little scary in parts (especially that ending), it wasn't
anything special to us. We still point to Event Horizon as our favorite horror
movie, partly because we didn't know it was going to be what it was. We
thought it was more of a space exploration thriller.

~~~
milankragujevic
I'd rate Event Horizon as the scariest thing I saw in my life, mainly because
the first and only time I saw it was when I was 7 years old.

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GFischer
I think my brother still hates me... first time in our lives we were alone (I
think I was 13 or 14, my brother 11 or 12), dark stormy night with lightning,
my father was going out for a few hours, so of course, I got to choose a (VHS)
movie.. it was Event Horizon.

He couldn't sleep for days (I had a nightmare but I could sleep), my father
was SO mad.

~~~
teh_klev
Had my ex-partner's oldest kid (age 14) hiding behind the sofa. I too was not
popular when he woke up in the middle of the night by a nightmare and blaming
it on watching Event Horizon.

I thought he could handle it because we'd just watched all the Alien movies
and he quite enjoyed them. He saw Aliens first and I suggested we watch the
original/rest, he was quite drawn into suspense of the first film which the
others have never quite matched in intensity. I guess Event Horizon was a bit
too dark and visceral for his tastes.

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thom
Blair Witch Project came out when I was at university, and I saw it at the
cinema with a bunch of friends. It later transpired that at least two of them
genuinely believed it was real. In a way, I have always been envious of their
gullibility, because it must have been an _incredibly_ intense experience. As
it was, I still thought it was pretty good, and an incredible achievement for
the budget.

~~~
curun1r
That was one film where piracy offered an experience that the legitimate film
experience couldn't have. I worked a swing shift, so my coworkers and I would
have a bunch of free time at work and a coworker of mine had gotten into
downloading movies from Hotline to fill the time. When he downloaded BWP, all
we knew about it was that it was a file name 'Blair_Witch_Project.mpg' on some
internet-connected server. There had been no publicity for it and it wasn't
released in any theater in the area.

When I watched it again in the theatre, it wasn't nearly as gripping as it was
on the 17" monitor we used to watch it the first time. Plus, the lack of a
steadicam made it actually better on a much smaller screen.

All in all, I don't agree with the premise of the article. I'm not even sure
I'd call BWP good. It was creative, but I don't know that it worked without
the uncertainty that surrounded my first viewing. Also, for me, there was a
much better horror film that came out later that year called 'Stir of Echoes',
so even if BWP is considered great, it's not, for me, the last great horror
film.

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newobj
Hardly.

28 Days Later / Shutter Island / Donnie Darko / Let The Right One In / Jeepers
Creepers / The Ring / Drag Me To Hell / Saw / The Host / The Others / Cabin In
The Woods / It Follows / ...etc

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emsy
I never thought of Donnie Darko as a horror movie. Care to elaborate?

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mrob
I've watched a lot of horror movies and none of them came anywhere close to
scaring me. It's too easy to remember that they're not real. Donnie Darko
however has scenes I'd call "philosophically scary", and knowing it's not real
does nothing to lessen the impact. Despite not being officially horror I found
it more horrifying than any horror movie.

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eli_gottlieb
What do you mean? Isn't it just a time-travel movie?

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Retric
There is a sliding scale of time travel, but in general the idea can quickly
get freaky.

Even just viewing the past can be disturbing as it breaks some privacy
concepts, aka camera that can see into anyone’s homes or future crime. Going
to the outer edge starts to get really freaky especially if you start getting
into the head of the main character.

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lost_name
While the title is obviously geared for sensationalism, I think the question
the article is actually asking is whether or not a gimmick (for lack of a
better term) like a documentary style horror movie, and having people go in
the theater not knowing if it was real or not, still exists. As the author
points out, it's silly in retrospect but at the time there was genuine
confusion about it for audiences, and the way the movie was produced furthered
the illusion.

That question is more interesting than arguing about whether or not you liked
the film.

~~~
thomnottom
Yes, it's a shame that they went for sensationalism. I really wish the Blair
Witch Project had worked (for me) because it was an excellent idea.
Unfortunately it just came out as sloppy, amateurish, and boring. The "big
reveal" at the end simply elicited an "Oh, that makes sense" from me.

But it's probably the only film that successfully tiptoed that line between
reality and film.

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jstalin
Blair Witch was so terrible, I don't know why anyone considers it a good
movie. The characters were all so _stupid_ that I wanted them to die just so I
could leave the theater.

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angdis
NO!

BWP was a solid innovative film that inspired a whole sub-genre of horror
films. It was great, but there have been really outstanding horror films since
then.

I am thinking, in particular, of "It Follows". THAT was a revelation of what
can be possible in horror.

~~~
nommm-nommm
Cannibal Holocaust was probably the first "found footage" horror film and
predates Blair Witch Project by almost 2 decades.

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nkozyra
Parent comment doesn't say that BW was the first, just that it inspired a
bunch of movies. Which is far more true of it than Cannibal Holocaust.

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alansmitheebk
Fuck no. That movie sucked.

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malux85
I've only just started getting into horror, can you give some suggestions? :)

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mrob
People have recommended The Cabin in the Woods, and it's a great movie, but I
suggest you hold off watching it until you've seen a lot of other horror
movies. It relies on you being familiar with the cliches and genre conventions
for it to work.

~~~
k__
Well, you could watch it first and see how many horror-movies are devoid of
creativity ;)

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nextweek2
Hitchcocks The Birds was:
[http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/](http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/)

Scary isn't what you see on screen, it's what you carry with you the rest of
your life. I still stiffen up every time I area flock of birds gathering on
telephone wire. If the birds turned on us, we'd be dead.

~~~
spikej
Or watching Alive
([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106246/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106246/))
as a child on your first time ever on an airplane o_0

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bayer_rggb
I don't know if it counts as horror, but Ex-machina freaked me out. The movie
is so good on so many levels. I was always skeptical about AI and what it
could lead to, but this movie makes you think about the morality of AI-beings.

~~~
teh_klev
Yes. I found Ex-machina distinctly uncomfortable to watch, I don't get that
very often.

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ojbyrne
The Babadook.

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trimbo
Came here to add this. It's the best in years.

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Wonderdonkey
Ju-On?

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samstave
Watch "Rec"

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gotofritz
Surely Audition.

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VOYD
Yes.

