Homework: The Blair Witch Project (1999)

[Thedge 314]

The reason this movie shouldn't make it into the canon is that it's plot and mythology makes zero sense without the supplementary material released on the Internet when it came out.

[Cronopio 127]

I've tried with this film, I really have. I resisted the urge to leave the movie theater on its original run and stuck it out to the end. I tried on video a couple of times as well, but it's a door that doesn't open for me. As far as cultural relevance goes, sure, it became a thing, but is this a film canon, or a marketing canon? I'm curious to hear the discussion.

[NathanGordon 1096]

I guess when I watch this, I identify with the characters getting lost in the woods. I grew up in a heavily forested part of the Pacific Northwest, and often got quite lost when I was younger. I used to have nightmares about getting lost or waking up alone in the woods. It was also around the time of the Green River killer, and there was a lot of panic about hitchhiking but also satanic murders, child abductions, and bodies found in the woods (a la Stand By Me). I feel like there was a lot of irrational hysteria in the early 1980s surrounding serial killers and mysterious kidnappings.

 

So for me, I don't really find the witch stuff compelling (although I do think the ending is effective), but as a document of pants-on-head morons getting lost and desperate, it rings very true to me. I can't think of another film that conveys this as well except maybe Van Sant's Gerry, which is a very different film.