I'm watching "The Blair Witch Project" for the first time right now on television

[rockymountaindem]

Is this supposed to be scary? Is it supposed to give insight into the human condition? I'm not getting any of that. None. I mean, who came up with this movie?

Also, if you're lost, and you want to get out of a mountainous, forested area and you have no map... why not instead of going in the direction you *think* is south, just follow a the stream? I mean, water will flow downhill, and will eventually leave the hilly area. Sure beats wondering in circles...

Dumb. Ass. Film.

[TZ]

1. No actually I think its a brilliant film

And actually I do know that area and could see getting lost in that area, especially if you are getting freaked out and not paying attention.
I'm surprised how many people don't get this film. I think the kids who did this are genius. Especially the way they built a whole mythology-there is no Blair Witch Myth in Maryland but I and many other locals were completely fooled
And following the logic of the story...all their stuff was within the hilly forested area so following a creek wouldn't have done any good.

[rockymountaindem]

3. But if they've abandoned the prospect of finding the car

which they have, and are just trying to hike out and find a road or something, then following the river would make perfect sense. They're not trying to get somewhere. They're trying to get anywhere. For that, following the river will probably do.

[Tom Kitten]

6. I think that is part of the premise

The kids seemed a little overconfident at first, like they didn't take the legend seriously...once the creepy unknowns started scaring them to death they panicked and went to and fro looking for any sort of shelter, probably why they just ran into that house in the middle of nowhere.

The movie has its flaws but I think it was successful...I think part of the reason why there are so many divergent opinions about it may be in part because its style was made in a way to make each viewer have their own personal gut feelings watching it.

[Orrex]

15. I wouldn't go so far as to call them geniuses, but I'll give it its due (SPOILER)

It's far and away the most profitable non-porn film ever made, and it's definitely very clever. Heck, the marketing alone was brilliant. But I found large swaths of the film to be pretty boring, to be honest, though the climax was wonderfully horrifying.

When the camera pans around inside the house and you see the guy standing in the corner, if you're in the right frame of mind, that moment is incredibly creepy and really approaches terrifying.

Too much nostril-cam for my taste, though...

[jeff30997]

2. When I watched it years ago...

I fell asleep so I can't comment about it.

[Erin Elizabeth]

4. When it first came out, it was pretty damn creepy.

Now, all the shit where they're wandering around and cussing too much at each other? I didn't care about that. Boring!

But when they got to the nighttime parts, those were good. Suspend a bit of disbelief and you'll like those parts.

The end, I'll admit, kinda scared me, for real. It's creepy. You have to listen to the stuff about the myth to get the end, though. I didn't get it at first.

[rockymountaindem]

5. Okay, it just ended.

Who was filming at the end? Not the girl, right? She was doing the screaming. It was the other guy. Then they go into the basement where they appear to encounter their lost friend hanging from the ceiling, whereupon the last remaining cameraperson is knocked to the ground. Fin.

Huh? Also: "hey, let's go straight into the creepy abandoned house". That never caused any problems for Scooby freakin' Doo! I want the last period of my TV-watching life back.

[jobycom]

11. That all made sense. You must have missed some of the earlier stuff.

The girl is filming, IIRC--haven't seen it in years. She and the dude were drawn into the house because they heard the screams of their missing friend. She runs upstairs chasing the screams, and her friend runs downstairs. They are scared, but are more concerned for their friend, so illogical actions make perfect sense. She then runs back downstairs, where she finds her friend standing in the corner, exactly like the survivor who had told them about her earlier encounter with the witch--a story the filmmakers did not believe until that moment. The last scene is of the camera being knocked out of her hand and catching her last moments before going black.

Hell of a creepy movie. Give me that over zombie or slasher flick any day.

[laconicsax]

7. I believe the synopsis goes something like

Ok, they're in the woods looking for something, nothing's happening, something about a witch--I wasn't really listening, nothing's happening, nothing's happening, the camera keeps moving, nothing's happening, nothing's happening, it's over, a lot of people look pissed.

[pokerfan]

8. I saw the Erotic Witch Project

Wasn't scary at all. :)

[Iggo]

9. I saw the Bare B***h Project.

That wasn't scary, either.

[pokerfan]

12. pron names crack me up

White Men Can't Hump
On Golden Blonde
Throbbin' Hood
Add Momma to the Train
Lawrence of a Labia

[datasuspect]

18. schindler's fist

[jobycom]

10. Another genius film wasted on a short-attention-span generation.

:)

First, the mythology behind the story and the way it was revealed was very skillful. Second, if you don't realize you are walking in circles then you aren't looking for an alternative way to get out of the forest, so you aren't going to follow an unknown stream into unknown places. Following streams is over-rated anyway. The brush is thickest along a waterway, and the terrain the most uneven, so they are hard to follow. By the time the kids realized they were in trouble, it was too late to follow the river.

Third, the whole concept that a person could become a witch so powerful that centuries later she could still exist and could manipulate individuals and nature to get a group of kids lost, wandering in circles, and chasing phantom sounds straight into her traps is pretty damned creepy. It's a hell of a lot better premise than 99.999% of the so-called horror films (excluding Japanese horror films) released in the last twenty to thirty years.

Just my opinion. It wasn't the greatest film I've ever seen, but it was better than a few of the recent blockbusters I've suffered through.

[Monk06]

17. The last scene where the guy is standing paralysed against the wall creeped me completely out.

[Political Heretic]

13. It was much, much, MUCH better when they made it a second time, and called it Cloverfield!

[Kingofalldems]

14. I got the impression the old lady they visited in town

was the witch.

[kaiden]

16. Once the screaming at each other began so early in the film,

there was no place else to go. Each moment of the movie was harried and frenetic -- there was no "build." Other than that -- and wanting to club Heather (?) -- the movie was a'ight.