The Blair Witch Con Job

THE BLAIR WITCH CON JOB

I swear I was gonna leave this one alone. You don't need me to tell you how bad The Blair Witch Project was; there are plenty of other places where this sentiment has been eloquently expressed. Besides, if you've seen it you fall into one of two distinct groups: you either know it sucks and wish you had your money back, or you know it sucks but insist it becomes a lot better if you visit the Haxan website and watch the Sci-Fi channel special. Either way, my work here is already done. (By the way, if you think my website sucks, it's only because you lack the background information needed to make the material relevant and to see it in a whole new light. Plus the fact you lack imagination.)

Anyway, my change of heart came when I saw that TBWP garnered the number ten spot on the highest grossing movies of 1999. This, um, film relieved moviegoers of some 140 million dollars throughout the year. Which must qualify it as one of the biggest con jobs in American history. In the absence of a much needed government class action suit, I thought I'd try to salvage some good by analyzing how this whole mess could actually happen. Sort of a "learn from our mistakes" type of deal.

The whole Blair Witch phenomenon can be explained with five simple facts:

Moviegoers are generally becoming more and more dissatisfied with the lack of quality in Hollywood movies. Hollywood is now run by Big Business, and everyone hates and distrusts Big Business. Or at least they should. But the worst part is that the films are looking like they were built and packaged on an assembly line, totally devoid of any soul. It is just such a climate where people start searching outside the mainstream for a film to come along and remind them why they go to the movies in the first place.
The horror genre in particular has become the realm of talentless hacks. Scream had a great opening scene, but by the end disintegrated into stupidity. Scream 2 was even worse. Heck, Halloween H2O didn't even bother to have a second act. Species 2 was absolutely abysmal, and - well, you get the idea. The better directors and writers have seemingly scorned the horror industry, with the result being we haven't seen a well-made horror movie or even had a true scare in years.
Blair Witch was perceived early on and strongly marketed as the type of horror movie "Hollywood has forgotten how to make". Give the people what they want. And if you don't happen to have what they want, tell them you do anyway.
Blair Witch was able to capitalize on the emerging marketing power of "word of mouth" on the internet. Having a film that many want to see is only half the battle; you've got to make those people aware that you have a film they want to see. And the internet was blossoming at just the right time, providing free advertising access to millions of people. I've never been to their website, but by all accounts it was very well-done.
There is a disturbingly large faction of moviegoers who are reluctant to denounce a film championed by the critics because they fear it reveals a lack of sophistication on their part. These people are idiots. (And yes, The Thin Red Line really was as bad as you thought it was.)

So what are we left with? Every film student in the universe takes a camera out to the woods when he or she is just starting out. The woods make a cheap set without looking like a cheap set. The trees are visually interesting, and the light playing off the leaves provides intricate visual textures. But then you realize that to develop as a filmmaker you must integrate other elements into your film. Like plot development. Like good shot composition. Like interesting dialogue. The Blair Witch Project is the film of a student filmmaker just starting out. Now, with all of the principals involved reportedly securing studio deals, they will have to mature into real filmmakers at breakneck speed or they will inevitably crash and burn. Unless, of course, they can pull off The Blair Witch Con Job 2.