Blair Witch Realsim

[ellie1987]

Hi everyone, hope you're all well.

I was hoping if you could express some of your views and opinions to help contribute to research for a dissertation.

I'm interested in finding out about your opinions on The Blair Witch Project.
I assume that you're all fans of the film? Why do you like it...and what is it about the film that you find so entertaining? Plus does it scare you as much now as it did when released?

Do you think it was in any way realistic? And was it's success more down to the film itself or the way it was publicised (the whole internet, viral marketing campaign)?

Also do you ever really get really scared by horror anymore? What makes horror films scary in your eyes?

I would be really grateful to hear your views on this as i'm half way through a dissertation which requires other peoples opinions as well as my own.

Thank you so much
Ellie

[Anarchist86ed]

Why do you like it...and what is it about the film that you find so entertaining?

Psychological torture was the whole point of it. And Heather is hot.

Plus does it scare you as much now as it did when released?

Didn't scare me then, much less so now.

do you think it was in any way realistic?

Yes.

And was it's success more down to the film itself or the way it was publicised (the whole internet, viral marketing campaign)?

Who's to say. Viral marketing as well as the internet were fairly new things back then. Much like war of the worlds, some people actually believed it was all true. Some still do when they find out about it today...

Also do you ever really get really scared by horror anymore? What makes horror films scary in your eyes?

No. Horror movies aren't scary. They're lame.

Psycho killer stalks retarded sex and drug crazed spoiled teenagers, and kills them one by one. Wash, rinse, repeat.

[mrtnflmngak]

Why do you like it...and what is it about the film that you find so entertaining?

The plot was what got me grabbed, the whole story was behind it was fascinating.

Plus does it scare you as much now as it did when released?

Nope, its like every horror film, the first time you see it. your scared out of your wits but watch it again, it wont have the same effect

Do you think it was in any way realistic?

Yes, very much

And was it's success more down to the film itself or the way it was publicised (the whole internet, viral marketing campaign)?

Probably both because half of the films audience were intrigued by the website and the fact it was reality.

Also do you ever really get really scared by horror anymore? What makes horror films scary in your eyes?

Not really, no. Well, i like a good few slasher films but what makes horror films now is just total psychological horror, the Japanese have all the good horrors now.

[Deleted]

I think Blair Witch is good because it goes back to basics. Simple premise (people going into the woods to investigate something weird). Limited characters (only three really). Non-stop story (after initial set up, there is always SOMETHING happening). I wasn't really scared by it, BUT, that was only because I saw it pretty late. Meaning, that by the time I saw it, I had heard about a million people saying how scary it was. So I went into the film thinking "Go on then, SCARE me" To be honest, this kind of killed the scare factor for me. I think that if I had seen it on opening night, I would have been scared.

I do think the film was realistic. The way it was filmed is the main reason for this. The whole hand-held thing (no matter how many films use it) always adds an element of realism to the proceedings. The internet advertising was good, to start with, but I reckon word-of-mouth was this film's biggest advert. Everyone and their sister were saying that you should see this.

The News scares me more than any film ever could. Because of this, I don't think ANYONE gets actually scared of movies anymore. Witch (ha ha) is sad. Anyway, I think the best you can hope for nowadays is the "creep out" factor. Films which have successfully done this to me are= The Sixth Sense (the bit where the kid is in his tent and the dead girl is staring at him when he looks out) and The Ring (the bit where the girl opens the cupboard and there's that freaky pale boy). It's the matter-of-fact way that they look. They're not Count Dracula jumping out and saying "bleah!". They're ACTING normal, but they look freaky. hope this helps.

[Deleted]

Apologies. I think it was The Grudge with the freaky pale boy.

[derick]

For some reason...and i don't know why...there's just something about POV-documentery style horror with just the actors/charecters with cameras that make things seem alot more real. It looks like snuff, feels like snuff, even sounds and acts like snuff, it was...in a way..being sold as snuff........but it's far from snuff, Nothing can be further. Thats why TBWP scared me in the first place. The deaths of the charecters (filmmakers) were somewhat vauge too so that leaves room for theories. It made me want to see it again and again to make sure what actually happened. Then later on it just turned into one of my fav horror films. But when i saw another movie similer to it, it made me want to see it again. which later made me contemplate on why TBWP and other documentery style horror scares me so bad. I went to Google and started to google some crazy things like "death on documentry TV" or something. Of course, i found a story i wish i hadnt of found and just knowing that there were incidents in real life where someone's real death was purposely caught on tape and people saw it (BTW, i'm familier with "Faces Of Death" series) I knew it but i didn't really feel it... until i bumped into "that story". My reaction is now like WHOA! OK! THAT'S IT! This is waaaay too dam much reality..im going back into the woods with the Blair Witch, thank you very much! Now, TBWP, is a comfort to me. But that same inkling of that same fear when i first saw TBWP has returned...like is was restored or something. Maybe after hearing an in depth story about a real life on-camera death sorta restored that old "Blair Witch" feeling i had. But again at the same time, i'm comforted by the Blair Witch. She frightens but yet comforts me.
I think maybe ever since TBWP, horror has gotten a little too real to the point if you show a person a snuff video of a real-life death and a death scene from today's horror (especialy documentery style horror), he/she probely wouldn't be able to tell which is real and which is fake. Nowadays, tha fake stuff looks more real than that real stuff.