Tár

[terror93]

I thought this was kind of interesting. Apparently Heather Donahue/Rei Hance's screams from the end of the movie were used in a scene from a movie called Tár. This movie was reportedly made for $35 million, stars Cate Blanchett, and is currently nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture. 




Heather/Rei came across this video or was shown it, and left this comment:

Rei Hance
2 days ago
It's extraordinary to me that after 25 years of being told my performance had nothing to do with the success of Blair Witch, just the audio of my performance, 25 years later, is still an effective shorthand for existential dread--and I'm still not being paid or credited. Thank you for putting this video together. It's undeniable.

[The Missing Bear]

Didn't realise she'd changed her name, just looked up an article about it and that's so sad about how much some horrible people out there made her so unhappy and mistreated her to the degree she wished she'd never used her real name (least of all the horendous fact that she was also raped).

www.eightieskids.com/blair-witch-heather-donahue-name-rei-hance/

Other than it's disgusting how real-world trolls would go up to her to demand their money back or insult her, I also find it utterly unfathomable how she ever got nominated for a Razzie; there is literally nothing that's not incredibly genuine, believable and naturalistic about all of the acting in BWP. Heather in particular felt utterly pushed to Hitchcock/Kubrick levels of genuine breakdown for their art. Compare that to the self-aware MTV sequel that is plagued with cringe-worth moments of dialogue and cheesy quips, but people love to attack what's popular, especially when it comes from outside the normal boundaries of contempoary art, so BWP was an easy target.

To this day, I consider the performances utterly brilliant in how real they feel, which only added to the aura and creepienss of one of the greatest modern day folk-horror lores ever created (just a shame no one's ever been able to truly recapture it with any further spinoffs in the way the original team did with BWP and its mockumentaries). The fact that so many people believed it was real can only be further positive evidence of how convincing the acting was in that film.

Anyway, it says a lot for her performance in that it could be reused in this way, proving just how chilling it was, and how she could carry a film at times just with the power and fear in her disembodied voice as narrator. And all the more of a shame that she continues to go uncredited for it.

[Tweek]

Yep. That's audio from the movie. Clearly. Assuming they got permission from Lionsgate to use that, I would have my lawyer hounding them for my movie check. If they didn't then LG should be on the case. Either way Rei should be paid. Her performance was used.

Lots of info in that article. It answers the question I had about the name change. I've never understood the harsh negative reaction to TBWP. If you didn't like it, fine. Why personally attack the actors? That never made sense to me. There are a ton of films I don't like. I don't go out of my way to harrass the people that made them. It's stupid. Who does that?

[terror93]

I agree. I think many of the criticisms aren't valid like "nothing happens." Plenty happens. It's just not what you wanted to happen. But that's beside the point. I, too, have seen many movies I dislike and what I do is say "I knew I should've picked this other movie instead" and go on about my day. What did they think harassing her would accomplish? Did they think Heather was going to call up Ed and Dan, and say "Well, Bob Hill from Nebraska hates our movie so we better go back to the woods and reshoot it with CGI ghosts, a few jump scares, and Rustin Parr violently stabbing my character"? It's as silly as that petition to reshoot Halloween Ends now.

Anyway, this tweet may shed some light on it. Could they have just thought it was a random, generic stock scream like the Wilhelm Scream and not known what they were doing?

[Tweek]

Yeah right. I don't expect anyone to publicly admit to breaking the law. Could be used in court. He knows what that clip is from. Didn't think anyone would recognize it. But we did.