The Blair Witch Project - re:View

EXTENDED DISCUSSION: / the-blair-witch-projec...
Mike and Jay revisit the 1999 pop culture phenomenon The Blair Witch Project. Does it hold up?
No, seriously. Does it? Let us know what you think in the comments.

[@McPatrick14]

I had arguably the best possible viewing experience of this film: I was ten years old, my family had just moved to a new house, and I found an unmarked VHS copy of The Blair Witch Project in the basement that had been left behind by the previous owners. I watched it alone in the dark on a CRT TV and was completely convinced that everything I was seeing was real. It was 2003-2004, and the only thing I knew of the movie was the name and that it was "recovered footage". I didn't sleep for a week.

[@robertparker6280]

Wow! That *IS* perfect!

[@RFC-3514]

"I didn't sleep for a week." - And was that because of the movie, or the crystal meth the previous owners had also left behind in the basement?

[@Never_heart]

I am actually kind of jealous of those circumstances. They are so perfect

[@emmaausten94]

iconic 😳😳😳

[@TheEtherny]

Dude, my middleschool teacher was a pretty cool guy and we trusted him on everything, so when he told us the movie was real, I started looking for it but couldn't find it ANYWHERE, until one day, at a garage sale, I see this VHS with handwritten letters, BlairWitch, so I bought it for like 50 cents and watched it alone, I was legitimately scared and it's not like I knew I could use the internet to investigate lol a few years later the same happened with the first paranormal activity but I watched it with my sister and cousin, we were all in disbelief and scared shitless, ohhh to be young again lol

[@nowhereman6019]

You should have had Josh standing on the corner the whole review.

[@MsStack42]

And never mention the fact. Would have made as much sense as in the movie...

[@jpollackauthor]

@@MsStack42 It made perfect sense in the movie - they're in the serial killer's house. The serial killer made his victims stand in the corner before he killed them. It's amazing how much shit makes sense when you actually pay attention to it lol

[@jondeare]

J O S H !

[@nchap2023]

Holy shit! Jeremy?!

[@YurrWhat]

@@nchap2023 you mean Hilary?

[@williamsircin6025]

"The first ten minutes or so is the first part of the movie." Now THAT'S analysis!

[@hayberdasher8625]

A truly laser-like insight into the inner workings of cinema

[@diemcarpe-y7m]

dude have no idea about structure of the movie, that there are (usually) 3 acts, or parts in the movie

[@vitreousphantasm]

I saw it in a theater in '99. I was 15 and actually wanted to believed that it was a real found footage film. Wasn't scared at all. Then I spent 7 years in the Canadian Rockies and northern interior forestry industry. Now it is way scarier because I've seen people get lost and kind of lose their marbles. Panicking in the woods.

[@Dancyspartan]

​@@diemcarpe-y7mWhat are you, seven? Next mind-blow: Your daddy ain't coming home late because of extra office hours.

[@hocuspocusfocus6229]

Josh?!!! JOSH! JOSH? JOOOOSH!! Mike: "Bbbrad?...Carlos?"

[@Targisvear]

One of the most obvious deadpan trollings of Mike.

[@raptorbadger3131]

snake? Snake???? Snaaaaaaakkkkkeeeee!

[@cattibingo]

@@raptorbadger3131 metal Gear?

[@genehetzel2036]

SHAUN!!!

[@DanHauer]

A few months ago I showed The Blair Witch Project to my Vietnamese girlfriend, who had never even heard of it. At the end, she said it was boring and not scary, and she felt very frustrated by what she saw as a lack of structure and payoff. Later that evening she took a shower, and when she came out I was standing in the corner of our dimly lit living room, just like the character in the movie (you know, as a joke). She screamed at the top of her lungs, started crying, and made me promise to never do that again. Turns out the movie was scarier than she thought.

[@CaptianAwesome]

haha

[@avengercannon]

you seem to have made a flaw

[@Dummy257]

where can I buy a Vietnamese girlfriend?

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

What is flirting like in Vietnam?

[@stephencarroll4681]

+Myanameis Beestingz You say "hey baby wanna fall on my Punji stick?"

[@MtrlDstrbt]

One of my favorite realism elements is that they all have their own equipment. Ex. The last scene in the house, Mike has the sound equipment while you're watching from Heather's perspective. As she's running down the stairs you hear her voice getting louder as she gets closer to Mike in the basement. Genius.

[@halikarnak1862]

Convenient that Mike has the mic.

[@micalzoncillo249]

@@halikarnak1862 oh... snap...

[@Morris1581]

yeah thats so great!

[@SDCromwell]

The end of the movie still creeps me out to this day. The actors did such a great job of just being panicked, it's infectious.

[@Arkhigoul]

So she was doing a.... *dons sunglasses* ... Mike check? 𝒀𝒀𝒀𝒀𝒀𝒀𝑬𝑬𝑨𝑨𝑨𝑨𝑨𝑨𝑨𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯𝑯

[@Jonathan-nb9lc]

I actually had the privilege of meeting the director of Blair Witch, Eduardo Sanchez. He told me that they gave the actors walkie-talkies so he could keep in touch with the actors, a compass so they knew where they were going, and a note with certain lines of dialogue that needed to be read, but the actors would improvised the lines in so it sounded spontaneous. He's really a super nice guy. He's also super tall.

[@Jonathan-nb9lc]

Also I saw this movie when I was 16. I think the ambiguity and what you don't see is the scariest part. I've been camping before, and if I heard laughing and footsteps from random kids I'd be scared shitless. A lot of it was me putting myself in the characters shoes, and that's what made it so frighting. All in all though I thought it was a very clever movie, and I did find it scary.

[@alanpennie8013]

From reading her comments I rather doubt Heather Donohue would agree.

[@nationalsarcasticsociety1312]

Aranda, I'm actually friends with his son, who is a theater actor, and not a retired pitcher.

[@yxngraspy3291]

paranormal activity is a much lesser movie than blair witch, but the scenes that work work because you end up intensely staring at a shitty recording, trying to figure out if there's something in the back or if it's a shadow

[@elliotreviews7930]

Jonathan I would like this comment but it's at exactly 420 likes. Wouldn't want to ruin that

[@kingvulturo]

I love the fact that cartoon Network did an entire parody of the film with the Scooby Doo cast and aired it on the channel every Halloween.

[@cameronbaker97]

Yeah, that was a pretty great special.

[@brandobob1371]

Core memory right there

[@Chris-ks4sw]

Honestly that was scarier than the actual movie

[@BarryHart-xo1oy]

I would love to see that parody.

[@CastOfCharacters13]

Oh yeah I remember that a mix between terror and comedy

[@rubezky]

I can't believe Jay once had 12 friends...

[@devilsummoner2163]

They all were put together to form rich Evans

[@harry4716]

Fusionash 3 like how fat women are made in Family Guy

[@cosmicmuffet1053]

about half of them left because he took them to the blair witch project.

[@elinicoritale6384]

@@devilsummoner2163 lmao

[@jacksyron4022]

Daow I'd be friends w him

[@LitwinOnTour]

This is the earliest rlm video I could find where you clearly see Mikes dementia setting in

[@mutinyontheark]

"Brad...Carlos?" "It's Josh. They said it a hundred times in the movie."

[@Tstorm731]

The first time I noticed was the BOTW Star Wars Holiday Special (pt 1) about 25 minutes in. Jay is Mike's portable memory storage unit. His brain don't work...it's Italian.

[@Tstorm731]

@@KevinR1138 It’s a reference to something Mike said on either a BOTW or a re:view. He was talking about how a movie didn’t make any sense and he said “it’s Italian” as shorthand for “the writing didn’t make any sense”. I had just watched it before this episode but now I can’t remember what it was.

[@SDCromwell]

RIGHT? "It's basically the progenitor of all found footage horror movies, and one of the few to do the genre any justice." Mike: "Yeah, but why doesn't it have a traditional structure and plot, tho? Why doesn't it spend more time on developing the characters and exposition?" DUDE.

[@LordEptar]

I'm glad you made the distinction that you can "clearly" see it, because it's been setting in since the start of RLM- possibly since Mike was born, even- but through clever editing and CGI, they were *mostly* able to make it seem like Mike wasn't going senile at an early age.

[@cuntycat2397]

I showed it to a friend, he was in his mid twenties, and had a passing familiarity with the movie. I convinced him before watching that this was real, or allegedly real, and set him down to watch the movie. He seemed to be very drawn in, the scene with the children had his eyes going big, and by the end of the movie he said he was very disturbed and feeling that he had just watched three people slowly go stir crazy and likely get killed. He spent the rest of the night trying to research more of the backstory, and told me to go fuck myself when he figured out it was fake. GOT EM. Edit: The reason it took him a good chunk of the night to research was because I might have "helped" him find the website with all the "information that the police dug up." Once he navigated away from the old site, that's when he figured it out. Didn't expect this to become such a controversial issue lol

[@lotusflowers3280]

😂😂😂 brilliant 👏👏👍

[@alexanderjakubowski6183]

My sister did the same shit to me (I was like 11 or something)

[@abeolivares2879]

cuntycat it’s the only way to introduce the movie to someone! If u ruin it for them and say it’s fake, it’s not scary!

[@karl6701]

Showed it "to a friend" did you?

[@MOSMASTERING]

@@karl6701 Yes, they are people that you can talk to, hang out with and they look out for you. Generally they're free, you can meet them 'outside'.

[@NPC45100]

I was in scouts for 15 years and I did plenty of camping in the woods; Blair Witch creeped me out because of how damn authentic it feels. When you're in the woods in the pitch black, and you hear twigs snapping and leaves rustling off in the darkness, your mind bristles with fear and anxiety. The movie nailed that feeling for me. I think it scared me more than most viewers because I've been in that situation.

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

That's an interesting observation. I've been camping since I was a kid and didn't think of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense, and scared me when I first saw it in the theater. I wonder if it cuts that way for most people, i.e. do 'urban' kids just think it's stupid. I suppose it could work both ways, i.e. urban kids being even more scared in the woods.

[@mileswall9716]

Yeah, I think it definitely hits different if you've spent an autumn night camping in the backcountry. I do think though that it's also a sort of universal fear, even if it's buried in some people. Our primordial brains remember all kinds of dark goings-on in the forests of prehistory.

[@Deathmastertx]

@@mileswall9716 There's pareidolia which is seeing an object or spotting a pattern even when there is none. It's why we're so good at spotting faces in Martian rocks, seeing bigfoot and ghosts in some shadows and artifacts in images or hearing words in music played backwards. Being cognitively set up to spot faces is probably because being able to quickly judge another persons mental state was better for survival and spotting patterns and objects probably helped people be more perceptive in finding threats or opportunities - better to be the archaic human that spots the big cat in the darkness than the one who doesn't even if its a false alarm most of the time. Couple that with the fact we're not evolved to be nocturnal creatures and darkness dulls one of our primary senses. It only makes sense that it can put us on edge.

[@drygnfyre]

I did my first summer camp when this movie came out, but I didn't see it until about a year later. I'm glad I did because I probably would have been terrified of summer camp if I saw it. But I've experienced similar uneasiness. I'll be out camping, hear noises during the night, and I know it's just animals, wind, whatever. Nothing truly scary or harmful in of itself, but it's that primal fear of the unknown.

[@exceptionvideo]

When this first came out in 1999, the colleague who found it as effective as I did also grew up camping. Those common noises in the woods are not what you think they are like if you haven't stayed out in the dark. They are many times LOUDER than expected. It's not that a bird snaps a twig, it's that it sounds like something giant stepped on a branch and cracked it. Normal sounds don't sound right. If there were children's laughter in there somehow, or something else harmless but no reason to exist, that would be frightening.

[@Infiniteusagi]

I gotta disagree with Mike. Jay is right; the scariest thing about the movie is that we don't have any idea of what's happening or what anything really means. Like with the stick figures. It would've been cheesy and really taken away from the film of we had this explanation of "oh these sticks mean that someone's gonna die" because what makes it so effective and so eerie is that we have no idea what it means. This movie thrives off its subtlety, and there's something about finding stick figures hanging in the trees, with absolutely no context, that is just plain creepy.

[@IstasPumaNevada]

+

[@ASXXXC]

Exactly that ! I also think that the stronger Your imagination is, the scarier the movie is for You. Most people got used to the horror cliches so much that they're unable to sink in and "enjoy" sound effects and atmosphere itself. People focus too much on anticipating a loud noise or a scary face popping up on the screen cause unfortunately that's how 90% of horror movies try to scare its audience. Even the scariest monster created by someone else will always be 10 times less scary than what Your own imagination can come up with by fearing the unknown. So I'm totally with Jay on this one.

[@nycheeseburger1011]

Agreed, Mike's suggestions sounded like it would have made the movie an average cheesy horror.

[@lous111]

Actually, I found to be cheesy horror, Cheeseburger.

[@williamsn411]

Stick figures don't scare me. I'm with mike on this one.

[@abefroman53]

This movie came out when I was 13 and I remember the debates and controversy over whether or not it was real pretty well. I was still too young to see it, but a few months later it came out on Pay-Per View and we had this shitty old black and white tv with our cable box attached to it. I don't remember how, but some how I figured out that if you turned the cable to channel 0 and did something with the knobs you could get it to show a blank screen and the audio would come in for PPV movies perfectly. So the first time I "saw" Blair Witch I actually only listened to it by sneaking down to the basement with all the lights turned off so I wouldn't get caught and hearing just the audio come out of a black and white tv just showing an all white screen. In that context I can say I was legitimately really scared. A couple years later when I eventually rented it I was really let down, because the actual visuals weren't nearly as scary as the ones I'd imagined in my head.

[@BiscuitHead22]

Legit cool story bro.

[@ApesAmongUs]

I had a very similar experience, first watching it on a tiny, pixelated, downloaded copy on a computer monitor with no context, and then seeing it a couple of weeks later (while really high) when it came out in theaters. Genuinely creepy with that little bit of added illusion of it possibly being real, and brain numbingly dull in a movie theater surrounded by people.

[@kaltech04]

I used the same pay-per-view trick you did to watch the porn channels, but I could usually get some picture, like half the screen had picture and the rest was noise.

[@rustcohle3803]

Lmao some of you guys sound like you were living in the dark ages.... goes to show how I'm spoiled I am by vcr and crt tvs

[@cdavis17]

That would actually be a good way to watch it for the first time, just the images your mind comes up with yet you have no idea what the “witch” really looks like is way scarier than just watching it.

[@AdamRast]

The younger fisherman being interviewed in Blair witch is my friend's dad, Ed. I've totally done community theater with him.

[@888legends]

epic!

[@trackyjon-jonandjimmymoop274]

You tell him he did a fine job in the movie.

[@cuntycat2397]

You tell em we said "Bullshit"

[@mister_mozzarella]

Yeah, sure. And the kid in my Boy Scout Troop, I suppose his dad was in Poltergeist 3 as well...?

[@johnleary1356]

I looked up the actor's name on IMDB. This guy is telling the truth

[@patriciaduncanjimenez6019]

The actors' performances are so convincing from beginning to end that I fall under a spell whenever I watch The Blair Witch Project. One of my favorites.

[@cosmicmuffet1053]

it's fun that Mike, who's normally down for paranormal stuff just says 'this is fake, and I don't care'.

[@bebimeta3697]

Why do some Redlettermedia fans suddenly become tone-deaf to these guys' tastes when they side against stuff they themselves like? Mike's interests in paranormal topics bare minimum lies on the pretense of investigating the paranormal. Blair witch's pretense is making an indie film come off as footage of real life events about what happened to 3 characters that went into the woods, not on tryna to investigate the paranormal. There is little to nothing paranormal about it, because it's so vague and aimless about it's "paranormal" topic that it ends on a vague note that could be interpreted as a non-paranormal conclusion.

[@klaykid117]

When it comes to horror fiction Mike really like established 'rules' of the montser "IE pour this salt out for the ghost" He would probably hate Japanese horror movies.

[@keepinpemdazaliv]

@@Nellsism fucking this! Mike complains about how boring he found Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity but they're exactly what he says he wants in a horror film.

[@FootyCrazyM8]

@@bebimeta3697 paranormal

[@theclingyfox7899]

@@keepinpemdazaliv because there's like 70 minutes of nothing between those moments and it's all shitty jumpscares.

[@leew1598]

Like how they can disagree but still respect each others views.

[@desepticon4]

Its almost like they're adults...

[@Homicide364]

+TheNotorious Glorious Fuck you and your opinions

[@Easyflux]

It's called being an adult.

[@joes2573]

Yep, Jay liked "Under the Skin" which is like the most narratively empty movie ever. But that's a good summary of their preferences. Jay can enjoy a movie just for the cinematography.

[@desepticon4]

futurestoryteller It's one thing to make generalizations about different types of viewers, and quite another to make directed statements to a single individual. The amount of vitriol some commenters spew at each other is pretty disgusting.

[@OddMike]

I actually still love this movie, love how vague it is, LOVE how mixed the lore is. It feels like a real small-town legend, where people all give different versions of it and none of it makes sense.

[@OddMike]

I'm 22, first saw it when I was probably like..15? 16? I watched it with my mom, knew it wasn't real, but I still fucking loved it.

[@annme_87]

Exactly. The holes in the lore are intentional. The characters were trying to find out more about this old legend and had nothing but muddled hearsay to go on. I'm sure every town has that old legend that's a little different depending on who you ask. I think Blair Witch got that feeling exactly right.

[@KregorEight]

I definitely agree. If you're from a little down in New England or Pennsylvania or whatever, the film feels so much more familiar and believable than if you're from Los Angeles or Dallas. When I watched the film with friends in college, we noticed this difference in people's reactions. The more "my home town" the film felt (depending on the student), the more frightening AND enjoyable the film was.

[@superlifter]

agreed. i think the ambiguous backstory where everyone has slightly different tellings of it makes it much more realistic and much scarier. if they nailed down specifics too tight like mike wants them to it would be more 'written', fake-sounding. this sounds like a real urban legend (well, rural legend) .also, the bit with the anglers freaks me out, i think it's really genuine and great. i listened to a review by some fellas who are from that sort of small town and one of them said something about how he noticed that the fishermen were standing back-to-back as they fished. not something that's drawn attention to, not something i would ever notice. He said he picked up on that, 'cause those guys are standing like that so they can watch out around them, 'cause they think there might be something in those woods. that sort of thing, and the fact that there's no exposition about it, is what makes it seem so authentic

[@RegularOlSammy]

@Steve Saul Interesting that you point out the hype issue, as it's almost a flaw for the movie in a way. Essentially the audience is being set up for the 'big scare' to fit the hype, and it never manifests - of course they're going to be let down by it. Whilst the movie isn't perfect for me, I love it largely because what it essentially conveys is a low key fuckup in the world of horror: some edgy teens go out and get lost in the woods, get hunted down by a demonic presence that is never explained. It's the subtlety of how the horror is depicted through that which is unseen that makes it so effective in my books: your mind fills in the blanks. When you're expectant for some great revelation like the hype train was promising, you're waiting for something to come over to you, inevitably out of proportion to what eventually does. When you have to project yourself into the darkness and do the work, it makes it more interesting IMO.

[@ameliafoley4156]

Jay saying "actually there's cannibal holocaust and there's the last broadcast" in that voice is my favorite thing redlettermedia has done

[@kai-in1xt]

When he said it I clapped!

[@iainh]

3:06 for people that want to revisit it and are reading through comments after watching the entire video.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

@@kai-in1xt IT BROKE NEW GROUND

[@jimmyphattits3700]

I needed you to know that I knew that.

[@Y-two-K]

He sounds a bit like Butthead

[@lordcrispen]

Growing up in rural southern New Jersey in the 80s, we were treated to local lore about the Jersey Devil. It was never anything specific told to us, but just some unseen/unknown threat out in the woods somewhere. Combined with the fact that we played in the woods down long trails that seemingly never ended and all our friends always trying to remind each other about the Jersey Devil to freak each other out any chance we could....This movie hit home for me a lot more than I think it would have if I didn't have that specific upbringing. When a group of 5 of you go out into the woods when you're like 9 or 10 years old, and 4 of the 5 agree to hide and not make any noise and all of a sudden one friend is left alone with two things, the silence of the empty fall woods and the stories about the Jersey Devil deeply implanted in their mind....yeah. The most dreadful things are the unknown.

[@Mettazoan]

Yuuup. I was 25 when the movie came out and spent my late teens and early twenties living in south south NJ (Cumberland Co) so this stuck a nerve in the same way.

[@yarpen26]

Fun fact: one of the people who reportedly saw the Jersey Devil was Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's older brother and former King of Naples and Spain who emigrated to the US in 1817 (he returned to Europe in 1832 though).

[@tomc4132]

I know you posted this 8 months ago but I have to totally agree with you. I spent a lot of time in wooded areas as a kid. Whether it be camping or just playing with friends. When this came out there just wasn't much for kids to do back then with out the internet or cell phones or iPads. So when I saw this movie it seemed like any small town iowa back woods. And everyone who's been camping has experienced the spookiness of the woods at night. This coupled with the fact that I was totally sold on the movie being real found footage in 99 made it the scariest movie I have ever seen and probably ever will. Even watching it now I get scared and I know its fake. Today's horror movies are a joke. Especially the newer ones like babadook which alot claim to love. I couldn't even make it through that it was so boring. Not to mention the the non scary movies like the conjuring or Annabelle or the it. I think the last movie I saw that was actually scary was the fourth kind. Worth checking out.

[@Xarfax321]

What if you found out the Jersey devil really just was a pedophile in the forest? Because it might as well be that and nothing more. That is how the film feels to me: given the ambiguity of the Blair Witch, for all we know it could've been a hobo who was fucking with them in the forest, or it could've been Santa Claus. None of my explanations are wrong, because of the ambiguity of it all! And that is my problem with the ambiguity of this film!

[@darkl3ad3r]

Same! Grew up in Monmouth county and we had our own local legends on top of the state legends (like the devil.) We have this road here, whippoorwill valley road, that had tons of this kind of "scary shit in the woods" mystery around it all through the 80s and 90s so when this movie came out MAN did we feel it exactly how you said. It hits home alright.

[@cecilofchristmaspast4186]

I always preferred psychological horror to jump scares. Blair Witch absolutely worked for me, in that it made me think and care.

[@BetweenTheLyons]

My favorite horror is John Carpenter's The Thing, for exactly that reason.

[@mistertagomago7974]

Liking the Blair witch outside of Nostalgia ispretty fucking insane.

[@luckyspurs]

Alien, The Thing and The Blair Witch all work as great films for me, because of that slow reveal of information and the complete lack of understanding what they're up against.

[@kobehanrenobi3911]

@@zombievac that's a great comment.

[@FlixCreEightR]

The heavyset guy in this is a fucking idiot. He seems like the type of guy who loves all the current horror garbage we get. Psychological horror is by far scarier .

[@totallynotalpharius2283]

I've never seen this movie. My parents rented it and sent me to bed because it was too scary for a kid my age". I snuck out of my room and hid behind our couch , just listening to it . I got about 9/10ths of the way thru it and started crying audibly. Scared my parents shitless 10/10 great film

[@0ooTheMAXXoo0]

If you saw the terrible acting then you would not have been so scared...

[@olsonbryce777]

@@0ooTheMAXXoo0 it's not that bad

[@cicolasnage5684]

You seriously cried at just the sounds? What a sissy Mary. Good lord boy do you wear your mothers panties too when she leaves the house? Smh

[@robodino1000]

9/10ths?

[@ImpulseGenerator]

it is brilliant you ended up scaring your parents

[@MadelineSawyer]

What makes Blair Witch so great in part to me is how seamlessly the tension rises in both worldly actions and character interactions; how Mike, Josh, and Heather grow from being college kids having a goofy time to turning on each other, losing their minds, and increasingly growing paranoid and unable to communicate without being on the verge of a screamy-crying breakdown. And as an audience member, you feel it dripping as it progresses. The brilliance of the film is almost that it doesn't need jumpscares or cliches, instead relying on the common fear of being lost deep in the woods with the realistic, fearful performances by the trio protagonists. From a documentary film with occasional interjections where Heather remarks on how much she hates scotch, to Mike talking calmly to Heather while both are practically on the verge of a breakdown as Josh is himself losing it asking for a cig. The finale in the house builds on the existing things Heather has reported on, from the cryptic, unintelligible text etched onto bodies appearing in the attic, to a bunch of tiny hands on the walls, all the while, the surviving two are basically reduced to yelling each others' names and occasionally Josh's, with their insanity on the line. Mike's feed going dark leaving Heather as the only one making noise takes this to its maximum degree as Heather basically screams her way into the basement before it all goes silent. god i really love this film

[@horysmokes3339]

On point. I also think this film stands out from every other entry into the genre due to the fact that it feels vintage - the period accurate, low quality Hi8 video tape mixed with 16mm really gives it authenticity compared to stuff like PA or the recent blair witch. Most ff tend to capture too clean an image and crisp, clear audio. Plus, they really captured some great images with both the camcorder and 16; the confession, the stickmen, the chase/'lights out' scene, the house. Last but not least, the sound mix - hearing Heather's screams get closer to the mic on the Hi8 recorder in the basement as we watch her approach on her 16mm is disorientating and creepy AF.

[@0ooTheMAXXoo0]

The acting was too terrible for me. Otherwise a great idea, even execution is good, apart from the terrible acting... The whole mood, the whole premise, hinges on the acting not being so terrible... Especially the main actress was like the worst actor in a a school play level of bad acting...

[@jakesanders269]

@@0ooTheMAXXoo0 I agree... The acting was bad. If it was good these 3 would have been in something else of note other than the BWP.

[@reservoirfrogs2177]

@@0ooTheMAXXoo0 It isn't the best but you clearly haven't seen much acting if you think it's that bad

[@robertlaidlaw4592]

@@0ooTheMAXXoo0 your school plays must be god damn shakesperian masterpieces.

[@AleKar1991]

What I love about RLM - an engaging 25 minute discussion about a movie, and in the last 5 seconds completely unprompted bullying of an actor from an entirely different movie 😁

[@tommyc4641]

I read this comment and was expecting Rich Evans to be the actor, but pleasantly surprised.

[@daymobrown]

Is the buzzing replacing a decent right audio track?

[@kushan101]

i hadnt even noticed it until you mentioned it! thanks for that...

[@RevengeOfMoctezuma]

it was stylistically designed to be that way.

[@meta2526]

some kind of subliminal message im sure

[@r2dezki]

It's the key to all of this.

[@TheNoNonsenseNinja]

Sounds like they're sitting outside with crickets and shit.

[@ParanormalCacti]

As a filthy millennial, I watched The Blair Witch Project about a year ago and found it way scarier and more interesting than any horror movie I've seen. I didn't even know that it was marketed as real footage until now and watched it like a normal movie and still found it exciting.

[@IstasPumaNevada]

+

[@tilapiah6]

I concur with recommending The Descent.

[@DaniloSantosVieira]

ew anime profile pic

[@ParanormalCacti]

Guarana Taravana Boi, you know you love Reimi.

[@DaniloSantosVieira]

ParanormalCacti -yare yare-

[@crystalrowan]

I saw this movie when I was in my early 20's when it first came out on VHS. I watched it at home in my apartment by myself at night. THAT was a mistake. I couldn't go outside to the back porch to smoke because I was so freaked. The reason it freaked me out, I think, is because I've gone tent camping many times and the scene with the sounds outside the tent at night is THE scariest scene to me. I've been in a tent listening to the sounds around the tent and wondering what the heck is making those sounds. It's terrifying.

[@YuriShelicopters]

YES!

[@mikehavok1859]

Same story as far as was in early 20's, watched alone in my apartment, freaked me out big time and I remember thinking to myself as I was putting in the vhs tape "I bet this won't even scare me."

[@seanmatthewking]

Hearing noise outside your tent is far scarier than any movie

[@Jack-sy6di]

That scene was never effective to me (nor was the entire movie). For some reason I was perfectly happy to just go "whatever, they're hearing weird noises outside, probably a bird or the wind. who cares"

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

Scary dark woods must be a genetic memory for people all over the world (at least in northern and southern latitudes).

[@angelkun6527]

I'm 20 years old and I actually watched it today for the first time in my life. I have this horrible habit of looking up reviews/behind the scenes/alternative takes on a movie after I've watch them so luckily I watched the movie before watching this review. I heard from "GoodBadFlicks" that this movie isn't very scary unless you watch it in the dark without any distractions so I did just that. I personally liked the film a lot and disagree with the statement that "it doesn't hold up". I didn't find it very scary but it was chilling. It was refreshing to see a horror movie that didn't have jump scares every 10 minutes that gets annoying. What personally got me hooked in this movie was the backstory that was set up with the interviews and them actually trying to go to the cemetery to see what they would find. It felt like they were digging in a situation that they shouldn't be digging into and that was suspenseful. Since this movie is old, it makes it scarier knowing that they are lost in this forest without a GPS of some kind and they have to rely on using just a compass. Overall, it's a great movie and I would like to see more of these small scale horror flicks that don't rely on jumpscares and "wooo spooky ghoostttttts".

[@blahblahblahblahbla2705]

stretchy mooooouuuuuuuuuth!!!!

[@JensenP12]

Another found footage movie that surprised me was The Troll Hunter. Some movie about a group of students working on an exposé about trolls : do they exist or are they legend ? It's not particularly scary, but it's a cool movie. Best experienced in norwegian of course.

[@rainbowthrustars]

Yep the norwegian one. Its one of the better Norwegian movies in modern times. But I think one have more fun with it knowing a bit of Scandinavian folklore. They play around with that quite a few times in the movie.

[@doctor_foobario]

that movie was great fun

[@roberthpilesund384]

Not a found footage, but making a twist of old folklore - " Rare Exports ". Movie from Finland i really liked.

[@JensenP12]

+Roberth Pilesund yeah, I saw that one too. Really weird, but great nonetheless.

[@roberthpilesund384]

Jeffrey Lebowski " Really weird, but great nonetheless." I think that actually describes all the good movies i like :)

[@StinkyDinky_]

IS THERE A CRICKET IN HERE

[@MyHungryWidow]

become real from what? you mean the hACK FRAUD THAT HE IS??!!11

[@JAFOpty]

oops ... a millennial didn't get the reference...

[@reksub10]

McDeathmask two years and you've noticed it twice?thats the start of a conspiracy.

[@MyHungryWidow]

JAFO-PTY oops ... somebody who doesn't understand the hack-fraud running gag of RedLetterMedia beCAUSRE THEY ARE HACK FRAUDS WHO REUPLOAD

[@razkable]

how can josh or mike be the killers if they all heard weird noises in the tent together....and they found the stick figures together...imo there was never any blair witch....it was some serial killer deep in the woods fucking with them...

[@HunterLikesFilms]

Looking through the IMDb trivia, there was supposed to be a shot of the Blair witch. She would appear as a figure in a white dress. But apparently whoever was holding the camera forgot to pan behind to show the witch. I’m glad they didn’t show the witch because I believe that if they did, even if it were scary, it would ruin any other scares.

[@steverogers7601]

The secret sauce is the ambiguity and the element of the “unknown” that made this something special especially for time when it came out.

[@CumGoblin4000]

Yeah that was the "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" scene. 😁

[@borisp9163]

Absolutely agree! When she running in the night and then screaming while crying "what the fuck is that" as she see something but its not in the frame, it make it even more terrifying, her reaction, you can just wonder what the fuck is she seeing 👌

[@FunkyGhost37]

The theory that the two guys were gaslighting her and set up to kill her really changes how the movie feels. But then the sequel says "dude the witch is real, time travel bro"

[@joekraz3955]

Yeah the sequels really kill all the good will the original had.

[@theindiediary5950]

I have never watched the sequels.

[@Rihcterwilker]

The second movie was butchered by producers. It was supposed to have an ambiguous ending and have many nods indicating that the first one was real. A re-edited version made by fans fixes most problems and turns it into an experience as good as the first one.

[@tsnophaljakarax9963]

@@Rihcterwilker Was this Book of Shadows or the newest sequel?

[@Rihcterwilker]

@@tsnophaljakarax9963 book of shadows. There's a good video on it by a channel called goodbadflicks, that explains all the lost symbolism and how the producers ruined it.

[@12manwhosoldtheworld]

Here's an idea. Go camping, bring a portable DVD player and watch this at 1am in your tent And tell me you don't get a tad apprehensive.

[@twmcgraw3035]

The first time I saw The Blair Witch Project I was in middle school and I had the VHS tape so I decided to watch it. I didn't take into account the fact that the woods were my backyard, though, so I couldn't sleep for a week. Every sound I heard scared the hell out of me at night. It's not seeing anything that makes this film so tense and horrifying. It all feels real.

[@Zer0Hour17]

If you need to do all that to make a movie scary, the movie failed at being scary.

[@twmcgraw3035]

+Zer0Hour17 You don't need to do all of that, though. All of that would just enhance the scare factor.

[@Zer0Hour17]

twmcgraw303 completely disagree. Blair Witch isn't scary in the least.

[@twmcgraw3035]

+Zer0Hour17 Let's just agree to disagree. Not everyone finds the same things scary.

[@TacoKnight96]

To the question you both posed about whether or not a twenty-year-old would find this movie scary, I was twenty when I watched it for the first time in 2015. I watched it alone, on a laptop, at night, in my dark room and I can tell you that I was on edge for pretty much the whole rest of the movie after Josh disappears. Even knowing that it is a fake as far as the "found footage" claim goes didn't really seem to help me because while I was watching it, I seemed to be very immersed in the movie itself and the story it was telling. I've seen movies like Insidious and the Conjuring in the same types of settings but aI think I agree with Jay about how hiding the threat from you, as this movie does so well, makes it that much scarier. The last few minutes of the film, as she's descending the stairs, is probably the most scared I've ever been while watching a horror movie. So that's my take on it, I don't know, maybe it's different for other people my age, but it definitely scared me the first time I watched it.

[@dori_khan]

Just started watching RLM so sorry for late response. I too watched this as at 25ish some years ago for the first time, after hearing everything about it that you could hear including the ending (but I had long forgotten exactly what my friend told me, he said it was a boring film). I watched it at home in my room, alone in the dark and it legitimately was scary. Like you said, the lack of explanation of anything makes you almost a part of the troupe, not knowing why these things are happening, and the the last minutes of this film is the perfect example of an ending that totally envelopes you in the chaos and fright the people experience in the movie. I like horror movies, I agree with Jay here, the lack of explanation ADDS to the confusion and chaos you are supposed to share with the "documentarians", there's no way of exposition possible that wouldn't be excruciatingly forced or contrived when these people are dead alone in the woods, and part of the experience is experiencing the unknown with them.

[@Heavysweating]

I had pretty much the exact same experience but I was like 17, freaked me out way more than Paranormal Activity, The Ring, Insidious or any of the "today's generations" horror movies. Hell, the atmosphere was so tense when they got to the house I had to pause the movie in some points to calm myself a bit 'cause I felt that I couldn't breath well from the anticipation and tension.

[@MarleyCarl]

I watched this when I was 20 too! (In 2014 though) and I had to stop myself from screaming a few times so I wouldn’t wake my roommate. This movie definitely holds up because the unknown can truly be a scary thing

[@jonwhite8815]

I'm 24. Watched it under the same conditions as you for the first time recently before watching this review. All I knew about it was the fact that it was a big deal when it came out due to the marketing gimmick and that it generally got good reviews. I was on edge for parts of it, but was ultimately disappointed by the end of it. My reaction was, "That's it?" I kept expecting something really bad to happen, but that threat gradually became emptier and emptier such that I stopped caring by the end of it. I didn't find it scary. Still worth watching though.

[@lotusflowers3280]

@@jonwhite8815 what were you expecting, a crappy makeup witch flying thru the window in her broom....? 😐 Dude, maybe you're not smart enough to get immersed in it completely. The movie was scary AF. The work of a genius. and the ending was perfect

[@mroriginalabides6730]

I'm with Jay. I love the atmosphere. There is something so chill about this film. I love the set up the most.

[@hendrsb33]

I think this movie is effective for those who have strong or easily creeped out imaginations. Thinking about the scene where, after Josh disappears, Heather and Mike find the dirty bit of cloth containing, what appears to me, to be a human tooth. When I watched it, I wasn't sure what I was seeing (saw BWP as a rental on tv and not in a theater) but it resembled a tooth with a long root. But it made my mind race, wondering what it was and if it WAS a tooth then HOW was it removed from Josh's mouth. I've been temporarily lost in a forest at night before so seeing what these characters went through didn't seem so farfetched to me. Horror, in most films, is forced... whereas the horror in BWP needs you, as the viewer, to see it as being somewhat plausible. Piled stones... stick figures...weird sounds in the dark... could have been a bunch of in-bred pagans who love to mess with lost hikers. The only thing my mind was not believing was that they could go so long in a forest without seeing any sign of civilization-- at least a road or something. But then again, that's the logical compromise your imagination has to make to ride with the story. Another brilliant thing the filmmakers did was to tie their Blair Witch with the Bell Witch of Tennessee, which is based on American folklore of a supposed haunting in the early 1800s. So if you're familiar with the paranormal history of our country then the BWP is even more scary. Liked that they had the CURSE OF THE BLAIR WITCH companion video. There was a drawing in that video of a witch character called Ellie Kettridge (?) that REALLY creeped me the hell out. She's the stern-looking chick with what appears to be twigs coming out of her head. If the Blair Witch looked like her then I'd really be scared.

[@aaronmayo4786]

+

[@aaronmayo4786]

I conducted their "experiment" and posted my thoughts in the comments. You and I seem to have very similar ideas about this movie.

[@hendrsb33]

Had an interesting "Blair Witch Imagination Experience" last night. Went on a one-night backpacking trip near Sedona, AZ. Was camping with other people who left early in the day to hike in to camp. Due to other commitments, I arrived at the trailhead in late afternoon and hiked in by myself. I hiked by myself for 4 1/2 hours, mostly in the dark. Had a lot of time to monitor my thoughts. I thought a lot about fear but, surprisingly, didn't spend much time in it. There were a couple of startling experiences in the dark: scared up a bird that made a sudden loud noise as it flew away. Startled me a little but that happens even during the day so it was nothing new. I knew what it was so I was ok with it. The other thing was a weird shadow thrown by my flashlight that looked like something moving. But I realized what it was and was ok with that too. Blair Witch came to mind several times. Basically, all I could see was whatever my flashlight illuminated and the silhouettes of the hills and trees against the night sky. Everything else was complete black. I imagined myself walking through the same forest I'd be walking in during the day, except that it was night. Night sounds replace day sounds-- crickets instead of birds. There are bears and mountain lions in the forest but attacks are not known in that area. What I thought most about was how tired and sweaty I was and trying not to trip over things. I knew at the end of my hike were other people waiting for me. Very different from what movie characters think about at night.

[@detubeme]

I was like 14 when I first saw the movie and I totally had a good imagination. I was creeped out by the movie. But, as I grew up and to this day.... on repeat viewings, I find the movie more interesting and rewatchable based on there NOT being a Blair Witch at all. Are Josh and Mike just messing with and murdering Heather? There's a lot of tension between the characters and we get a sense of history for Josh and Heather. It's just a weird combination of people out there alone in the woods.

[@detubeme]

treeghettox I don't see the pretension in it, but I would normally say that yeah I'm sick of people touting Jaws and it's effectiveness. I'm not one of those people. I'm not saying less is more. I'm saying that nothing is better than something. I like the movie more because "there is no witch at all", not because "there is a witch but you don't see it." Understand where I'm coming from, now?

[@foxorian]

23:47 Jay laughs because we were ALL anticipating Mike to say 'Post a comment on this webzone'

[@NeoJackBauer]

me too

[@drunkdave5677]

Well...no. He didn't laugh until five seconds later when Mike said "even though we spoiled everything"

[@foxorian]

+Drunk Dave I'm talking about the small chuckle you can hear when Mike says "KZbin Channel" instead of "Webzone."

[@chloe1-2-3-4-5]

I am, shockingly, a Young Person. I watched The Blair Witch Project last month for the first time. I knew a fair bit about it already, so I never thought it was real but, yeah, I found it scary. There was a general tone of unease throughout, and I liked the set-up interviews. The guy in the corner at the end scared the shit out of me, as well... that lingering shot of a thing that represents something they've set up as terrifying is much more haunting than any jump-scare. But I'm also a complete fucking wimp, so maybe I'm not the person to ask? [Obligatory "hack-fraud" joke to balance out the fact I'm leaving a serious comment on a RLM video.]

[@IstasPumaNevada]

+

[@RoboMonsto]

Thanks for the serious review! A++++

[@jansn12]

+

[@HorstEwald]

Finally a comment without that replacing-bullshit. THX! Also, I shat my pants as well. One of the scariest movies I've watched so far and, no, I'm not young.

[@whodatninja439]

I watched it as a kid on VHS, everyone was talking about it in the schoolyard, imagining what the witch might look like. It scared the shit out of me! It still does. The final shot is so weird and creepy, it's the perfect ending. And the poster is iconic!

[@xxxCrackerJack501xxx]

I think anyone who grew up remotely near a forest would still find this movie terrifying today

[@rvt2239]

I was going camping with my dad the week after I saw this at a sleepover when I was 11. He couldn't figure out why I was refusing to leave the tent.

[@oduinn7948]

@@rvt2239 I remember getting lost in the woods for two days (two days, one night to be specific) when I was 10 that connected right behind my house. I can't remember if I had seen this yet or not (likely considering my mother loves horror movies, I had seen Child's Play when I was too young to remember and had a Good Guy doll growing up) but that was one of the best times I had a kid. I am NOT the control in this test lol.

[@codygreene9067]

I was in the army for awhile. I got stationed up in Alaska and whenever we’d do field training you’d hear weird shit out in the wilderness at night. Always made me think of this movie and it was very unsettling.

[@Darkangel-A-c8z]

Me and my friend camped in her parents garden, after watching the film in 1999, and I was shit scared by an owl lol

[@K12machinima]

Try living on a 100 acre farm, with the back 50 being nothing but oaks, brush, and a bunch of ditches and creeks… and then beside that is the back end of nowhere, with a population of like 1 person every 60-100 miles… Needless to say, as an ex-hunter and hiker, this movie was the bane of my pre-teen life, when it came out. Every kid in my community suddenly said they saw the Blair Witch in their yard, or on the way home from school in the afternoon, and for me, it freaked me out so bad that I didn’t want to feed our horses past sundown… I remember there was a fake documentary that came out - I think it was aired on the History Channel at the time - and they had this sketch of the Witch, that I think was just of her face, and it panned out to show she looked like the stick figures… scared the absolute hell out of me, and I’d see that, all the time, in my nightmares, and worried she’d be outside my window staring at me at night… Yeah. This movie was the epitome of viral horror, and I don’t think I actually watched it until I was like 17… Still a great film, all these years late.

[@A-small-amount-of-peas]

I watched Blair Witch with my first serious girlfriend (insanely hot but brain of a distressed platypus) and she absolutely hated and claimed it wasn't scary. I asked her if she would ever camp in the woods again after seeing that and she said no way. People don't give this movie enough credit for creating subtle dread. People think they need to see a monster to be scared of it but hearing it and not being able to quite see it is much scarier

[@A-small-amount-of-peas]

***** she went on to be a glamour model and no I'm from the UK genius. Insanely hot women can be fairly easy to get if you're in the right place at the right time and if they are dumb can be charmed quite easily by men uglier than me. Give it a try sometime. I like how the only part of what I said that you concentrated on was a trivial detail in brackets

[@TinMyManDude]

+breaker she gave him $100% all the time from her grandpa Einstein

[@Richieb75]

I think what the movie really does well is create that sense of dread of being lost and frantically trying to get out knowing that nightfall is going to bring with it unrelenting terror. Every time i watch the film I think they might make it out of the woods

[@A-small-amount-of-peas]

Angry Sapien there is one part where you can blatantly see a clearing which kind of took me out of it a bit on first viewing as was waiting for Heather to say 'oh look there's a clearing, let's go that way' but every movie has a few goofs

[@benjaminfranklinchang2708]

Subtle dread is the best way I've heard someone put it. I would have liked to see it back in the day with all the hype surrounding it and maybe would have been genuinely afraid, but it does linger with you in ways you don't even realise. I was walking my dog in the woods a few weeks ago and came upon a weird kind of structure made of twigs and whatnot. The wind seemed to stop and my dog suddenly bolted back the way we came. I shit bricks and ran as fast as I could out of the place. In hindsight the structure was probably just made by scouts that use the woods and field for exercises pretty often but god damn I was frightened at the time. I didn't even realise immediately but it'll be watching Blair Witch not long before that caused me to freak out.

[@DLNOT]

Imagine that Jar Jar Binks was the Blair Witch in The Blair Witch Project

[@mitalarsson6955]

The Jar Jar Witch Project

[@futonrevolution7671]

He's a scarier character, than we've ever had in any of the found footage before.

[@geoffkelly262]

Jaws stopped people from swimming. Everyone still hikes, just saying lol.

[@Lordalexzader]

Maybe they didn't a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . .

[@haraldsegebrecht]

Just imagine his yellow glowing eyes, shining through the woods from the dark behind. And then you hear his whispering voice: "Meese be in the next Star Wars movie!" I would shit my pants and run away, screaming a loud "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"!

[@Cs-zp5sr]

I still think Blair Witch is super scary. Not the idea of a witch but unknown dangers in the woods. When they have the branches cracking high up in the trees at night, that's so scary if you put yourself there. I guess it helps if you've spent time camping. It's so unnatural. I also really liked how the characters broke down over time. Denial, bending the map, trying to make some jokes even in horrible times "I'll be here, under the tree." It's pretty realistic. I would say the interviews with the towns folks were the weakest part of the movie.

[@1OSfan17]

C s I made my friends watch it before we went backpacking. The one guy who was sleeping under the stars ended up sharing my tent because it spooked him too much

[@jorgewilliam7103]

I liked the interviews a lot. It's interesting to see everyone's perspectives on it, while some think it's bullshit, others are afraid to talk about it, trying to piece together this myth in your head is pretty cool and it helps to give us the information we need without being over expositive, there's also the little details like the child trying to stop the mom from talking about the witch, which helps to give you that little unsettling feeling. Also, the old lady describing the witch as a woman covered in horse fur gave me the chills for some reason. And there's the serial killer thing which makes so even if you don't buy the witch story, you have a big sense of danger for these kids.

[@apachehelicopter9032]

100 percent if you spent a good amount of time camping as a kid or still do this film was absolutely terrifying

[@haroldbalzac6336]

@@1OSfan17 you get some boi pucci?

[@anotherherodiesTV]

Me and a buddy of mine got slightly lost, at night, coming out of a trail in the smoky mountains last year and the unnerving feeling of being lost out in the middle of the woods is pretty terrifying. This movie amplifies that feeling of dread and isolation, which is why after so many years and rewatches it still hits a nerve.

[@3amapplecam]

I'm 22 years old and I'm a big fan of horror films, so I watched Blair Witch Project for the first time when I was about 18. I had heard of it, I knew it was a lot of people's first exposure to a found footage movie yadda yadda yadda, basically I knew it was fake, I knew it took place in the woods and I knew it was a cheaply made movie from 1999, and I was excited to watch it. Even so, even knowing it was fake I had to remind myself that it was. I kept thinking "wow this feels so authentic." Honestly if I didn't know anything about the movie going into it, I probably would've been unsure if it was REALLY found footage or not. So I think the layer of unexplained things DOES add to it. Maybe growing up in the midwest made the woods scarier to me, I don't know, but I think this movie has a fantastic tone, and the ambiguity helps. And I think the final confession from the main girl is genuinely unsettling and well acted.

[@Bad_Moon_Rising]

I saw it in theaters . I was visiting a buddy in Chicago and we all knew it was not real , but when I got home to Pa , lol they all swore it was a true story . So fun !

[@Bad_Moon_Rising]

Space Ghost Do you actually think people were killed and eaten in Cannibsl Holocaust?

[@Thegeobot]

NeandroThrall oh, obviously not, but even knowing it was fake i had to remind myself that it was, i keept thinking ''wow this feels so authentic'' honestly if i didn't know anything about the movie going into it, i probably would've been unsure if it was real or not.... So i think the layer of unexplained thinks DOES add to it. Maybe growing up in one of the Solomon islands made cannibals scarier to me. I don't know, but i think this movie has a fantastic tone, and the ambiguity helps. And i'll like to see this guy pointing out what's fake and what's not.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................

[@Bad_Moon_Rising]

Space Ghost Fair. That same time I was visiting my buddy in Chicago, another friend of his who had been visiting family down south somewhere came back to town so my buddy had a get together with a bunch of friends. The guy who came back pulls out this VHS tape and says you guys want to watch this video I took in Georgia ? So we watch it and its like a normal boring family vacation then they start hearing noises and go check it out and see a spaceship and aliens. Then the aliens see them and chase them back to their house and terrify everyone . In the end everyone seems to pass out and aliens walk in the house and point something at the camera that fell on the floor and static It was the best Hoax video I ever saw and I wasn't the only one in the room thinking holy shit was this real? fun

[@TheGingerburger]

I'm 23 born in 1993 and I seen this back in 2000 when i had just turn 7 so i thought it was real and it didnt scary me then

[@ruebytuesday]

I love this movie. My wife hates it. She'd never seen it when we got together, and I insisted on showing it to her. I feel like this movie is exactly one of two things to people: genius or crap.

[@twincherries6698]

I'm kinda of both minds on it. There's a lot to love and I feel a weird endearment towards Heather's character, flaws and all. The majority of the movie I think is really good in pacing and building up tension/ anxiety. Personally speaking I found the ending to be really goofy and not as scary as most of the film. Perhaps it's inevitable when you're dealing with an otherworldly force like the Blair Witch. Sucks that there's this paradox of inevitably getting less fear if we learn more about the Witch vs left wanting more if we see nothing so it's hard for me to feel entirely satisfied. Im just so so curious what the Blair Witch would look like assuming it were real. Overall though I think it's a very nice movie and a cute time capsule of the late 90s in a way

[@TheNoirMan94]

I'm 22 years old and watched The Blair Witch Project for the first time when I was about 19/20. Before that, I had heard about the infamy, acclaim and the hype surrounding the film and all that so I was familiar with what it was about already. For me, while the film didn't have any traditionally "scary" moments that made shout or jump, the whole film just had this slow build up of dread and creepiness that slowly just slipped in with every night that the characters spent in the woods and things escalated. Also, I watched the DVD on my laptop, and I feel that enhanced the whole feeling that this was genuinely footage found from an actual event, vs watching it in the theatre. And that ending - man, that has got to be the most climactic and perfect way to end a film like this. I'll admit, I did find certain parts a bit drawn out and boring when they're trying to find their way out of the woods in the day time, but I guess that makes it more genuine in that this is actual footage recorded and not a neatly edited and cut up "movie". I disagree with Mike as well, that the ambiguity and lack of a clear urban legend was a detriment. I felt that made the legend of the Blair Witch all the more realistic, cause, come on, since when do actual legends have coherence and consistency. I haven't been camping in the woods ever in my life, but I know for a fact that if I ever do, this film will be keeping me on edge in the back of my mind. So, in summary, as a dude in his early 20s, I feel that this film was great. Like nothing I had before or since (though I haven't watched the August Underground series yet) and definitely an effective piece of horror. It's not scary, so much as it is just bloody creepy. Because most scary films, they're just scary in the moment. This. This sticks with you.

[@TheIrishloon]

Dread. You used the perfect word.

[@blik192837465]

I’m in my early twenties and watched it for the first time this past year. I knew it wasn’t real and had heard a lot of hype about this movie my whole life growing up. I respect and like this movie a lot. Knowing it wasn’t real didn’t ruin it for me at all. The believability of the characters and the acting made for a really scary experience. BWP was so raw and I was fully absorbed with my friends when I watched it. The tension was expertly built and released with such an intense and frantic ending. I think it’s a damn good movie.

[@demonicpokeyfruit9006]

Personally, I feel it's whenever you can't see something is when it's the scariest, even when I was a kid. I never found Michael Meyers scary because you usually saw him, even if it was just a glance. This terrified me because of all the noises, the tent shaking (with no visible force shaking it), Josh screaming in the distance but the other characters were never able to catch up with him. I'll be honest in saying Blair Witch is the main reason why I never go camping. xD

[@angelabernhardt6761]

Yes the whole concept of being lost in the woods in general is unsettling...add in the idea that "something" is watching or coming after you...then when Josh disappears and Heather finds his bloody tooth wrapped in a bundle of sticks with a scrap of his shirt around it?? This movie was very scary. Plus scary abandoned houses in the woods with handprints of dead children on the walls and Mike standing in that damn corner...

[@patriciaduncanjimenez6019]

@@angelabernhardt6761 So that bloody thing was Josh's tooth? I've paused my DVD at that image over and over, trying to figure out what that was. Thanks!

[@angelabernhardt6761]

@@patriciaduncanjimenez6019 I think that's what it is. I've paused my DVD many times too trying to figure it out. At first it just looked like a bloody gooey mess on the shirt but I'm pretty sure I could see the shape of a tooth (roots and all) in there. And the idea of someone's tooth being yanked out by the root is certainly terrifying!

[@Courier_333]

It's crazy cuz to me, it's just an obvious sign of laziness....

[@demonicpokeyfruit9006]

@@Courier_333 That's okay! If it's anything the theatrical release showed everyone is that many people felt like they watched a bad home movie. I'm sure that still carries to this day.

[@arbitor365]

Modern day "found footage" movies piss me off. They always look too crisp, clean, and pristine. Like Paranormal activity 3, which takes place in the fucking 80s and the camera quality is crystal clear and obviously digital. Its a joke. Found footage is far more creepy when it has some grainyness and realism to it. Lower quality is actually more scary because it looks more authentic and less "movie"

[@twocentsmiguel7857]

Don't you have a Stark girl to perv on?

[@twocentsmiguel7857]

All jokes aside, I agree 100%.

[@terraemotus7044]

Clover field was pretty good

[@twocentsmiguel7857]

+Terra Emotus Eh.

[@Clearmedium]

As a movie experience I enjoyed it as well. I mainly remember enjoying when the APCs and tanks were rolling down Manhattan and firing. I'm sure it doesn't hold up though. Honestly even then I bet if not in a theater I wouldn't have dug it as much.

[@tomclemens5345]

i went to see this movie with some friends when it came out, and i was kinda "meh" about the whole thing, i thought the ending was scary and shocking, but the rest kinda bored me. but then when we drove home, it was dark and we were alone on country road going through the woods, the tress getting illuminated by the car lights, and then the idea of the car breaking down right there and then, freaked me out good, is still remember that uneasy feeling...so i guess it had quite the effect on me, even if i didn't realize that while watching it.

[@Morris1581]

the same for my parents. after i saw BWP in Cinema i told them, the y have to see it, its the scaryst movie ever made. as they come back they tell me thats a boring movie, some good scenes but boring. but.. as the drove home, with there car throu the woods at night, they told me of the car wont break down at this moment they are so much scared. so BWP had an impact to them, like to you :)

[@7armedman]

Yeah, that's the mark of a genuinely scary movie...you get to laugh it off when in the theater with buddies, but later...

[@steverogers7601]

Same for my gf. She didn’t see it when it came out but in 2016 we watched it and she didn’t think it was too bad. She didn’t get scared at the end and was just underwhelmed. Fast forward to us going to bed and she insists we keep the lamp and the TV on. It absolutely made an impact despite the first watch being not as scary as she through it was.

[@CumGoblin4000]

@@steverogers7601 Haha she thought she could hang

[@D-Loop6]

As a horror fanatic who also happens to be in his early 20s, I have watched it a year ago for the first time. Without a doubt, it is, one of my favorite horror movies of all time.

[@Reb3nga]

Awesome. A lot of "youngsters" don't like it. It really is one of the best horrors of all time.

[@danieltrochei4544]

Amen brother, watched this in '99 as a 15 year old in a cinema that was near empty.. still an all time favourite

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

I think this kind of comment is in line with comments on classic rock songs posted on KZbin from the 60's-90's; lots of kids these days are indifferent to good music from that era, but there are still lots of kids with open minds/good taste/je ne sais quoi. I suppose what I'm saying is that good art endures and finds an audience.

[@ChaseFraser]

I'm in the same boat. I think it's pretty much as good as found footage gets

[@d3l3tes00n]

The rock scene still gets me. Even if it's just a person fucking around, the idea of people being in our space while we're asleep is creepy af

[@Achromasloth]

I just realized that there's no background music of any kind on this review bcs they're talking about Blair Witch

[@the_real_Kurt_Yarish]

If you listen closely with headphones on, it almost sounds like they're playing outdoor ambiance of crickets and wind? Which could just be feedback from their equipment, but I'm unsure.

[@flaviusarcadiusvibes]

There is

[@metavormgeving7576]

@@the_real_Kurt_Yarish It's driving me fucking NUTS I cant get past 5 minutes with headphones on.

[@Rihcterwilker]

I'm pretty sure most of their reviews don't have any kind of background music.

[@jdonner3272]

Mike surprised me on this one.This movie is about the three characters and the horror they experienced not about the witch. Great movie.

[@aperson7303]

Exactly, in that regard its undeniably great

[@metalfuk1]

A Person undeniably? Wrong.

[@kingbreaker19]

Mike is a structure guy, and when it comes to horror, a rules guy. He says it a lot lol

[@Literally-God]

@@kingbreaker19 this movie is pretty polarizing due to how horror movies, in specific, use one of the two expected models of horror, which is more subtle terror, or more electricity and energy to get the heart pumping. So I am very confidence in saying that it's totally subjective and depends on what kind of guy you are and what you look for when you want to watch a horror movie. So I don't think there's necessarily a wrong answer in that regard at least.

[@ejflor1313]

This movie looked like what it was. Three bad actors running around in the woods with handheld cameras.

[@NealX]

23:48 Mike was holding himself back from saying "web zone"

[@jasonfenton8250]

"And then post a comment, on, this- this, KZbin channel" *Jay laughs* "On your thoughts."

[@richarddoyle3420]

Mike "I don't understand the mythology." Jay "Shit gets real." No truer words.

[@RendanLovell]

I love this film. I thought it was genuinely unsettling.

[@Teajryan]

The walk home after watching this movie (aged 12) was genuinely the most scared a movie has ever made me.

[@DavidPigbody]

first time I saw it, back around 2000 pm VHS I watched it in a trailer In the middle of the woods. awesome luck!

[@blorkpovud1576]

@@DavidPigbody oh fuck. It was bad enough when I was in a big house with a little bit of trees outside.

[@RendanLovell]

Weird coming back to this lmao, but I just showed my friend and his girlfriend this movie. They are both early 20s and they were legitimately terrified.

[@frocto6474]

Mike at his most General Audiences

[@Name-ck9pv]

Sadly true

[@UbiquitousNight]

I believe Mike has stated that he is a structure person. This movie was also a big hit with general audiences in it's time.

[@ethanpayne4116]

I can't imagine a more cruel insult.

[@TheDudeSmashTrash]

@@uh-oh5324 precisely. you nailed it.

[@LockheedLazar]

@@uh-oh5324 the thing is, these are the elements that make you actually feel invested in the characters and what happens to them... if you aren't enamored by the whole "wow its like real footage" thing, then there isn't much else to care about or be interested in. not that i dislike blair witch or anything, i think its cool for what it is, but once you're past the novelty it feels very incomplete as a piece of media to watch and enjoy

[@TheVastIndifferenceOfHeaven]

_"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown"_ - H.P. Lovecraft Life doesn't always provide structure or answers.

[@Chaosian]

"And the oldest and strongest kind of fear of the unknown, is what's in the back of the fridge."

[@ten7554]

That fear of the unknown doesn't alienate the person in a way that doesn't allow them to be afraid of it in the first place, though. Fear of the unknown is more a person in a book seeing an unthinkably terrifying and completely unfathomable monster, leaving the reader to wonder. The structure behind that is the description of the monster and the story mechanics/lore behind it, as well as the character's interactions with it, the character's story, and etc.

[@Xarfax321]

But it is a movie. And not life. It isn't found footage in the woods, it never was. It is a movie. When will people get that?

[@UbiquitousNight]

Interestingly, Lovecraft's works had structure.

[@teawithwhiskey]

@@UbiquitousNight and lots of racism

[@jacksonherring5169]

Something crazy that happened to me that relates to this movie. I had just watched it for the second time and was at the time homeless and living in a tent in the woods of northwest Wyoming. Late one night a bear came into my campsite, and I could hear it walking around my tent. It was very similar to a scene from Blair witch. The next morning I found bear tracks all around my tent!

[@johnsmisek02]

I'll always think this is one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. The final 10 minutes always give me unreasonable chills

[@f.boogaloospook2318]

Me too i gotten pretty nervous watching it while a wearing a headphone

[@brentblayoneblayone3948]

"I wasn't clear about what the Blair Witch legend was" - That's exactly the point . That's the ONLY reason this movie works, the ONLY thing that is remotely clear in this film is the perspective of the protagonists & their increasing fear and panic.. The Blair Witch could be anything & that's the point. This movie understands that mythology, lore, backstory, context is interesting, but not SCARY. Watching the film by myself @ night with headphones, this is probably the only horror movie that still gets to me & deeply unsettles me. Because I have so little context & only this very limited perspective, I become completely immersed in their increasingly bizarre & hopeless situation. Really, if there's any real flaw with this film, it's that it's too short, & they didn't spend quite enough time developing the characters. An increased sense of empathy & understanding of who these people were would have really made the distressing parts even more powerful. Maybe if the first act before they made it to the woods was a little longer & they had some more time to interact as friends. Overall though after rewatching this, I think it's a masterpiece because it is SO simple & so direct.

[@brentblayoneblayone3948]

I think this film works best for people with creative minds who have overactive imaginations & anxiety. If you don't fit into that category & can't fully immerse yourself in a film, it's going to be very underwhelming

[@theheebs100]

i think the biggest flaw wirh the film is the dialogue. it was improvised, and it shows

[@The5lacker]

I need to get "backstory is interesting, but it isn't scary" tattooed on my ass.

[@brentblayoneblayone3948]

@@The5lacker lmao

[@Xarfax321]

I for my part would actually be more interested in the lore of the Blair Witch, but that is probably because I have a keen interest in local folklore and the like. When I watched the movie I found myself really not caring about anything, because I have no idea about anything. Bunch of kids makes a documentary about a witch (whom I know nothing about, because nothing is revealed) So what? They spend the rest of the movie running around panting in a forest, screaming about a map. So what? I don't care about any of these characters, because like you said, they are not very fleshed out. And in the end nothing happens except that chick screams. The end. So what? I get what they were trying to do with the film, and I applaud them for trying. But for me the movie fell completely flat. Then again I am not one who is particulary fond of ambiguity in films. I mean it can work in some movies (and let's talk about The Blair Witch Project for what it is: A movie). But a lot of the times (like in this one) it feels like I have been fooled. I paid to see a movie and all I got was a half-baked movie with a story no one bothered finishing, because apparently I am supposed to do the scriptwriters work for him while the scriptwriter and the rest of the crew runs laughing to the bank.

[@luvrieltenshi]

I’m 23 and just saw this last night for the first time, went to watch your video on the day after, haha. I found it deeply disturbing, unsettling, creepy. The ending was extremely frightening and I was scared to be sleeping alone in my basement apartment and left the lights on. There ya go! I thought it was fantastic and the performances and execution were great.

[@Teajryan]

It's a gem for sure

[@luvrieltenshi]

@There Aphelion You're replying to a comment from over 2 years ago from when I lived in a sub-level apartment while going to college in New York City, getting mad about it way after I both graduated with my bachelors degree and moved out so I think you're actually way more pathetic lmao have a nice day loser

[@TheInfestedPest]

@There Aphelion Jesus, calm down.

[@c.e.zacherl1288]

I"m one hundred percent on board with Jay. The fear of the unknown is perfectly done in this film. Particularly if you suspend disbelief and put yourself into the mindset of the "could this be real" phenomena. I understand where Mike's coming from, and I know he's not trying to advocate more formula/exposition. But if you took the ambiguity from this film (which, again, I really enjoyed) it would become just that, formulaic.

[@AlexanderArts]

Am I crazy or is there some weird audio glitch that sounds almost like crickets going on through most of the video?

[@mitalarsson6955]

No it most be in your head...

[@thevoxdeus]

That's the third participant, Jimminy Cricket.

[@timothystrategos7222]

No, no. That's just the noise you hear when Rich Evans is trying to talk. Even when he's not around.

[@jblue1622]

You're crazy that's for sure! But there is also noise in the background and it's not a big deal

[@bubbabibleman5970]

10 years ago to this exact day... a cricket died in that studio...

[@rkgk1517]

Mike: "Brad? Carlos?" Jay: "...Josh?"

[@cattibingo]

The brad Carlos project

[@greeniegreens7737]

23 years old, I first watched this movie about 5 years ago. This movie had a better lasting effect than most modern horrors. It didn't necessarily scare so much as it just kinda creeped me out. Which I enjoyed more so than today's endless barrage of jump scares.

[@mellowyellow6572]

I love these discussions. I never knew listening to other people's conversations would be so stimulating.

[@miguelbranquinho7235]

These guys are an exception, most conversations are boring as all hell.

[@meatwad376]

I love our talks

[@MrJurgis17]

Is re:View replacing Rich Evans ?

[@araol5993]

I sure hope so

[@hairyson94]

+CalzoneLord how dare you

[@thiefmanproductions6992]

Is Rich Evans replacing Half in the Bag???

[@araol5993]

hairyson 94 Rich Evans is a hack fraud and needs to be replaced.

[@rsvk-nl]

AGAIN?

[@effluviah7544]

Okay, I'm 23. I saw this when I was a kid, and I remembered almost nothing except that it scared me so bad that I would never watch it again. So, naturally, I just covered my windows, turned off my lights, and watched it essentially for the first time, being an adult now and able to process it a little better. I turned off my phone completely, did not have my laptop out, and so on. No tech, no lights, no other people, very little to no background noise. My eyes teared up, mostly because I was engrossed in how human it was, and I don't think I blinked very often. I was definitely straining forward (and backward, at certain points) in my chair. I started to make audible weird noises towards The Scene (if you've seen this movie, you know the one, but I'm trying to keep this spoiler-free as possible). I think there's a human element to films that have been lost, not solely due to technology, but for a lot of reasons, and I'm not going to dig into that because it would derail everything. But it was so human. It was a camping trip in the woods, people around my age, doing the kind of shit that I do. I've gone out with friends into the forest, and we're constantly taking video and talking dumb shit and being boring to anyone else in the world except ourselves, and I think that it holds up extremely well in that regard. There were no/minimal special effects, it's all very bare bones, and that's something that my generation/age group has generally not seen much of except for in movies like this. We never see the Witch, we are never removed from reality to the degree that we are simply used to being as a default at this point- Our suspension of disbelief is so strong, because we grew up knowing that this monster is a CGI thing, or this is impossible, or that this building is a fake computer thing because it can't possibly be built in real life or whatever, that we're jaded to the point where this kind of rawness takes us off guard. (Or at least, that is my experience. I am speaking in general, when I probably shouldn't.) So I was taken VERY off guard by how, despite it's "boringness", it is so real (or real enough) that it scared the ever loving holy fucking shit out of me. It's about 7 PM now where I'm at as I write this, and my flatmates are shuffling around in the hall as more of us get back from work etc., and I'm still shitting myself. I haven't seen this since I was pretty young, didn't remember a whole lot of it, so it was all pretty much new to me. And the rocks outside the tent fucked my shit up severely. Every tiny thing in this scared me, because rocks outside your tent? Yeah, that's entirely possible. It's not some over-theatrical over-produced bullshit, it's just some rocks outside the tent. But that can happen in real life, some crazy asshole could do that to fuck with you. And it would fuck with you, absolutely. All the little things here are possible, which makes it terrifying. It's possible to make little stick people. It's possible to stack rocks, and to make weird noises. People can do that, witches are people therefore they can do that, serial killers are people therefore they can do that, it checks out. It checks the fuck out! It's entirely possible to go camping with friends, and it's almost certain that at least one of my friends (or myself) would be recording shit on our phones most of the time. The weirder it got, the more we'd want to record. KZbin it, Instagram it, put it on Twitter, whatever, just share this shit with someone. Convince yourself you're not totally batshit, have proof. It's all possible, and their behaviour was realistic enough that I can easily imagine the panic me and my fellow 23 year old friends would go through and all the dumb shit we'd say and do if we saw any ONE of those things, let alone went out on a camping trip, stuck it out, and experienced this HP Lovecraft Stephen King David Lynch nightmare shit. But that's the thing: It's not HP Lovecraft Stephen King David Lynch nightmare shit, it just feels like it. It's not real crazy dark magic shit, but it feels like it. They sold it completely and totally, and I'm just sitting here being glad that I live in my dirty anti-social city, because FUCK THE WOODS. I mean, I'm saying that because I'm scared. But my dumb ass isn't going camping any time soon. Edit: I was writing this through the end credits, and the music/menu sound scared me. I did not turn my lights back on yet. I am proud to say that I did not in fact piss myself, but I had a brief couple of seconds where I was pretty sure I might have. So, for whatever that counts for, there's my re:View.

[@brothercartman]

25 here, I saw the film a few years ago for the first time. For some reason, I watched it on VHS, which may have heightened the experience for me. I thought while it was genuinely scary at times, most of it felt like filler. What you don't see is indeed the most frightening in The Blair Witch Project.

[@whydyespillyerbeans]

they said early twenties, dingus

[@whydyespillyerbeans]

brothercartman yeah well you're not in your early twenties anymore pal so fuck off we don't want to hear from you

[@Homicide364]

+Lilo Zen #CHOMO

[@BellaLugos]

I watched blair witch about the time this review came out, in my early twenties and I actually did find it scary. Didn't even matter that I knew it wasn't real. I find the idea of getting lost forever frightening on its own, so I guess that's why it spoke to me.

[@verinonrenthar9176]

I saw this movie when I was 13 years old. It absolutely terrified me, and ever since, no horror movie has ever scared me in the slightest. It will always stand the test of time as the only horror movie that ever actually worked.

[@NesrocksGamingVideos]

Yeah! Horror movies are usually slightly disgusting or unsettling, but *never* scary.

[@kevinwr7093]

I saw this for the first time at the same age. Blair Witch taught me that I am much better at scaring myself than movies are. If you leave the "monster" up to the audience to construct, they may be upset and leave unfulfilled, but they at least had many moments during the film where they felt genuine panic. Our imagination is SOOOOO much scarier

[@chrisallen9509]

Really

[@iivin4233]

In order for the Blair Witch Project to work today it would have to be a twitch stream.

[@volvob1884]

That's just sad....

[@noelsolat1495]

@ Jacob Butterfield No, no! You mean a..."Witch" Stream!

[@BRUXXUS]

Oh damn.... this could actually be awesome!

[@frankieb9444]

They have the Bare Bitch Project on OnlyFans.

[@adrianmojica2619]

they tried to do that and failed miserably with the movie Unfriended.

[@jumpboy29]

I always assumed the old hermit-child-killer was influenced by the Blair Witch. Maybe possessed by her or a worshipper trying to conjure the spirit. Those were my thoughts when watching. To me, Blair Witch Project taps into the fear of being lost in woods. I've personally been lost in the woods for a short time, and let me tell you, it suddenly felt like something was watching me. And I'm not a person that panics or believes in old ghost stories, or claims to have seen spirits. Nah, never seen anything like that. I suppose it's just a form of paranoia.... but whatever you call it, it's scary. The Blair Witch just takes that fear and toys with it

[@TheGeneralDisarray]

I've had that feeling. It's probably something like a heightened sensitivity to danger that our ancestors used to survive when they were preyed on by snakes and big cats etc. The kind of sensitivity we don't usually notice in the noise and bustle of urban environments.

[@baileymoore7779]

It was Sasquatch.

[@zarreff]

If you were in the northeast united states woods..then it was the wendigo watching you.

[@CumGoblin4000]

Interestingly enough, in one of the deleted scenes Josh talks about a cult living in the woods.

[@bananaphone3754]

For the last 25 years I’ve lived in a house at the end of a road. No visible neighbors. 75% of the house is surrounded by deep, deep forest. I’m a major skeptic. Don’t believe in ghosts at all. But my sister and I have always agreed that some kind of ancient evil is deep within the woods of Appalachia. Not like a monster or a person. Just a presence. Something out there that makes sure you’re aware of it. Sounds crazy but you can’t really understand until you experience it yourself.

[@0hMyGandhi]

One of my all-time favorite movies. Ingenius in a thousand different ways. I loved the ambiguity, and the "interviews" felt super authentic. I love that everyone talks about it as if it's just common knowledge, and well-known folklore. I remember the website super well, the police footage, the guerilla marketing was brilliant. I loved that they shot on normal cameras that anyone could buy. I love the sense of space for the dialogue, and in particular with the sound of someone smacking rocks together, and the sound echoing through the forest at night. I love that there is just no response every time they ask who it is that is out there. Just pure silence. I am one thousand percent on Jay's side here. This was a masterclass in psychological terror and fear of the unknown. And the filmmakers knew that our own imaginations are often far wilder than what can be conceivably shown on screen. When we first watched it, right when it came out on VHS, We moved into a new house and had large windows facing out the back of the house without drapes/curtains (My mom was going to buy them later) and we had a large forest at the edge of our property. I swear it when I say that I didn't sleep for at least a week.

[@JMWeaver]

I grew up on Ecco the Dolphin and Silent Hill, nothing scares me. That being said, I regard Blair Witch as a phenomenally made Horror Film. Definitely a classic.

[@alt0799]

Lmao. My sides. Not only is your point a convincing one but it gave me a good laugh. I tip my hat good sir.

[@Newt0rz]

JBarracudaL You know, I can tell this post is satirical, but I honestly believe some parts of the first few Silent Hills were legit scary in parts. The problem with them, that I tend to have with a lot of horror movies/games, is they just don't know how to end them. So they just think up some benign psychological thing to explain everything that isn't really 'shocking' or revelatory, just kinda cheap. Like they're obviously heavily influenced by Jacob's Ladder type reveals, but that movie has a lead up and a real surreal reason for the main character to be in denial. In Silent Hill it's like you're a psychopath or trauma victim justifying or misconstruding what happened to you. Which is usually super convoluted, especially in SH2 as you find out you didn't even do anything that unjustified.

[@Laketwig]

wonder if jay would cream his pants if he played silent hill 2 or just brush it off as boring or a ripoff before he gets into it and yeah i know he doesnt play games but still

[@sakurasam420]

Lmao the final boss of ecco the dolphin is actually terrifying. The fact that the entire boss room is pitch black except for this giant giger alien creature is pretty effective.

[@Borfborfle]

Ecco the Dolphin scarred me.

[@ChrisOrillia]

The rocks were extremely unsettling. How can you not be horrified to learn that someone or something made little fucking rock piles meters away from your sleeping head only hours ago in *the middle of the god damn woods*? The audience does half the work, at least the ones intelligent enough to imagine something subtler than what a computer rendering can do, such spooky, much monsters, flash lights and sounds wow, directly into the face: 10/10.

[@sergeantkozi]

rancper I agree. I’d assume it was a prank no matter how much the other people in my group deny it, unless I had concrete evidence otherwise.

[@Bakamatsu-GojiFanArchive]

rancper like the man said. Intelligent people. Not the likes of you. Go watch your Paranormal activity you damn millenial

[@alanpennie8013]

Yeah. Who did make those rock piles and dangling stick figures? Does the witch have cult followers? These are probably not questions we're supposed to raise.

[@intermonkey88]

I feel like every one is missing the point here. The movie is meant to be unsettling or unnerving not just “scary”. If you think too hard about it than it’s gonna fall apart just like any horror movie. Just immerse yourself in the movie and then I think it starts to shine.

[@papasmurf205]

I can appreciate what your saying but at the end we should have at least got a glimpse of something. even as a kid without ever seeing anything it just insulted the integrity of the whole film. just highlights the fact that they weren't capable of putting anything believable in the film besides things anyone could do.

[@blogue84]

I'm with Jay on this one. I saw Blair Witch in the theaters right when it came out, before it really became popular. In fact my best friend and I were the only two people in the entire theater, which actually made it even scarier to watch. I had fallen for all of the viral marketing, including the SciFi channel documentary that came out prior to the film's release. To this day, Blair Witch remains my favorite horror movie, and I still get the chills when I watch it. Whether you find this movie scary or not does depend on what scares you or what scared you as a child. I grew up being terrified of the woods at night, the idea of being lost in the woods, and the idea of something unknown lurking in the woods, so Blair Witch hit me right in my scary bone. It's a similar phenomenon with how some people find The Exorcist not scary, while others find it to be the most terrifying thing they've ever seen (most people I've talked to that were raised Catholic find it terrifying, while I don't find it scary at all). I think Blair Witch is a fantastic horror film that replaces cheap jump scares with the scariest thing of all: your imagination.

[@oneopinion6806]

Very much agree (as I word-walled on it as well.) Another angle on it would be this might be the best example--and maybe only example?--of a studio picking up low budget film and pumping serious money into marketing and it being so wildly effective both in terms of ticket sales and the effect on the movie itself.

[@lesliecastillo1056]

Honestly, what makes the Blair Witch work as a horror film is the unknown. Unlike most found-footage horror films nowadays where the “creature” is either depicted towards the end or sprinkled somewhere throughout the movie, the Blair Witch Project is unique because we NEVER see the supposed Blair Witch herself. That is why the original movie is so scary. It is because of the horror experience that these three amateur filmmakers experience rather than the Blair Witch itself. I believe what H.P. Lovecraft famously said about how humanity’s greatest fear is the fear of the unknown. This film plays upon such a concept to absolute mastery. What the film’s characters see and experience is what also the audience see and experience, and the unexplained terror that goes down within the film is so terrifying and satisfying to witness. Another crucial point that other found-footage films today often make a BIG mistake of is the characters perspective. We are with the characters through the footage they supposedly filmed from the very start, all the way to the film’s most chilling end. We are NEVER transitioned to a scene that is professionally filmed by an actual film production only to cut back to the “found-footage” segments like most films of this genre. I.e. This is why in my own personal experience, why the film “The Fourth Kind” utterly fails as a found footage horror film. The constant shifting of the “dramatization” and “found-footage” segments are far too jarring and poorly executed. Which is why this film, from my personal opinion also works so well. We as the audience can only see what the characters themselves see and we are never taken out of the found footage aspect for even a minute, which is why I greatly appreciate the Blair Witch Project. It sticked with its guns from start to finish, does not let up, and the film’s ending is so terrible (in a GREAT way mind you) that you are left with feelings of hopeless emptiness since the film allows the audience rather than spoon feeding us to realize what were these filmmakers ultimate fates on our own. Also, sorry but not really for this essay of a comment! 😂 I have been an aficionado of films in general, let alone horror films, for more than a decade. I like talking the nuances of “landmark” movies such as the Blair Witch Project with my fellow film and horror movie buffs and the critics. Does this movie have its flaws? Yes, what any film doesn’t, but it’s flaws far outweighs the thoughtful positives by the filmmakers in order to bring such a unsettling narrative to the big screen on such a small budget.

[@ApocalypseMeow84]

The Blair Witch Project is solid. It looks better and feels more authentic than pretty much all found footage films that have come out since IMO.

[@stupididiot6993]

Rec (2007) is very good

[@SimonThorntonVideo]

I'd love to see you guys talk about The Witch.

[@SimonThorntonVideo]

One of the rare modern horror films that focuses on suspense and atmosphere rather than jump scares and monsters. I reckon Jay would love it.

[@SimonThorntonVideo]

I haven't but I'm always on the look out for horror films that aren't crap, so thanks for the recommendation!

[@LoN3wOlF5tudi0s]

The Witch is kind of like The Blair Witch Project: both are non-traditional horror movies that are effectively frightening in non-traditional ways, and people dislike them for being "boring". I think both films are great.

[@LoN3wOlF5tudi0s]

+Simon Thornton Oh, and you're right to assume Jay would love The Witch, because he did! He tweeted that it's right up there with The Exorcist as a classic religious based horror movie.

[@SimonThorntonVideo]

That's awesome! Shame they never did a video about it. He probably hasn't managed to convince anyone else to watch it yet. xD

[@TheLachiecav]

I'm 19, I had never seen the movie before so I gave it a watch. At no point did the film truely scare me (which I didn't expect it to, since the last time I was genuinely terrified/spooked by a movie was when I was like 12, also I watched this review before the movie so most of it was spoiled for me anyway) , but the movie was definitely unsettling. Mainly due to how nightmarish and claustrophobic the seemingly never ending forest felt. Coupled with the increasingly unsettled/bickering characters, and the night time scenes, I pretty much felt uncomfortable throughout most of the film. Which is something I haven't experienced in a while, so that was pretty cool.

[@baneh1329]

I first watched this at around 12

[@anon9110]

One of the things I find very scary about The Blair Witch Project is that these kids don't seem to be just simply lost. The woods seem to be so haunted, they are actually trapped in a time look or some sort of vortex that pulls them back to the same place.. the log over and over again. I have a feeling that even if they still had the map, it really wouldn't have made no difference. Scary.

[@NecumNaTo]

Yeah, and wait for your next time you will be camping in tent in forrest and remember this film ;)

[@samhackett5715]

aren't never ending and claustrophobic in the context of your comment kind of oxymorons?

[@Teajryan]

@@samhackett5715 Ha!

[@shadowprince4482]

"Any sane person would drop the camera and run" You seriously overestimate the intelligence of the average person.

[@0hMyGandhi]

meanwhile, we have people filming practically in the middle of a tornado and recording every moment that a piece of someone's house narrowly misses their head.

[@theresasofia_]

I am a 19 year old person and I watched it and I cannot walk in the woods anymore. Even at day time with friends. So I hope that answers your question, Mike! I very much agree with Jay. It is one of my favorite horror movies and I got a very short list of horror movies I like (The Exorcist, Alien, The Thing (from '82), The Shining, Silence of the Lambs). I just enjoy its simplicity and the fact that you do not see the monster. I hate found footage normally (Cloverfield sucks for example because no one would film for that long ... And I hated the design of the monster). I really thought it was a good thing that they did not show the 'monster' or the witch. It would have ruined it for me. I think not knowing makes it very scary. Or actually I don't like it because it was made in 8 days and not 12 years. It should have taken 12 years to make!

[@user-cm9ef4fw7m]

Theresa ... so you know what? i am the one wearing the funny boots

[@bghnv123]

I've been silently watching and enjoying the shit out of all red letter media stuff. I don't usually comment but I just wanted to say you guys are awesome!! And keep up the good work!

[@IstasPumaNevada]

+

[@halohzed1225]

i kinda like the idea of josh killing heather due to whatever reason instead of there being a super natural entity. it could explain why they went to the extent of making things look creepy but not super natural and making them all explainable (ex: josh making the child-laughing sounds, josh and michael making the bundles of rocks and sticks while heather was asleep, etc)

[@NCRLouTenant]

@@w0undedmakers251 As a distraction while the other guy sneaks up to attack her. If you see your friend standing in the corner, facing away from you, you're probably going to be focusing directly on that, not someone coming up behind you to bash you in the back of the head.

[@spyman3000]

I’m 18 and I watched it recently. Thought it was an absolute masterclass in building tension.

[@atomheartother]

i watched this movie for the first time ~ 3 years ago, at 21. i was thoroughly scared, and I agree with Jay in that the house part was a great climax. i was absolutely terrified there. i knew it was fake, because I'm aware of what a found footage movie is, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and let the movie tell me its story. i don't know if Mike will read this, but I don't see how the fact that it's not real is a detriment to the enjoyment of it at all, if the movie is done well. we suspend our disbelief in every movie, and I feel like found footage movies just ask you "Pretend that this is real", which isn't as hard as, say "Just pretend this guy can fly and shoot lasers out his eyes and has superhuman strength because he came from a different planet"

[@atomheartother]

and for the record i hate paranormal activity stuff

[@rainbowthrustars]

I used to enjoy that but the frikkin paranormal activity movie killed it for me heh.

[@calhobbes862]

Well said.

[@atomheartother]

Daniel G why thank you

[@TheAaron3dg]

Great review! I watched the movie for the first time a few years back, and got a sensible amount of scare out of it. However... I then watched it again recently after I was lost in the woods for a night, and I couldn't finish it. The film PERFECTLY captures the fear, the disorientation, the irrational thinking of being lost in the woods. That whole bit about throwing the map away? One of the guys in our group actually did something like that out of pure frustration. The non-stop hysterical screaming? Yeah, that happens. It's easy to wonder how someone could be scared by "the wind" but in the dark late at night you're ready to jump out of your skin at every little sound. I've heard it said that the director would intentionally lead the actors astray and get them lost on purpose so that they would be more hysterical and on-edge, and to me it does translate.

[@BRUXXUS]

Bingo. Being in the woods at night, far from any help if you were to need it is an experience that I think pushes this movie into greatness for the viewer. People that haven't had that feeling probably have a hard time immersing themselves in the situation.

[@GabrielAKAFinn]

So it's only scary if you're a pussy or a city slick, pardon the redundancy.

[@nikiv116893]

Hacks! Where is the Plinkett review of Force Awakens??

[@zsedcftglkjh]

I'm expecting it to come out in December to commemorate the 1year anniversary.

[@ThinkAwayFilms]

It's gonna take 12 years to make.

[@greenninja3187]

Force awakens is PERFECT.

[@cassleever588]

Bot :)

[@victorfreeman225]

скорее всего никогда не выйдет :(

[@SterlingFM]

Im 20, I watched the Blair Witch Project for the first time a few nights ago. I went into it knowing it was all fake, though found myself genuinely convinced that these were real people in a scary scenerio. The performances were astounding, and the restraint the movie had to not show anything improved the movie greatly. Real fear came from seeing these distressed individuals screaming, crying, and running while lost in the woods.

[@designed84]

I watched Blair Witch in the theatre when I was 12. Scared the crap out of me. I am definitely of the opinion that not seeing the monster is much more suspenseful than seeing it. I love slow burns.

[@jmorales09]

I am in my early 20s and did recently watch both Blair Witch and Halloween for the first time. For me personally, both are great, but Blair Witch is more overtly scary to me than Halloween. The first person aspect gives me the same feeling as playing a first person horror videogame. It feels inherently more scary because i almost feel like I'm in the movie

[@alexerickson280]

I am 22, I've seen the movie four or five times ovwr the last 6 years and it has creeped me the hell out each time. I definitely agree about what you guys had to say about found footage movies nowdays though, I usually end up laughing because it just seems rediculous in every way.

[@alexerickson280]

My bad on spelling, I am several drinks in at this point.

[@genzgenzgenz]

i did what Mike told me to do, watched it completely home alone at midnight with all the lights off... and i absolutely loved it

[@FateStaySaged]

I thought it was scary. mainly for the fact that if i got lost in the woods i'd piss myself. anything on top of that i'd lose my fucking mind.

[@vegetta00]

31 year old here. I saw the film in theaters with my cousins when it premiered. I genuinely was freaked out by it while watching it. I never got "scared" but I did feel the atmosphere worked. Part of the enjoyment (thinking back) is that I was part of that phenomenon where everyone would talk and speculate about the film even weeks after seeing it. I also went out of my way to rent the Blair Witch Documentary that came out simultaneously with the film's theatrical release. Lots of fun even though I never believed it was real.

[@thepughreport648]

"Sit in your little home..." Why was that comment so freakin' funny?

[@adjitka]

The uncamouflaged disdain.

[@nomad3179]

The Blair witch project is an amazing experience. I'm 30 years old now, I appreciate the time this movie came from and how much the times have changed. This is a slooooow movie. If you have ADHD like the majority of today's population, this movie will be painful. If you are someone who likes to read and can appreciate an experience with depth this movie is a gold mine. The acting in this movie is still some of the best i have ever seen. These are 3 completely mundane, average and absolutely believable characters. Their reactions and slow decent into their terrifying experience is incredibly realistic. This isn't so much a movie as a very believable story being told through the eyes of the characters. If you are able to immerse yourself into this situation and soak up the smallest of details in dialog, setting, character reactions and the small events in story this movie is still terrifying because everything in this movie could actually happen. There are no jump scares, no CGI, no evil demon nuns... its just 3 completely normal, flawed people psychologically breaking while lost deep in the woods and being stalked by something that comes at night. Your mind fills in the blanks and that is way more terrifying than any CGI monster or jump scare.