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‘The Blair Witch Project’ Turns 20 in January, and I Still Hadn’t Seen It

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This January, The Blair Witch Project will be 20 years old. I remember my parents renting it when I was around ten, and being unnerved but not quite following what was going on.

It’s popped in and out of my mind several times, but I never got around to rewatching it. Until, that is, I found the DVD in the five dollar bin at Walmart. A few months shy of its 20th birthday, I would finally be watching the infamous Blair Witch Project.

The Blair Witch Project owes much of its success to its innovative marketing campaign. Found footage, though not new, was new to the vast majority of American audiences of the time.

The actors were believed by the public to be dead, with missing persons posters made up for the lead actors, and Heather’s Journals released on an official website for the “documentary”. IMDb listed them as missing, presumed dead for the first year after the movie debuted. There was even a mockumentary called The Curse of the Blair Witch, which debuted on the SciFi Network before the theatrical release of the film.

These strategies lead to much debate over the truth behind The Blair Witch Project. Was it another movie, or something real? Audiences had to see for themselves, leading to the film becoming one of the most high earning independent films of all time and establishing the found footage genre, leading the way for movies like Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity.

When the time came to finally sit down and watch the movie, I hit play with a surprising amount of trepidation. Even knowing the movie was fake, there was something unsettling about the found footage aspect of the film.

My empathy for the doomed trio waned thin within the first few minutes of the movie. Heather was obnoxious and I couldn’t tell the two men apart until eighteen minutes into the movie (yes, I counted).

I also found myself confused by the stories the locals were telling. Who is the villain here? They talk about a witch, banished in the 1700s for practicing witchcraft, while also going into detail about a hermit who kidnapped eight children in the 1940s. Legend says he would bring them into the basement in twos and have one stand in the corner while he murdered the other (if you don’t remember the ending of the movie, keep this in mind.) So who haunts the woods?

via IMDb

The movie is supposed to start getting scary about 26 minutes in, but I wasn’t feeling the tension. The group hears sounds all around them in the woods, but all the audience can hear is Heather screaming “Hello!?” into the dark. After daybreak, the group moves on.

The movie gets monotonous at this point; the day scenes contain zero scares, just a lot of people wasting time considering they’re in a hurry. In the night scenes, we hear the protagonists talk about the noises in the woods rather than being able to hear the noises for ourselves.

Forty minutes in, Mike reveals that he kicked the map into the river, because “he was frustrated and it wasn’t helping.” Right. Shorty after that, we meet the stick figure from the movie poster, which looks creepy but was never given any meaning.

Josh disappears, and the next night his screams can be heard throughout the woods. Mike and Heather wake up to a bundle of sticks at their door like an Amazon Prime package, which Heather looks at more closely to find it stuffed with Josh’s blood, hair, and other accoutrements.

Night falls and we’re treated to the famous selfie monologue. I experienced a bit of the Mandela Effect during this scene, because I always thought she said “I’m so scared”, but that phrase never comes up.

Image result for blair witch project

via AudiencesEverywhere

The movie then reaches its climax as they follow Josh’s screams to an abandoned house, where Mike runs to the basement. Heather follows, and the last thing we see is Mike standing in the corner before Heather is knocked over and the movie ends.

The Blair Witch Project asks us to be scared but doesn’t give us anything to be afraid of. It’s hard to feel the fear of the characters when you can’t hear what’s scaring them. We’re shown piles of rocks and hanging stick figures but never told what they signify. They seem to imply witchcraft, but the ending shows Mike in the corner, the hallmark of the murdering hermit, not the fabled Blair Witch.

While some of the imagery was creepy, there was nothing to fear from the plot. But in spite of its shortcomings, The Blair Witch Project did something important. It proved that found footage movies could succeed, and was the start of a sub-genre that is still turning out quality movies decades later. We owe it a rewatch for its 20th birthday.

 

For more on The Blair Witch Project, check out our article on the wild theory about the film’s REAL killers.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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