As writers and producers saw the amazing popularity and success of the movie Scream many other copy cat versions were made. Movies such as I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend all followed the same teen slasher format. Nothing is being left up to the movie viewer’s imagination anymore. Everything for the past thirty years was spelled out and given to the viewer, leaving the identity of the killer as the only form of mystery. The genre of horror was losing a very important battle. The bone-chilling movies of the past were giving way to the comedic teen movies of the present.
With the movie viewing public practically begging for a new type of horror movie, two young filmmakers decided to take an approach no one had used for decades. Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick came up with an idea for a new style of horror film. These two gentlemen were independent filmmakers so their budget was fairly limited. From the small amount of funds and creative genius of the two filmmakers, the idea of The Blair Witch Project was born. The story takes place in the small town of Burketsville, Maryland. An actual city of less than two hundred people.
Before the spring of 1998 it was known for the pivotal civil war battle that happened there over one hundred years ago. Then a summer blockbuster about three college students who set off to this small town to film a documentary about a local witch turned the town upside down. An interesting approach was taken for the marketing of this movie that lured people there by the thousands. A web site was created that gave a detailed history of the witch and a phony television documentary was put out on cable to make everything about the movie seem real.
Not once in any of the trailers, on the web site, and in the documentary was anything mentioned about this story being fictional. The whole idea of the movie was that the film that was being viewed was footage found in the woods and that none of the three college students were ever seen again. Not knowing this movie was fake made the general public even more scared. The film starts out showing the enthusiastic students shopping for food and acting as if there were going on a fun hike for the day. As the movie progresses the students finally get into the woods were the Blair Witch is supposed to reside.
As time passed and night fell they set up camp. Through out the night mysterious sounds seemed to be happening all around the tent. Not once did the students ever see anything, thus the viewers of the movie did not either. Nothing was presented up front. This same pattern was followed through the whole movie. The Blair Witch Project has no sex or even sexual tension, no music of any kind, no demonic power tools. No prowling, voyeuristic camera from the killer’s point of view; this movie is about the victims and the victims they make of each other.
There are no shock cuts to the monster. In fact no visible monster. Every bump in the night or mysterious sound was left up to the viewer’s imagination. For some this was the scariest thing that could have possibly happened. For whole scenes the audience is literally left in the dark. The only physical contact that occurs in the movie is a conk on the head that one of the characters receives at the end of the movie. When The Blair Witch was released it grossed over 48 million dollars in the first week. It was easy to see that there was something special about this film.
People were leaving the theater afraid to walk to their cars because they had to pass a grove of trees. One Teenage girl admitted having to sleep on the floor of her parents room for a week and says that there is no way she is going to be going camping any time soon. All of these people said that it wasn’t what they saw that was scary it is what they didn’t see that they couldn’t handle. After years and years of seeing nothing but blood and gore on the screen, they finally found what could scare them more than the special effects could, themselves.
Another horror movie was released a year after The Blair Witch Project, this movies boasted the highest production cost of all time for a horror movie. The Haunting was a remake of a 1963 movie of the same name. This film included all of the latest special effects and surround sound technology. The only problem with all of this state of the art technology is the filmmakers paid all of the attention to the special effects and none to the acting. When the film was released it was a flop. Just because the audience is able to see the house morph right in front of their eyes, does not mean the movie is going to be scary.
The horror genre of film has been around since the beginning of the twentieth century. From the Count Orlok in Nosferatu to man in the nickel and dime store Halloween costume in Scream, audiences have been packing the theaters religiously to get the wits scared out of them. Waiting for the next big thriller to come out is often on the top of many peoples entertainment list. Unfortunately, the movie producers of now days have been concentrating more on trying to have the most special effects and the most gruesome death scenes possible.
Luckily a few no name directors took advantage of this and came out with a movie that set the standards for scare arts. admitantly it is fun to see technology in movies, but horror film directors have forgotten what makes a horror film scary. Confusing the feeling of being shocked for the sensation of being scared is a common mistake that occurs. There is one simple rule to be followed when making a horror film; most the time the horror is not what is on the screen, it is in the audience’s mind.
