Voodoos in the Woods!

‘The Blair Witch Project’ (the original 1999 flick; not sequel, prequel or the parody) was there in my must-see list for long time. Thanks to HBO for airing it last night. A decade easily passed in the world of Movies, with different technologies and ideas to showcase since this movie was released, yet the aura of freshness in the style of photography used, and in the modest usage of equipments and cast, is not diminished. After all, this style is what elevated ‘Blair Witch Project’ into a higher position in the American chart of high gainers of all the time, grossing 248 million dollars worldwide. With a humble three men cast (if you can skip those who appear in guest) and just 20000$ spent on original shooting, this numbers which it grossed is quite impressive. It’s known that, the original shooting lasted just eight days with a usable footage of 19 hours, and it’s the magic of editing and sound mixing which took next eight months, eventually made a 90 minute movie of critical and commercial success.

Story line had nothing new to say, as its undoubtedly  inspired from what we saw in (the most horrifying and disturbing movie experience I ever had) ‘1980 exploit classic, ‘Cannibal Holocaust’. Both the films unfold, by screening the video footage's of a group of aspiring film makers who were disappeared years ago. When it comes to the art of ‘Documentary Realism’, ‘Blair Witch Project’   can come no where near to the classic ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, which the Italian director Ruggero Deodato perfected to the level of most disgusting and disturbing reality.

But ‘Blair Witch Project’ is a great success in effectively using the realistic photography methods, like using unsteady night shots with white flash lights normally seen in home handycams, even with out any scenes of gory but still invoking the most exploited human feeling, ‘fear’. And for the same reason Daniel Myrick  and  Eduardo Sánchez  deserve a good applause for their innovative thoughts setting up a new trend in movie making. What else could possibly explain the immediate parody 'The Bogus Witch Project' which satirized the original, and the flood of comics, sequels that followed?