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

3 жыл бұрын

Wow! That *IS* perfect!

@RFC-3514

3 жыл бұрын

"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

3 жыл бұрын

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

@emmaseemorevideos

3 жыл бұрын

iconic 😳😳😳

@TheEtherny

3 жыл бұрын

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

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

@MsStack42

4 жыл бұрын

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

@jpollackauthor

4 жыл бұрын

@@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

3 жыл бұрын

J O S H !

@nchap2023

3 жыл бұрын

Holy shit! Jeremy?!

@YurrWhat

3 жыл бұрын

@@nchap2023 you mean Hilary?

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

@hayberdasher8625

Жыл бұрын

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

@user-ie2yn1wf7s

6 ай бұрын

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

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

@Targisvear

3 жыл бұрын

One of the most obvious deadpan trollings of Mike.

@raptorbadger3131

3 жыл бұрын

snake? Snake???? Snaaaaaaakkkkkeeeee!

@cattibingo

3 жыл бұрын

@@raptorbadger3131 metal Gear?

@genehetzel2036

Ай бұрын

SHAUN!!!

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

@devilsummoner2163

5 жыл бұрын

They all were put together to form rich Evans

@harry4716

5 жыл бұрын

Fusionash 3 like how fat women are made in Family Guy

@cosmicmuffet1053

5 жыл бұрын

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

@elinicoritale6384

4 жыл бұрын

@@devilsummoner2163 lmao

@jacksyron4022

4 жыл бұрын

Daow I'd be friends w him

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

4 жыл бұрын

Convenient that Mike has the mic.

@micalzoncillo249

4 жыл бұрын

@@halikarnak1862 oh... snap...

@Morris1581

3 жыл бұрын

yeah thats so great!

@SDCromwell

3 жыл бұрын

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

2 жыл бұрын

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

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

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, that was a pretty great special.

@brandobob1371

Жыл бұрын

Core memory right there

@Chris-ks4sw

8 ай бұрын

Honestly that was scarier than the actual movie

@BarryHart-xo1oy

6 ай бұрын

I would love to see that parody.

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

2 жыл бұрын

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

Жыл бұрын

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

Жыл бұрын

@@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

Жыл бұрын

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

7 ай бұрын

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.

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

7 жыл бұрын

haha

@avengercannon

7 жыл бұрын

you seem to have made a flaw

@Dummy257

7 жыл бұрын

where can I buy a Vietnamese girlfriend?

@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017

7 жыл бұрын

What is flirting like in Vietnam?

@stephencarroll4681

7 жыл бұрын

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

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

6 жыл бұрын

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

@nationalsarcasticsociety1312

5 жыл бұрын

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

@yxngraspy3291

5 жыл бұрын

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

5 жыл бұрын

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

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

2 жыл бұрын

When he said it I clapped!

@iainh

2 жыл бұрын

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

@TheGentlemanGamer

2 жыл бұрын

@@kai-in1xt IT BROKE NEW GROUND

@jimmyphattits3700

2 жыл бұрын

I needed you to know that I knew that.

@Y-two-K

Жыл бұрын

He sounds a bit like Butthead

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

Жыл бұрын

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

@olsonbryce777

Жыл бұрын

@@0ooTheMAXXoo0 it's not that bad

@cicolasnage5684

Жыл бұрын

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

Жыл бұрын

9/10ths?

@shamusbob7969

10 ай бұрын

​@@0ooTheMAXXoo0You're gonna love it when you realize being a cynical contrarian is boring and a lame character trait.

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

@desepticon4

7 жыл бұрын

Its almost like they're adults...

@Homicide364

7 жыл бұрын

+TheNotorious Glorious Fuck you and your opinions

@Easyflux

7 жыл бұрын

It's called being an adult.

@joes2573

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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.

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

@bebimeta3697

3 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

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

2 жыл бұрын

@@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

2 жыл бұрын

@@bebimeta3697 paranormal

@theclingyfox7899

2 жыл бұрын

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

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

2 жыл бұрын

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

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.

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

@mutinyontheark

4 жыл бұрын

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

@Tstorm731

4 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

@@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

3 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

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.

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

5 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂 brilliant 👏👏👍

@alexanderjakubowski6183

4 жыл бұрын

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

@abeolivares2879

4 жыл бұрын

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

4 жыл бұрын

Showed it "to a friend" did you?

@MOSMASTERING

4 жыл бұрын

@@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'.

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

2 жыл бұрын

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

Жыл бұрын

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

Жыл бұрын

@@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

Жыл бұрын

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

@robertlaidlaw4592

10 ай бұрын

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

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

@rvt2239

Жыл бұрын

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

Жыл бұрын

@@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

5 ай бұрын

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.

@evaa-w5399

4 ай бұрын

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

4 ай бұрын

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.

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

7 жыл бұрын

+

@ASXXXC

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

@lous111

7 жыл бұрын

Actually, I found to be cheesy horror, Cheeseburger.

@williamsn411

7 жыл бұрын

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

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

6 жыл бұрын

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

5 жыл бұрын

@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.

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

2 жыл бұрын

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

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

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

7 жыл бұрын

+

@tilapiah6

7 жыл бұрын

I concur with recommending The Descent.

@DaniloSantosVieira

7 жыл бұрын

ew anime profile pic

@ParanormalCacti

7 жыл бұрын

Guarana Taravana Boi, you know you love Reimi.

@DaniloSantosVieira

7 жыл бұрын

ParanormalCacti -yare yare-

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.

@1squeamishneophyte

7 жыл бұрын

Legit cool story bro.

@ApesAmongUs

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

6 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

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.

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

Жыл бұрын

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

@TheGuyWithTheFace666

Жыл бұрын

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

@borisp9163

Жыл бұрын

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 👌

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

3 жыл бұрын

YES!

@mikehavok1859

3 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

Hearing noise outside your tent is far scarier than any movie

@Jack-sy6di

3 жыл бұрын

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

2 жыл бұрын

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

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

@NeoJackBauer

7 жыл бұрын

me too

@drunkdave5677

7 жыл бұрын

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

@foxorian

7 жыл бұрын

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

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

@888legends

4 жыл бұрын

epic!

@trackyjon-jonandjimmymoop274

4 жыл бұрын

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

@cuntycat2397

4 жыл бұрын

You tell em we said "Bullshit"

@mister_mozzarella

4 жыл бұрын

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

@johnleary1356

4 жыл бұрын

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

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.

IS THERE A CRICKET IN HERE

@MyHungryWidow

7 жыл бұрын

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

@JAFOpty

7 жыл бұрын

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

@reksub10

7 жыл бұрын

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

@MyHungryWidow

7 жыл бұрын

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

@razkable

7 жыл бұрын

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...

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

7 жыл бұрын

+

@aaronmayo4786

7 жыл бұрын

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

@hendrsb33

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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?

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!

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

Is the buzzing replacing a decent right audio track?

@kushan101

7 жыл бұрын

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

@RevengeOfMoctezuma

7 жыл бұрын

it was stylistically designed to be that way.

@meta2526

7 жыл бұрын

some kind of subliminal message im sure

@r2dezki

7 жыл бұрын

It's the key to all of this.

@thenononsenseninja

7 жыл бұрын

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

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

@BetweenTheLyons

6 жыл бұрын

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

@mistertagomago7974

5 жыл бұрын

Liking the Blair witch outside of Nostalgia ispretty fucking insane.

@luckyspurs

5 жыл бұрын

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

5 жыл бұрын

@@zombievac that's a great comment.

@FlixCreEightR

4 жыл бұрын

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 .

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

3 жыл бұрын

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

@danieltrochei4544

2 жыл бұрын

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

@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017

2 жыл бұрын

I think this kind of comment is in line with comments on classic rock songs posted on KZread 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

2 жыл бұрын

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

@d3l3tes00n

2 жыл бұрын

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

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.

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

7 жыл бұрын

***** 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

7 жыл бұрын

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

@Richieb75

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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.

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

that movie was great fun

@roberthpilesund384

7 жыл бұрын

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

@JensenP12

7 жыл бұрын

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

@roberthpilesund384

7 жыл бұрын

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

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.

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

3 жыл бұрын

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

@kevinwr7093

3 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

Really

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

7 жыл бұрын

+

@RoboMonsto

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the serious review! A++++

@jansn12

7 жыл бұрын

+

@HorstEwald

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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!

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

@mitalarsson6955

7 жыл бұрын

The Jar Jar Witch Project

@futonrevolution7671

7 жыл бұрын

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

@geoffkelly262

7 жыл бұрын

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

@Lordalexzader

7 жыл бұрын

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

@haraldsegebrecht

7 жыл бұрын

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"!

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.

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

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

@Thegeobot

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

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

4 жыл бұрын

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

@theindiediary5950

4 жыл бұрын

I have never watched the sequels.

@Rihcterwilker

3 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

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

@Rihcterwilker

3 жыл бұрын

@@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.

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.

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

@miguelbranquinho7235

2 жыл бұрын

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

@meatwad376

Жыл бұрын

I love our talks

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

@twmcgraw3035

7 жыл бұрын

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

@Zer0Hour17

7 жыл бұрын

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

@twmcgraw3035

7 жыл бұрын

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

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

5 жыл бұрын

stretchy mooooouuuuuuuuuth!!!!

So I know I'm a bit late, but I think I am the exact audience for the question they were posing. I had never even heard of the Blair Witch Project when I first saw it. This was in 2016ish and I was in my 20s. I have seen a lot of modern Horror movies, but this just flew under my radar and I only found out about it due to torrenting some movies (it was high seed so I was like, eh this is fast let's see what it is). I loved this movie. I'm quite used to horror movies just being quick jump scares. You can predict when it'll happen, you see the setup coming, you get in anticipation, and wait for the release. It's like a roller coaster, you go up and down. This movie was not like that, it was like a gradual creep. Insanity slowing washing over you. The pacing is perfect, because it luls you into such a sense of calm and things start to go batshit insane slowly. I started to dread the night time scenes along with the characters. Theres something to be said when you have no doors or walls, no barriers and are completely exposed to the elements. I knew nothing about the marketing of this movie, but the way it's shot felt very....real. It got to a point I started wondering whether this was based on a true story (not what was being shown is true, but rather the story was). Often times it's easy to say it's not based on a true story, because everything is so extreme right from the start (i.e. air yeeting). But things were more subtle here (at least in the first half). And as I stated earlier about modern horror movies, there is no release, ever. Even when the movie ends, you are just waiting for an explanation, for a resolution, for a release. But nothing is explained, and everyone dies. I personally couldn't get enough of it, what happened, why did it happened, what lore is it based on? The premise is so interesting and setup, that I must know more. To be honest, it is a bit dissapointing when you realize there is no answers and everything is made up, but that is after the fact. During the movie you are completely engrossed. I think it holds up great, even with no knowledge of the marketing that it's "real". However, I have no desire to rewatch it. I feel this is one of those movies that is great when you have zero knowledge of what is going on. The feat of the movie is in anticipation, once you know that nothing happens, then the anticipation is gone and it's just random noises in the night.

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.

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

4 жыл бұрын

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

4 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

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.

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.

@halldordavisson3687

5 жыл бұрын

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

5 жыл бұрын

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

5 жыл бұрын

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

5 жыл бұрын

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

5 жыл бұрын

@@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

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

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.

Mike at his most General Audiences

@Name-ck9pv

4 жыл бұрын

Sadly true

@UbiquitousNight

3 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

I can't imagine a more cruel insult.

@TheDudeSmashTrash

3 жыл бұрын

@@uh-oh5324 precisely. you nailed it.

@LockheedLazar

3 жыл бұрын

@@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

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

4 жыл бұрын

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

4 жыл бұрын

There is

@metavormgeving7576

3 жыл бұрын

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

@Rihcterwilker

3 жыл бұрын

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

I saw The Blair Witch Project in the theater very soon after it came out. It screwed with my head for days. The last scene of the movie still makes my skin crawl today. I LOVE THIS MOVIE. It's infuriating to me that people know what it's supposed to be but still expect a traditional "movie structure" out of it. The Blair Witch Project is quite possibly the ONLY MOVIE to do found footage correctly, which I think in part is why it is so frequently credited with "creating" the genre even if there have been a few previous and way too many afterwards. It is a unique thing in the world of horror, and I would argue that it is very nearly perfect, at least within the context of that uniqueness.

I never figured out that it was supposed to be children laughing during that tent scene, and I was listening really closely to try and make out what the sound was. The sound at 7:46 in particular is chilling

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

@jasonfenton8250

6 жыл бұрын

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

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

4 жыл бұрын

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

4 жыл бұрын

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

4 жыл бұрын

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

@haroldbalzac6336

4 жыл бұрын

@@1OSfan17 you get some boi pucci?

I watched this about 3 years ago, in the dark, on VHS in my basement. I had known that it was a found footage movie about the woods, but that’s it. I was probably like 14. It was so scary. I didn’t have a phone at the time, so no distractions. When you sit down and actually get get wrapped up in the story, it’s a genuinely unnerving experience

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

@0hMyGandhi

2 жыл бұрын

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.

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

3 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

@@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

3 жыл бұрын

@@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

Жыл бұрын

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

@demonicpokeyfruit9006

Жыл бұрын

@@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.

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

@SimonThorntonVideo

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

@LoN3wOlF5tudi0s

7 жыл бұрын

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

7 жыл бұрын

+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

7 жыл бұрын

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

It's funny that The Phantom Menace came up at the open here, because these two movies are inexorably linked in my mind. Mostly because I noted the same phenomena with both of them, it was just a matter of time scale. I saw The Blair Witch Project in a crowded theater. And I was grooving along with it, the ideas it had and how it went. But one thing I noticed in the movie theater while it was showing? Everyone there was enraptured by it. Like a ton of spellbound faces reflected in the light coming off the screen. No one was rolling their eyes at the "Map Scene" or scoffing at how silly it was that they kept recording or yawning and focusing on their snacks over how "boring" it was. But the moment the movie was over. The moment they walked out of that theater? Every voice I picked up in the crowd was talking about how horrible that movie was. Like an instant 180 from their reactions while actually watching it where everyone there seemed super invested, in particular the people I went to see the movie with talking shit about it afterwards. The Phantom Menace had the same thing going on, but a bigger time frame. I think nowadays most people forget that when the movie was in theaters? It had rave reviews from Critics and movie goers. Universally loved. It took like 4 months or so for it to really flip the switch and everyone to start saying: "I hated it, worst movie ever!" and such. Now I know a bunch of people who will pretend that they always hated it, just like my friends coming out of The Blair Witch Project... but I also have the records on my side to show that 100% was not their reaction at the time and they're just kind of deluding themselves about it.

@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017

2 жыл бұрын

It just goes to show that there is a thing called "preference falsification" which is when people say one thing in public/between peers and then their private thoughts. I think most (young) people who experience this film for the first time are genuinely scared by it or at least get the creepiness of the scenario.

I love Blair Witch and the way Jay appreciates it. Can’t help but be frustrated by Mike throughout this vid honestly

@steverogers7601

Жыл бұрын

He’s genuinely obnoxious in this. It’s like the kid who learns that haunted mansion rides are fake, but doesn’t want to let others know that he finally learned that. So he gets on the ride and sits down with his arms folded all the while rolling his eyes and smirking at how fake things look as the ride progresses, in an effort in front of others so they see that he knows something others don’t know about.

@TheGuyWithTheFace666

Жыл бұрын

@n30n Tell us you're nose deep in his poop shoot without saying it, fangirl.

@TheGuyWithTheFace666

Жыл бұрын

@@steverogers7601 Funny how he mentioned pretentiousness while being just that, pretentious. He's trying to act jaded and "matured" but is clearly putting on a show. He has the personality of a fruit fly, mildly obnoxious at best.

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

@cattibingo

3 жыл бұрын

The brad Carlos project

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

@Teajryan

5 жыл бұрын

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

@DavidPigbody

5 жыл бұрын

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

4 жыл бұрын

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

@RendanLovell

4 жыл бұрын

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.

I recently watched it for the first time this year as a 21 year old, i love horror movies and anything disturbing and my god i found it scary and very tense. It was great! And my partner 22 who hadnt seen it before also watched with me and found it tense but very good. I agree with Jay in the sense that the fear of the unknown paired with found footage style filmmaking is what makes this vague film perfect.

Just watched this movie about a year ago for the first time, at 22. Most of the horror movies that come out today with non stop jump scares don’t really get to me at all. But this movie really freaked me out when I watched it alone at about 1 in the morning, I was constantly looking over my surrounding in the room I was in, it’s great.

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

7 жыл бұрын

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

@twocentsmiguel7857

7 жыл бұрын

All jokes aside, I agree 100%.

@terraemotus7044

7 жыл бұрын

Clover field was pretty good

@twocentsmiguel7857

7 жыл бұрын

+Terra Emotus Eh.

@Clearmedium

7 жыл бұрын

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.

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

4 жыл бұрын

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

For a couple years my sisters and I did a halloween movie night. When I was probably 16ish this was on the roster. Alongside maybe Hereditary, this is the one that has stuck with me. I wasn't screaming and shaking my popcorn all over, but I remember pretty much every beat of the story vividly, and I was thinking about that ending for days.

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.

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

3 жыл бұрын

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

Жыл бұрын

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

Жыл бұрын

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.

@TheGuyWithTheFace666

Жыл бұрын

@@steverogers7601 Haha she thought she could hang

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

5 жыл бұрын

Dread. You used the perfect word.

watching it as a young teenager in the dark it's still scary, even re-watching it as an adult without interference. knowing it's fake. it can still be scary, the fear of the unknown justifies it being scary. because your imagination/subconscious fills in the gaps of what might or may not be there. which can sometimes be scarier than any ghoul or demon the movie makes and shows you. what helps is atmosphere and immersion. this is a good film for both and it can encapsulate you into it, if only for 30 mins or an hour. there is a prevalent unease or tension to the film once past the initial introduction to the characters and their mockumentary video. when they're alone in the woods you feel it. when they're experiencing tension you feel it. it's all so perfectly eerie especially on the first watching experience. because at any moment anytime something bad could happen. and it starts to pull at your mind while you sit there in the dark watching it. being paranoid does not help, as it made me behave slightly more paranoid for a day.

I'm 27 and just watched it. I absolutely felt some strong emotions while watching it. I felt IMPRESSED by how well everything was done, I felt EMOTIONAL when characters were crying and slowly unwinding, and I felt TENSE pretty much the entire time. I wouldn't say it particularly scared me, but nothing has since I saw Under the Skin. I was honestly more on edge than scared, and felt stronger emotions than when I saw Halloween for the first time last year. I loved that one but it didn't really scare me too much. This felt so real and the performances (Heather especially) really, really sold it as authentic. This is maybe one of my all time favorite horror films. Maybe it would have scared me more too if I hadn't always heard people tell me that it is a movie where "nothing happens", lol. I very very much agree with Jay on almost every aspect of this discussion. However, this is what makes RLM my favorite film review channel ever, that Mike and Jay both have great critical eyes but also have different tastes and opinions that they can articulate well, and they always debate with level heads.

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. KZread 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.

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

5 жыл бұрын

@@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.

I am an early 20 something year old who just watched the Blair witch project. I had heard of the movie only by title and had NO idea whether the movie was from real footage or not. I looked up nothing before hand and just jumped into it. This movie genuinely scared me. It’s weird because I’ve been watching so many horror movies lately that all just started blending together and brought up almost every feeling except fear and terror. The way this movie was shot and the performances the actors delivered felt so real that I didn’t have time to question it. I was too captivated and on the edge of my seat to see what was happening, even when I couldn’t visually see what was happening. I would like to think I would’ve been even more scared if I had seen this any younger. Even after finding everything out it still doesn’t take the enjoyment away from the movie for me. So anyway good movie in my opinion.

The thing about it and the good paranormal activities that's so good is how each night the tension ramps up. Slowly things gets worse and worse, to the point that I feel dread when it starts getting dark again and so much relief when it's daytime.

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

@mitalarsson6955

7 жыл бұрын

No it most be in your head...

@thevoxdeus

7 жыл бұрын

That's the third participant, Jimminy Cricket.

@timothystrategos7222

7 жыл бұрын

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

@jblue1622

7 жыл бұрын

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

@bubbabibleman5970

7 жыл бұрын

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

_"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

4 жыл бұрын

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

@ten7554

4 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

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

3 жыл бұрын

Interestingly, Lovecraft's works had structure.

@teawithwhiskey

3 жыл бұрын

@@UbiquitousNight and lots of racism

I watched this as a teenager, and I wasn't too impressed... My first horror film was Halloween and it scared me to the point where I slept with a letter opener.

the format of a film student making a documentary about a local phenomenon (in a shitty, pretentious way) is timeless. I think that’s what keeps the movie feeling scary above all else, is that younger people including myself still understand the “indie filmmaker documentary” thing because of vloggers n shit like that.

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

3 жыл бұрын

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

2 жыл бұрын

It was Sasquatch.

@zarreff

2 жыл бұрын

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

@TheGuyWithTheFace666

Жыл бұрын

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

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

4 жыл бұрын

Exactly, in that regard its undeniably great

@metalfuk1

4 жыл бұрын

A Person undeniably? Wrong.

@kingbreaker19

3 жыл бұрын

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

@Literally-God

3 жыл бұрын

@@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

3 жыл бұрын

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

i am 20 years old currently and just watched this movie for the first time, so i can share some insight into my personal thoughts-this movie scared the shit out of me, even knowing that it isn’t real and having grown up with CGI-dense horror movies. what got me most wasn’t necessarily the actual idea of a witch or supernatural activity, but the psychological terror that the actors so genuinely embodied. i actually thought the pacing was perfect, because day by day you can see how everything they’re experiencing is affecting them, whether that’s in the difference of their attitudes every morning after a night of fear, or their growing inability to work as a team to solve what could’ve been a simple problem of being lost (with a map and a compass, might i add). the performances in this movie felt so realistic that i could very easily insert myself into the situation and feel the same fear that i would had i really been there. i can see why this movie doesn’t work for everyone-it is pretty slow moving at some points and the background story isn’t very fleshed out-but honestly all of those things add to its genuineness for me

@carlosmarcus3286

3 жыл бұрын

Exactly! I think people might appreciate it better if it was sold more as a psychological thriller than a horror film. The "witch" is a McGuffin to get things rolling, but the movie is about flawed characters slowly spiraling out of control in escalating danger, and the drama that ensues. And it handles that perfectly.

The old found footage type movies used to get me on edge when I was younger, there’s one called Alien Abduction: The Mcpheason story, it’s not very good, but it gave me a little edge when I was a kid

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

@volvob1884

4 жыл бұрын

That's just sad....

@noelsolat1495

4 жыл бұрын

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

@BRUXXUS

3 жыл бұрын

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

@frankieb9444

3 жыл бұрын

They have the Bare Bitch Project on OnlyFans.

@adrianmojica2619

3 жыл бұрын

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

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

7 жыл бұрын

they said early twenties, dingus

@whydyespillyerbeans

7 жыл бұрын

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

@Homicide364

7 жыл бұрын

+Lilo Zen #CHOMO

Watched this my first time when I was around 18 years old a decade ago. Can confirm I was scared very much. The ending got me.

21:24 I also went to The Exorcist rerelease in the 2000’s. I’ve always been a fan of older movies and was expecting it to be kind of quaint but with a good script, acting, etc. I fell in love with it! I thought it was terrifying! For the first 40 minutes the kids in the audience were laughing. By the end the entire audience was terrified. It got so quiet in that theatre you could hear the crunching popcorn.

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.