SB: On one hand, you have a great opportunity, because after the first Blair Witch, nobody can make a found-footage horror movie in the woods – which is a wonderful thing to do, because there's an innately horrifying, primal feeling about being alone and scared and lost with only a flashlight. The original, the milestone, the imitated and reviled The Blair Witch ProjectĪC: So why have people spent so long trying to emulate what the original one did, and now you have to – not emulate, but build upon? We could debate this all day, and maybe go back to David Holzman's Diary. Whereas The Blair Witch Project does that. SB: The French film Man Bites Dog, that's maybe the closest, but again that's a documentary crew making a documentary, and again nobody says how the footage was discovered. So for me, if you're going to do a strict found-footage movie, you have to play by those found-footage rules for the entire film, or it doesn't really count. I think that's a full-on found-footage movie until the end, and then it pulls itself out of it. Any other film that would do that, you wouldn't call found footage now. People always call Cannibal Holocaust the original found-footage movie, but I disagree, because of its framing mechanism, and the film-within-a-film approach.ĪW: I disagree with that too, because it's not a full-on found footage. It was Lionsgate who was releasing You're Next, and they had this top-secret meeting, and we were the first filmmakers they talked to, and the last, obviously.ĪC: Blair Witch is a milestone film for pioneering a genre. And, to clarify, it's not like we're smart enough or business savvy enough to say, "Hey, let's make a Blair Witch movie, let's see who has the rights." Because we're not. Simon Barrett: There's something about being able to genuinely approach making a film as a fan. Which is always a good sign of purity in terms of your intention. I remember what I wanted a Blair Witch 2 to be when it first came out, and honestly, as soon as the prospect came up that we could make a direct sequel to The Blair Witch Project, it was a no-brainer, because I know exactly how I would approach this, and the reason I know it's the correct way is because it's coming from the 16-year-old version of myself. I was able to reflect on how I felt about the original film, and the subsequent sequel, as a fan. It felt like it had run its course, weirdly. Just throw you out there and give you this very heightened Blair Witch experience."ĭirector Adam Wingard on the set of Blair Witch (Image courtesy of Lionsgate, photo by Chris Helcermanas-Benge)Īustin Chronicle: Where did the idea come from to be either brave enough or insane enough to make a film where people will be mad at you because they hate the original, or mad at you because they love it?Īdam Wingard: To me, because there was that huge detour with Book of Shadows, the pressure was less that and more, "let's get this back on track." We wanted to take that Blair Witch Project world, and that rich mythology, and essentially turn it into this roller-coaster ride. If he had taken the same spartan, lo-fi approach, he said, "everybody would be bored, because they've seen that version of it. There's still not been a horror found-footage movie that had more of a commitment to realism." That's why he didn't simply try to imitate what had been done before. When you go back and watch it, you realize they got it right the first time. Wingard called the 1999 classic "the all-original found footage film, and the one that really kicked off. Obsessed with the idea that she may still be alive, he drags three friends (Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reed, and Brandon Scott) and two Blair Witch obsessives (Wes Robinson and Valorie Curry) into the Maryland forests, in search of his sister and the myth that swallowed her.īlair Witch is Barrett's fourth collaboration with director Adam Wingard (after A Horrible Way to Die, You're Next, The Guest, and their found-footage anthology VHS franchise). He said, "Every few years, one of our films comes out and everyone gets mildly angry, and then we go back to work."īypassing the events of 2000's Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, this latest episode goes back into the woods around Burkittsville following James (James Allen McCune), the brother of lost witch hunter Heather. Simon Barrett, writer of the new installment, simply titled Blair Witch, is used to controversy. Love it or hate it, The Blair Witch Project birthed a genre, and any sequel will raise a firestorm. (Image courtesy of Lionsgate, photo by Chris Helcermanas-Benge) "There's an innately horrifying, primal feeling about being alone and scared and lost with only a flashlight." Writer Simon Barrett on the terrifying allure of the Blair Witch.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |