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The Blair Witch Project: Limited Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Second Sight Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (10th November 2024). |
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The Film
 Saturn Award (Best Horror Film): The Blair Witch Project (nominee) - Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, 2000 Bram Stoker Award (Screenplay): Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez (nominee) - Bram Stoker Awards, 1999 British Independent Film Award (Best Foreign Independent Film - English Language): The Blair Witch Project (nominee) - British Independent Film Awards, 1999 Award of the Youth (Foreign Film): Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez (winner), C.I.C.A.E. Award: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez (nominee), and Golden Camera: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez (nominee) - Cannes Film Festival, 1999 Special Mention: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez (winner) and Best Film: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez (nominee) - Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival, 1999 MTV Movie Award (Best Action Sequence): The Blair Witch Project (nominee) - MTV Movie + TV Awards, 2000 Chainsaw Award (Worst Film): The Blair Witch Project (nominee), Best Wide Release Film: The Blair Witch Project (nominee), Best Actress: Heather Donahue (winner), and Best Supporting Actor: Joshua Leonard (nominee) - Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, 2000 College students Heather Donahue armed with research, Joshua Leonard armed with a "borrowed" CP-16 camera, Michael Williams with a digital video camera, and decided to travel to nearby Burkittsville, Maryland – formerly known as "Blair" – to make a documentary on the local folklore of the child-killing Blair Witch. While the local eccentrics tells them of an Irish woman banished from the town for bleeding children in the eighteenth century and a floating hair-covered monstrosity, from others they learn of other stories including Rustin Parr, a hermit who abducted seven children and killed them in the basement of his house deep in the woods in 1941, and Coffin Rock where five men were found disemboweled with no signs of a struggle, their bodies arranged in a pattern suggesting a ritualistic sacrifice. They hike out to Coffin Rock and a nearby cemetery where they set up camp decorated with stick figures hanging from the trees and (burial?) mounds of rocks. As expected, Josh makes a joke of it and topples one of the crude rock monuments. That night, they hear noises outside their tent and find their camp site surrounded by stick figures and the rock mounds. Deciding to cut their expedition short, the trio start hiking back to the car only to wind up back at their camp site no matter which way they go. As night falls again, it becomes more certain that someone or something is following them. We've heard it all before… a trio of students wandered into the woods to explore a local legend and never came back. All that remains of to tell of their fate, however inconclusive, is the recently-discovered footage they shot. We've heard hundreds of instances and variations on it since the release of The Blair Witch Project – and a couple thousands more since the release of Paranormal Activity (which showed no-budget filmmakers they need not venture beyond their pre-fab homes or apartments in search of atmosphere) – not the first film to utilize found footage but the one to initiate the "found footage" genre; before that, however, the film was a media sensation, viral and otherwise, with images from the trailers and TV spots becoming instantly iconic, audience reactions and testimony about the film's visuals inducing nausea, the PR machine in full spin, as well as parodies and references which to this day do not actually require watching the film to "get it." Mileage varied with viewers on just how much of the improv'd arguing between the characters they could take, and some of the "found footage" films spawned in their wake suggested that those filmmakers took the wrong lesson from the film in building up dread and just let actors and non-actors scream at each other until the running time requirements had been met followed by chaotic shaky-cam running and screaming (and sometimes a character being dragged away from the camera). Like the best ghost stories – including the likes of the superior Ghostwatch or The Stone Tape to name a few – the film's backstory is deliberately vague with unnerving accounts of incidents seemingly tangential to the legend to mull over that reassert themselves visually as the film moves towards its climax. The film's iconic status ended up being a double-edged sword, with the then-unknown but nevertheless working actors either unable to find work outside the genre or always being associated with it – Donahue's last film to date was the 2008 horror film The Morgue, Leonard has worked most prolifically in the mainstream but his horror appearances are "tainted" by association and even he could not get away from an overt reference while guest starring in an episode of Bones as a suspect in the murder of a filmmaker whose video expedition into the woods raises questions about the supernatural, and Williams has appeared in horror projects up to this year but his two most prominent credits were the subsequent solo efforts of The Blair Witch Project co-directors Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick (Altered and The Objective, respectively), and even their subsequent genre efforts could be said to be in the shadow of the Blair Witch – while audiences have largely remained as hostile to "found footage" films that are either too slavishly similar or too wildly different from the model. A more cinematic sequel Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 was atmospheric and had some interesting ideas but it was as much undermined by looking and sounding like every other early 2000s-era studio horror film (with a compiltion soundtrack CD of alternative rock songs that actually did appear in the film) but also by studio interference, and more recently two of indie horror's great hopes of the 2010s director Adam Wingard (You're Next) and writer Simon Barrett (The Guest) greatly disappointed horror fandom when his teased project "The Woods" turned out to be Lionsgate's Blair Witch pseudo-sequel/reboot which threw drone shots and alien theories into the mix (Wingard has since moved onto Godzilla sequels). In more recent years, the film has become moved beyond the found footage genre to that of "folk horror" (which is more than can be said for any other example American found footage film made in its wake). Gaining more insight into the behind the scenes aspects of the production does not really spoil the illusion but reveal that the success of The Blair Witch Project is not "making something out of nothing" but the authorial and collaborative intent to assert the impression of horror stripped down to its bare essentials. 
Video
Released theatrically stateside by Artisan Entertainment and in the United Kingdom by Pathe, The Blair Witch Project was lensed in both 16mm and Hi-8, finished on video and shown that way in festival screenings and then scanned to 35mm for Artisan's theatrical play. The 35mm film out was used to produce an HD master that served as the master for the international DVD releases and later Blu-rays including Lionsgate's U.K. edition. For Second Sight's concurrent limited edition and standard edition. the producers have gone back to the Hi-8 and 16mm materials for a remaster to address issues with Artisan's presentation of the film. There are three encodes of the film on the first disc: the theatrical cut (81:21) and festival cut (85:19) – keep in mind that the initial two-and-a-half hour cut was screened to test audiences in Florida, it was not the Sundance festival cut – via seamless branching, and the theatrical cut from 35mm (81:21) – not a new transfer but the existing 1080p MPEG-4 AVC 1.38:1 master – all of which open with the Lionsgate logo in place of the Artisan one (which seems fitting since there was a time when Artisan replaced the Vestron Pictures logo on DVDs of films from that library that they owned). The theatrical and festival versions are encoded at 1080i60 with the Hi-8 footage remaining in 59.94i and 3:2 pulldown added to the 23.976fps 16mm footage. Comparing the two theatrical cut transfers, Artisan's "upgrade" of the picture's image included some light cropping – although both are framed at 1.38:1 – as well as raising the contrast of the Hi-8 video scenes and adding a grain filter to the these scenes. The Hi-8 scenes are now brighter and look like the turn-of-the-century digital video they were supposed to look like while the 16mm footage is also brighter with better shadow detail in the daylight scenes. Night scenes in the camp on video reveal punchier colors which helps in conveying the physical stress on the characters while blacks can be impenetrable. Without the grain filter, the video scenes have noise but are still "cleaner" while the film shots also sport deep blacks but a finer rendering of what is caught in the camera's attached light. The new transfer is also superior in highlighting some of the art direction applied to the Parr house at the climax which once took rewatching to notice the hand prints and runes. Each encode is roughly fifteen gigabytes but both black and white film – and upscaled standard definition video – require less bitrate than color and part of the picture is taken up by solid black side mattes.  Although the festival cut runs only four minutes longer, the two versions are quite different in some respects with the theatrical cut featuring a few scenes that were shot after the Sundance showing – most notably actor Mark Mason elaborating on the Parr story told by Jim King – and the festival cut includes footage trimmed after the screening (presumably there was no reference material to reconstruct the two-and-a-half-hour test screening cut or some of the footage has gone missing).
Audio
Both cuts and all three versions of the film on the disc feature a stereo track in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. The film's theatrical prints featured Dolby Digital audio but not a surround track. The mix was always front-oriented, with much of the audio recorded from the Hi-8 camera's stereo microphone, requiring the digital separation of ambient sound from voices to the best of the filmmakers' abilities. There were instances of ADR, added sound effects – to replace or enhance the sounds blasted out of boom boxes on location to be picked up on the camera microphone from the position of the actors – while scoring is restricted to the credits and the one instance of diegetic music on a car radio had to be replaced along with the dialogue in the scene as a result due to licensing issues (nevertheless, there was a compilation soundtrack CD featuring songs that did not actually appear in the film purporting to be Josh's playlist). Despite, or because of, the limitations of the location recording, the mix is actually quite creative and complex, transforming and enhancing the production audio with many alterations throughout the test screenings and festival play, and it would be great to play amplified if not for the piercing screams that punctuate the climax. Sounds that stray into the surrounds are more a result of "magic surround" as the decoder encounters sounds whose wave forms would usually cancel each other out on a straight stereo decoding. Optional English HoH subtitles are included for all versions.
Extras
Extras start off with a new audio commentary by film historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson which can be played over both the newly-restored theatrical cut and the 35mm transfer. Heller-Nicholas, who has discussed the film in her books Found Footage Horror Films: Fear and the Appearance of Reality and The Cinema Coven: Witches, Witchcraft and Women's Filmmaking discusses the literature written over the years about the film, and how the strain of it that relegates the film itself to a cultural artifact only understandable by way of its "satellite texts" (the mockumentary and the promotional website) and its media-saturating marketing strategy have contributed to the derision and repression of the film as an artistic creation – combined with the accusation that it overshadowed festival darling The Last Broadcast – and the idea that the filmmakers just "got lucky." Nelson discusses the film's reception in Australia where it was released after the "is it real?" hype had been debunked, and how that knowledge allowed audiences to engage in the "game" of reality in terms of how well the film represents the viewer's idea of "if it were real, this is what it would look like." They also discuss how the film embodies turn-of-the-century anxieties and pessimism, reading the film as mournful for more than just the characters, as well as addressing Artisan's treatment of the cast when the film hit the one-hundred-million dollar box office mark, noting that Donahue has changed her name to distance herself from the production – we use her old name in keeping with her own statement that the person in the film and who did the film was a different person from herself today – as well as the effect of using their real names for verisimilitude (Leonard and Williams were just "Josh" and "Mike" in the film but Donahue was "Heather Donahue"). Also included on both theatrical cuts is the 1999 audio commentary by writers and directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez and producers Rob Cowie, Greg Hale and Mike Manello who claim that the track will not be serious or insightful. They get started with a lot of jokes but get into a rhythm that conveys behind the scenes information while humorously recalling the pitfalls of the shoot. The discussion conveys just how much the film really is constructed rather than just improvised and "captured" from the voice casting and ADR work – and the fact that they actually tried to get music clearances for a Monkees song that was playing on the radio and picked up by the camera microphone along with the dialogue instead of just getting the rights to some indie band song from the start – the amount of art direction done in found locations from the Parr house to the campsites, how the actors shot the film but cinematographer Neal Fredericks (Abominable) trained them in the use of his CP-16 camera (which he sold on eBay for $10,000 a week before the commentary track was recorded). They also discussed how the actors did not realize there were some plants among the people they interviewed in town while the real ones proved good at improvising stories and Patricia DeCou really was a local eccentric (no art direction was required for her house) who really believed the thing she said in the film and got involved in the production as the only applicant for an intern position at the local community college where she was enrolled. They also discuss the strengths of each lead's performances, noting that Donahue's "Ahab-like" performance – the pretentiousness of her hosting voice was a deliberate choice – how they had to step in to direct their improv at points when Donahue went over the top early on in a way that might endanger their collaboration in real life and the degree of editing manipulation since it was really Leonard not Williams who antagonized Donahue – directing via GPS coordinates with the actors left to film in between, leaving them each separate prompts to play their characters against one another, and their means of scaring the actors at night outside the camp (where they developed code words for when they were making noise setting things up versus making the noises to disturb the cast).  The bulk of the extras are on the second disc starting with the mammoth "The Blair Witch Documentary" (150:20) featuring the contributions of Myrick, Sánchez, production designer Ben Rock, and producers Gregg Hale (Lovely Molly) and Michael Monello (Altered) illustrated not only with clips from the film but clips from all of the footage shot by the actors – including moments where they break the real fourth wall in frustration with the crew who would not see this material until reviewing the tapes much later – and behind the scenes video shot by the filmmakers of their side of the shoot. Myrick and Sánchez discuss their shared love of the In Search of... series which lead to the initial conception of the film as a seventies period piece, with the footage framed by interviews with relatives and experts along with analysis of the footage; indeed, this plan was intended throughout the production to the point where the found footage shoot was considered "phase one." The co-directors discuss coming up with the concept, Hale and Monello getting involved, and the proof of concept trailer that failed to secure investor money but drummed up interest when John Pierson ran it as part of the Brvao TV shot Split Screen and an episode on the Florida Film Festival. Pierson provided some money and later suggested they build a website since Bravo constantly re-running the episode lead to the show's message board blowing up. They also discuss the auditions and the casting, scouting locations and discovering Burkittsville , and both their need to add actor plants among the townspeople as well as their surprise at what they got from some of the real interviewees. The coverage of the shoot in the woods includes Hales comments on his military training and deciding to leave the actors to find each way point via GPS while Myrick and Sánchez cover how they prompted the actors separately, creating conflict but also not anticipating the degree of conflict between Donahue and Leonard. They all recall trying to find the edit and deciding to drop what they had of the "phase two" framing element before Sundance, having to sell a chunk of the back end of the film to pay for the 35mm transfer for Sundance (who after speaking to them removed the film-only role as they did not realize it was adversely effecting filmmakers' access to the festival). Rock discusses not only his art direction of the production but also his surprise that his stick figure became the iconic promotional image when they had to make posters for Sundance. Before Artisan made their $1.1 million deal, Dimension was interested but the filmmakers were wary of the Weinsteins' practice of buying films and putting them in the vault. They also recall the aftermath of Artisan's deal, the release and worldwide promotion, and more importantly Artisan pushing for a sequel with a set release date less than a year away, their decision not to be directly involved, and the ideas Artisan turned down and the ones Artisan proposed that they felt subverted the world they had built in the film and they felt would not sit well with the fans who had a voice on the message boards (although they are diplomatic about the position the film's director Joe Berlinger was in even before the film was taken away from him by the studio).  While the Artisan DVD and Blu-ray offered five minutes of "discovered footage" and the mockumentary included some additional scenes, Second Sight's Blu-ray features a wealth of deleted scenes (91:44) which are shown largely in sequence, creating a sort of parallel viewing experience with the film with additional footage introducing the three main characters and some of the tension noted as cropping up early between Heather and Josh, some more scenes in two including other townspeople making mention of "Crazy Mary" before they meet her, a lot of arguments over where they are going once they get lost in the woods, as well as some touching emotional bits in the latter half that were wisely deleted for pacing and tension but nevertheless interesting. In addition to the theatrical cut's Heather confessional, we get one from Mike as he resolves to rush whatever is terrorizing them the next time it comes around, Mike comforting a guilt-ridden Heather after Josh's disappearance, and her telling him about the grisly twig discovery (along with some others she encounters). This section ends with two displaced sequences; however, there is a sort of an Easter Egg in that, rather than finding a menu icon, letting the deleted scenes run to the end or hitting "next" on the remote thinking it will go back to the menu actually reveals some 16mm B-roll (16:08) that includes a lot of candid shots of the actors, shots of Burkittsville to be used in the establishing montage, as well as showing the face of Heather's roommate as captured by Josh operating the camera (whereas the opening scene is from the roommate's POV operating the video camera). Ported from the Artisan DVD and Lionsgate Blu-ray are the alternate endings (8:01) – and it would have been nice for some optional commentary even though the filmmakers discuss finding the ending in the documentary – as well as the full "Curse of the Blair Witch" (43:53) 1999 TV mockumentary. Interviewing teachers, classmates, friends, relatives, authorities, members of the search party, and other academics and historians in the aftermath of the disappearance, this is no puff piece but a concise-yet-remarkable bit of world-building giving more background on the fictional town of Blair and the horrific events, the town's abandonment and written testimony of travelers who passed through it, its development into the current town and the history of mishaps blamed on the witch including the Parr case concluding with the discovery of the film cannisters and the video tapes (unfortunately, Second Sight was not able to include the other documentary Sticks and Stones: An Exploration of the Blair Witch Legend directed by Myrick and Sánchez which was a Blockbuster Video-exclusive rental tape and presumably still owned by Dish Network who bought Blockbuster out of bankruptcy). The disc also includes the Cannes 1999: Archive Directors' Interview (10:51) – in which Myrick and Sánchez discuss the ways buzz was built up about the film through the website and fandom over French McDonald's – as well as the familiar three trailers (2:35) for the film. 
Packaging
The limited edition comes in a rigid slipcase with new artwork by Timothy Pittides, a 184-page hardback book with archive production materials and new essays by Stacey Abbott, Becky Darke, Adam Hart, Craig Ian Mann, Mary Beth McAndrews, Dr. Cecilia Sayad, Pete Turner and Heather Wixson, "Heather's Journal", and three collectors' art cards (not provided for review).
Overall
Spawning "found footage horror" as an indie genre, The Blair Witch Project went from cultural phenomena to fashionably uncool and is now back for reassessment.
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