Written by Nicole Pedersen
It has been ten years since a little movie called "The Blair Witch Project" landed on the cover of Time Magazine. I'm not sure how well the movie holds up after all this time, but I recall being scared out of my mind while I was in the theatre in 1999. I also recall, with a modicum of shame, that I was one of those people who bought the internet stories that the filmmakers planted (damn their specious authenticity!) as well as the book on "the case" that came a bit later. Basically, I was the one who made all of those spontaneous marketing ploys that sprang up in the wake of the film's surprise success possible and insanely lucrative. "Blair Witch" was a surprise hit – the kind of hit that could never be duplicated. So naturally, they had to go ahead and make a sequel. 2002's "Blair Witch: Book of Secrets" pretty well killed the magic for most fans – personally, it has taken me the past six years to forget that I willingly paid money to see it. But it has been ten years; perhaps America is ready for another walk in the woods with a shaky hand-held camera? Speaking to Rotten Tomatoes, Daniel Myrick ("Blair Witch" co-director along with Eduardo Sanchez) said that - surprise! The directors are interested in revisiting the film that almost made them famous: "Ed and I have a prequel idea and a couple of sequel ideas and we're in the process now of revisiting a prequel idea that we would like to do in the hopes we can get Lionsgate on board with the ten year anniversary raising awareness again… it seems like films that already have a brand and an established lineage like "Blair Witch" are the kind of films getting made, so we're hoping we can get it resurrected somehow." I don't know guys, I can see that you are paying close attention to the horror "reboots" like "Halloween", "Friday the Thirteenth" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" and that'sd you's like to get in on the reboot gravy train. But let's stop and think for a moment… what is the one thing that separated your film from any other no-budget horror movie? Give up? It was the element of disinformation and surprise. That's all gone now. Plus, no one digs the shaky-cam look anymore – well, maybe just Steven Soderbergh. But I'd still be willing to hear your thoughts for the proposed prequel/sequel, so lay them on me: "Some of the ideas we have are more traditional narrative ideas that play with the mythology we've created around "Blair Witch" and what we really don't want to do is betray that mythology. We don't want to come up with some gimmicky way to shoot a sequel that's reminiscent of the first film -- because shooting like that is a gimmick -- and for it to come across as contrived. That doesn't mean that there aren't other innovative ways to play with style and process, but I think Ed and I are most concerned with honoring the mythology." OK then, the nausea cam is out. And the words "mythology" and "traditional narrative" imply that the directors are thinking about a Blair Witch origin story here. Considering that the audience this film will target (especially if Lionsgate picks up distribution) are too young to remember the whole "Blair Witch" phenomenon, their plan could actually work.. It will inevitably disappoint me and my fellow Burkitsville devotees, but we are used to disappointment – that "Book of Shadows" truly sucked. Be sure to check the basement before you click here.