Ten years ago “The Blair Witch Project” took everyone by surprise – and scared some half to death.
The folks behind the movie have yet to parlay the phenomenon into a thriving film career.
The movie’s co-directors (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez) not only squeezed shocks out of a no-budget, no FX concept, but they showed marketers new ways to leverage the web.
The film’s sequel – “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2″ – proved a disastrous idea, and we’re still waiting for a follow-up project worthy of “Witch’s” ingenious concept.
Myrick’s latest film, “The Objective,” starts out well but doesn’t wrangle so much as a fright. And Sanchez’s “Seventh Moon” barely made a ripple with the public.
It’s the lightning in a bottle effect, apparently. Sometimes a filmmaker will stumble upon something extraordinary, but following up such a feat can be darn near impossible.
UPDATE: Apparently, a sequel to “Blair Witch” is in the works.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Clearly, “The Blair Witch Project” was a one shot gimmick. The idea of making an faux-amateur documentary that allowed the audience a new avenue for the suspension of disbelief was brilliant, but could only work once. (I think, though, that “Cloverfield” did a good job of showing how it could be used again and again by acknowledging that the audience would not “fall for it” and used it as a style of filming rather than a gimmick.)
M. Night Shyamalan has a similar problem. He has made several good (even great) movies (and some stinkers) and though he clearly is not out to reproduce the gimmick in “The Sixth Sense”, he is not able to overcome the perception that each of his movies should play out the same way. It would have been better for Shyamalan if “The Sixth Sense” had come later in his body of work after he had established himself as a truly creative force.
Great points, Kbiel … and I don’t know if Shyamalan has any new tricks left to dazzle us with. The Happening was scary awful
Not meaning to derail this into a M. Night Shyamalan discussion, but I think the best move he’s made is deciding to take on a big-budget family summer blockbuster (an adaptation of the popular kids’ series “Avatar: The Last Airbender”) rather than continue with his “original” works. The problem is that he is now “the Twist guy.” By taking a few steps away and reproving his directing credentials, he might be able to reclaim his status as an A-list director. But this requires doing a few successful films outside of the “M. Night Shyamalan Film” genre.
Which is what the directors of “The Blair Witch Project” have failed to learn. They keep treading over the same old horror grounds without showing us anything new.
That’s Shyamalan’s problem exactly. I don’t think he is trying out new tricks with most of his movies, but people are expecting him to. It seems to me that Shyamalan just enjoys film making and story telling and he is looking for original ways of doing so (while worshiping at the altar of Hitchcock). Take “Signs” for example. There was no trick in “Signs” other than hiding a story of a return to faith under a veneer of suspense and science fiction. He had a fun moment or two composing scenes and using music to build tension and suspense with regard to the aliens, but it was clear that they were mostly background to support the main interplay between and growth of Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenixs’ characters.
On the other hand, “The Village” was an attempt to return to the well, I believe. It wasn’t horrible, but it lost its suspense less than half way through because we were all expecting a reveal and guessed at the nature of the beasts and the village. (Also, I found the stilted language grating and it kept me firmly outside of the movie.)
I personally think that “The Happening” could have worked, but Shyamalan revealed the cause way too early and spent too much time on it (as well as leaving some loose ends). Like “Signs”, the phenomenon should have been more background to the true story. Also, “Marky Mark” is not the same caliber of actor as Gibson, Phoenix, Jackson, Hurt or even Willis.
“I personally think that “The Happening” could have worked, but Shyamalan revealed the cause way too early and spent too much time on it (as well as leaving some loose ends).”
He also made the mistake of turning it into a “beat-you-over-the-head message movie” rather than summer entertainment. “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable” and “Signs” are all great, effective films. And you are absolutely correct that “Signs” has no real Shyamalan-twist (other than the goofy “water kills them” idea), which sets it apart from his other efforts.
I’m starting to suspect that the real talent behind The Blair Witch Project was the actors, not the producers. After all, the actors did all the filming and improvised all the dialogue. All the producers did was come up with the concept and set up the scenes. Without the actors doing all the heavy lifting, all they had was an interesting premise.
Good point, JimmyC, yet the actors have also struggled with follow up projects. The woman from the film is retired from acting, I believe. Just show you how hard the biz is …