the last bit of the movie in the house was terrifying, i thought.

Harry Freakstorm: I got tossed from the theater for yelling "For cripes sake! Just follow the freaking creek, morans." The scene where they kept coming back to the same place obviously ticked me off a bit.

You totally missed all the indications that they weren't in their original time period, huh? They could have followed the creek, and they'd still be lost, because they weren't where they thought they were in time, and the landscape was different.

One indicator was that authorities searched the forest- using helicopters, spotlights, flashlights, and dogs- and the trio never heard, saw, or had any indication that there were search parties there with them. They never saw or heard the helicopters, cops, or dogs. There was never even a plane overhead, or the sound of the highway, or litter from modern hikers.

They were not in their original time. They were in the past. By the time the tapes were found, they were long-dead... many decades, at least. There's good reason to believe they were jumping through time, from the 1990s to the late 1700s (Elly Kedward's time) to the 1940s (Rustin Parr's time), where they were finally murdered by the possessed Parr in his cellar.

"Follow the creek" does not work if you're being moved through space and time without knowing it's happening. If it were just about getting lost in the forest in 1999, then they'd have hit the back roads, highway, or seen a helicopter searching for them in that same patch of woods.

I was in fourth grade and my last name was "Blair"

/I shiat you not.
//Got teased all year for it
///Still give the movie two thumbs up. Still makes me feel creepy.

pureobscure: That was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. I think people need to go camping to realize how freaky it would be to hear noises at night when you're so isolated in the middle of nowhere.

Yes. That's another element. I think a lot of city people have no idea how intimidating it is to be lost in the woods-- Especially when you've followed what you believe to be the right path-- while being hounded by someone with very bad intentions.

Just in case this hasn't been said yet.

Where was I?

I was on top of Subby's mom in an alleyway.

I just thought it was interesting how both are black and white documentaries.. In old run down building, shaky camera work.. One group killed by demon? the other a rival gang.. both movies the camera is dropped, landing off level yet still filming, as the last person is killed, Although I liked how the guy running away is killed in camera shot in Man Bites Dog a little better..

The NUT in MBD is one scary guy the way they film him casually killing and disposing of bodies..chilling...

brap: Gee whiz, I love the occasional loquacious outburst as much as the next guy but that load of flotsam doesn't deserve that level or oratory.

- Keats Ode To A Greasin' Turd

I am going to have to find a way to work that into a conversation.

Made my mother believe it was a real documentary. She spoiled the whole movie by freaking out big time. Yeah, she's a bit naive.

I have to add myself to the list of people in this thread that don't find any horror movies scary. My reasoning is that the events are totally detached from you, and the only way to find them scary is to project yourself into the people onscreen. The movies I do find scary are ones that pertain to my own life, which these days consists almost exclusively of global warming documentaries.

I can't believe there are 366 posts on this thread and only ONE reference to the awesome Cartoon Network's The Scooby Doo Project.

Squidgilum: elchip: It's hip to hate it, but at the time it was widely loved.

I've never seen it. (I rarely go to horror films.) But "hip hate" is one of my pet peeves. The way people pile on when it looks like public sentiment is turning.

THIS. Just try starting a Lord of the Rings movie thread to see this effect in action.

I still suspect a lot of the hate began with the lack of a big big scary CGI monster popping up at the end. Move drones have kinda come to expect it.

The Alan Parsons Project was scarier.

ta2mama: I can't believe there are 366 posts on this thread and only ONE reference to the awesome Cartoon Network's The Scooby Doo Project.


there was. ctrl-F

It was an entertaining movie at the time.
Not scary, no.
Had to endure stupid people who thought it was real.

uatuba: Umm...the movie was fictional, dude.

Umm... the whole "umm..." thing is really douchey.

If you really want to fark up your movie watching experience, watch one with someone who has no imagination at all. I watched this one with dad one time and he complained through the entire thing.

This was coming from a guy who didn't really mind watching old westerns and accepted that it was supposed to be nighttime because of the soundtrack. Even though you can see daytime shadows everywhere. And the sky is blatantly still blue.

Still, he brought all us kids to watch The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly at a drive in WAY back when and that's been my favourite movie since forever. But his appreciation of horror movies leaves a lot to be desired.

I still get a lot of crap for telling people that Grudge and Ring freak me out though, it's met with resounding "but it's so dumb!" comments. I don't care, to me scary is scary and who the fark cares what you think?

I know, once in a while little bits of The Mothman Prophecies will creep into my head. I'll be brushing my teeth and I won't be able to look at the drain or I'll make damn sure not to look in the mirror when I'm leaving the washroom. That call from the guy who's found in his backyard affected me.

God damn, having an imagination is fun.

Soup4Bonnie: I get the oddest looks when I tell people I have never seen this movie or when I tell them that I think Blazing Saddles is juvenile and dumb.

Blazing Saddles WAS juvenile and dumb. You, sir, have missed the point like a greenpeace protester handing out bleached pamphlets while wearing a fur coat.

Where was I on when Blair Witch was released? Getting laid twice a day and fixing crappy car advertisements while laughing my ass off that someone finally proved you could keep stupid people in suspense. These same people were used to elect a president last year, numborons.

maxthepolarbear: I have to add myself to the list of people in this thread that don't find any horror movies scary.

it's a fine line. of course everyone knows they're all fabricated, but one has to decide a priori if one wants to play along.. it's that "willing suspension of disbelief" thing....

but i've learned that quite often it's not a conscious decision unfortunately...

some movies make it *really* hard to suspend disbelief... some are close enough that in the right circumstances (the mood you were in the night you saw it, and/or the place you saw it, and/or with whom, etc etc) then disbelief is easily suspended and the movie works. but that depends a lot (i think) on all those day-to-day factors....

i've re-watched movies that i saw years earlier (which i thought at the time were e.g. boring) and after re-watching them i realized that a great deal of my previous opinion had nothing to do with the movie itself, but other factors local to me at that time and place....

that's pretty much why i don't worry so much about critics or reviews etc....
it takes two to tango - the movie and me.

cheers

ScottHimself: I will not be watching this movie, but am curious why the last scene was so 'good'. I just watched it without sound (at work) and obviously didn't understand what was going on.

Can someone explain why seeing your friend in a corner and then dropping the camera (or dying whatever the case may be) is not the most anti-climactic ending ever?

Because no one puts Baby in a corner.

ZeroCorpse: You totally missed all the indications that they weren't in their original time period, huh? They could have followed the creek, and they'd still be lost, because they weren't where they thought they were in time, and the landscape was different.

One indicator was that authorities searched the forest- using helicopters, spotlights, flashlights, and dogs- and the trio never heard, saw, or had any indication that there were search parties there with them. They never saw or heard the helicopters, cops, or dogs. There was never even a plane overhead, or the sound of the highway, or litter from modern hikers.

They were not in their original time. They were in the past. By the time the tapes were found, they were long-dead... many decades, at least. There's good reason to believe they were jumping through time, from the 1990s to the late 1700s (Elly Kedward's time) to the 1940s (Rustin Parr's time), where they were finally murdered by the possessed Parr in his cellar.

"Follow the creek" does not work if you're being moved through space and time without knowing it's happening. If it were just about getting lost in the forest in 1999, then they'd have hit the back roads, highway, or seen a helicopter searching for them in that same patch of woods.

Must have hurt pulling all of that out of your ass.

Lord Snoopy's G.P.E.H.: The Alan Parsons Project was scarier.



/Agrees.
//I'm sure Operation Bananarama was terrifying.

I was 12 or 13 depending on the time of year when it was released, so starting middle school thereabouts.

/I feel old now.
//At Anime Evolution in June, there was a 10 year anniversary commemoration panel of the show Cybersix. That didn't help either.

pureobscure: That was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. I think people need to go camping to realize how freaky it would be to hear noises at night when you're so isolated in the middle of nowhere.

If you thought the movie was boring and that nothing was happening, it's because you watched it passively, just sitting back waiting to be entertained. You can do that with big budget horror movies because the big scary monster is right in front of you.

But to get the full effect of this movie you had to watch it actively, and imagine yourself in their situation, listening to whatever was going bump in the night. You had to imagine that this is "real life" and that the slightest rusting of you don't know what in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night is enough to put most people on edge. If you don't imagine yourself there with them, going through what they're going through, then the movie won't work.

A few months later I took a drive from NJ to DC, and took the scenic route, stopping in, among other places, Burkittsville. It's a tiny town, with one main street perhaps 300 yards long. It's at the edge of a big state forest or state park, and if they were going to play up the haunted factor I'm surprised they didn't mention the fact that the epicenter of the bloodiest day in U.S. history was right around the corner (the Antietam battlefield). I tried to take a picture of the "Welcome to Burkittsville" sign but it was soon enough after the movie that people were stealing the sign and the townspeople gave up replacing it. I did stop in the cemetery and the only headstone I saw that I remembered seeing in the movie belonged to the Arnold family.

That was the only movie I've ever walked out of. What an utter POS

jimpoz: But to get the full effect of this movie you had to watch it actively,

I think that's probably a better way of saying what I was trying to to say a few posts ago....

neat picture...

I almost walked out of that movie.
/meh. I'm lazy...

One of two movies I walked out of. farking unwatchable crap. The girl was unbelievably annoying and it was obviously fake.

ScottHimself:
Where can I find [Rec.]

On (official, not bootleg) region 1 video next Tuesday.

Not a bad movie, but like most hits, its worst legacy was the legion of imitations it spawned.

Of these, the best is THE HUNT. Really creepy once it gets going.

I was in the theater thinking that Heather Donahue had nice boobies and if I got her a little drunk I bet I could bang her.

Starting what I thought was going to be the beginning of my lifelong career.

/Too bad I got laid off 9 years and 9 months before I made it to 10 years.
//Very, very bitter.

the movie lost me when the local yokal was fishing upstream with a spoon lure

/Someone had to do it.

I was still in elementary school when it came out...always thought it was older than that, huh.

/still hasn't seen it.
//doesn't really care.

FigPucker: Starting what I thought was going to be the beginning of my lifelong career.

/Too bad I got laid off 9 years and 9 months before I made it to 10 years.
//Very, very bitter.

*ugg*

I meant to imply that I got laid off 3 months shy of 10 years.

/eyes half empty beer suspiciously

Interestingly enough, I watched this movie just yesterday for the first time.

I don't understand how anyone could think it was scary at all. It was a great idea but 99% of the film was the characters chit chatting and bickering about getting lost. Since I was watching it on my computer I made a mental note of the timeline bar thing whenever something creepy or scary happened and...there wasn't much. They found some rocks, they found some more rocks, some hanging sticks, a bit of action in the night, and the house at the end. The end! And it wasn't even like they were discussing unusual or strange things the rest of the time to build up suspense, either.

Had to sleep with the lights on for a couple of days after that one. Haven't been scared by a movie like that before or since, so I'd say it was pretty good. Those that thought it sucked apparently have no imagination. :P

pureobscure: That was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. I think people need to go camping to realize how freaky it would be to hear noises at night when you're so isolated in the middle of nowhere.

hell yeah. even though it was a production, and she knew it, she was still freaked out and exhibited true alarm during the manufactured situations...just went with it type of thing. genius, really.

KAVORKA: One of two movies I walked out of. farking unwatchable crap. The girl was unbelievably annoying and it was obviously fake.

I remember applauding when the witch finally made her shut the hell up.

I was in high school, fingerbanging maladjusted college girls in the back of my Falcon.

Awhile back they said they were going to tear down the condemned house used in BWP.

Some people to save it, and tried to get it listed as a historic building. The commission said no, being in a movie did not alone make it historic and it didn't really have anything else remarkable about it.

My brother rented it to watch with his friends. Everyone thought it was a pretty dumb movie.

1999 was a pretty good time whether you like Blair Witch or not. I seem to remember that I saw Blair Witch a few weeks after The Matrix and was thinking... movies are awesome. :)

Yes, it was over-hyped - but if you just connect with the characters, forget it's fake and let yourself imagine it's happening - the last few minutes scared the crap out of you.

Indie theater, San Luis Obispo. Theater worker had a tray of mints on the way out.

I took two.

Last 5 minutes actually frightened me.

/should've started the movie from there.

Well, it appears to be one of the most polarizing movies (horror or no) that I've ever read about. One day I just might have to sit down and view it.

Was "otherwise engaged" during its theatrical run.

[rec.] terrified me.

As did "End of the Line" [2006]

ceredonia: Thought it sucked, but I saw "Last Broadcast" which was the original BWP, and it was actually good.

Came here to mention The Last Broadcast too. I met the filmmakers once and talked with them. Good guys.

Rev.K: For those of us with imaginations, The Blair Witch Project was a f*cking terrifying movie.

/scared f*cking sh*tless

THIS.

/hate scary movies
//this gave me nightmares

Xenomech: /Someone had to do it.

Well done!