I know found footage can be a contentious subject, but I really do recommend this obscure little gem from 1989.
Originally titled “UFO Abduction,” this movie predates The Blair Witch Project and contains all the hallmarks of found footage horror, albeit a lot cheaper (even compared to BWP) and filtered through VHS quality grime.
I first saw this last year (I picked up the AGFA/Bleeding Skull blu-ray) and it’s quickly become a personal favourite. I just wanted to y’all to know that this movie is now more widely available than before (it was originally thought to be lost in a warehouse fire, but resurfaced through the ufology community in the 90s, the whole story is worth researching).
It is, however, far from perfect: a lot of first time directing mistakes, lots of yelling and shaky-cam, sometimes nothing happens for periods of time, and the director, though trying to act alongside his actors, is clearly directing them. But for something this ambitious with virtually no budget, I find it ultimately impressive.
So yeah! I recommend! Go watch on Shudder!
Edit: this movie was remade by the same director as a made-for-TV film called “Alien Abduction: Incident at Lake County.” Weirdly enough, it’s origin of why this is called The McPherson Tape, as the terrorized family in the remake were the McPhersons; the original film has the Van Hesse family.
despite being a fan of both horror and indie films, i'd never seen the blair witch project until last night. while i enjoyed the film, i couldn't help but feel as i watched that, for the most part (until the very end at least), it was essentially just three paranoid college kids getting lost in some spooky woods.
that is, until i read the trivia.
i read the trivia on imdb for literally every film or show i watch, but i have never had as much fun reading a film's trivia as i did reading blair witch's. some film sets are said to be cursed - poltergeist comes to mind - but i swear the production of blair witch was somehow blessed. every mistake that happened on set (that has been reported on imdb), everything that went wrong ended up being for the best. here are some examples:
- the close up scene of heather crying at night and speaking to the camera was supposed to show her full face, but the actress didn't realize the camera was zoomed in. that scene is now one of the most iconic from the film and a shot from it ended up being used on many of the theatrical posters.
- we were supposed to see the blair witch herself (or, by one account, a crewmember in a ski mask) during the scene where they're running through the woods. when heather starts screaming "what the f*ck is that???", the cameraman was supposed to turn the camera to show the figure, but he forgot. the fact that you never actually see any "bad guys" in the film, yet it's still an effective horror movie, is one of the reasons blair witch is so iconic.
- originally michael was going to be the one to leave the group instead of josh, but josh and heather's actors argued so often and so heatedly that the filmmakers decided to pull him out instead. (eta: josh was actually very happy about leaving filming as there was a jane’s addiction concert he wanted to go to.) by keeping michael, whom the filmmakers had intended to be the main antagonist of the film, with heather, they were able to more convincingly raise the tension between the two remaining characters in the final act of the film.
- that final shot of michael facing the wall was only filmed at first because the film's budget ran out. the filmmakers had had many ideas about how they wanted to end the film, such as showing michael hanging from a noose or crucified on the wall, but had to settle with the shot we know today. when it was shown to test audiences, the audiences were terrified but confused, so the studio gave them more money t
I watched it the other day and it was pretty good.
This is my 4th time trying to watch it and I have to turn it off cause it just makes me so dizzy cause of how it’s filmed lol, does this happen to anyone else ??
I don't often watch horror movies, but I just recently watched the Blair Witch project and hooo boy, was it great.
What are some other horror movies I can try out that rely more on atmosphere and less on jump scares to terrify the watcher? Only movies on netflix, hulu, or amazon prime, please, as that's all I have.
Did anyone find this movie a bit disappointing? I’m not a fan of found footage movies in the first place and during the first 40 minutes of this movie my point still standed. After the 40 minute mark it started to get interesting with Josh going missing and the famous scene of Heather talking to the camera. I was watching with my friend and we both had the same opinion throughout the movie. We bought thought it was getting good after the 40 minute mark and then the scene where they find the house starts and then the credits roll. We checked the time and couldn’t believe it was over. I genuinely thought it would be a great movie but we were both left disappointed
This might sound dumb..... but yeah, never seen Blair Witch. I've heard so many mixed reviews all these years. Is it really worth it? I love found footage type films, but this just always looked silly, to me.
Are there any found audio podcasts without narration(comprising only of the ‘original’ found audio)?
I've watched in my life probably millions of horror movies but really I don't know why this movie is like a bullet direct in my brain and during this scene my imagination it's so vivid, so real. Since the first time I watched it I don't know why when people describe the witch hairy and flying i can see it like in a dream for some moments. I asked the same question to my friends, relatives who watched the movie and they saen the witch in my same way in front of their eyes. That's crazy, I'm not joking, did you had the same experience?!?
I'm not saying that it was a bad movie, infact it's one of my favorite movies. But it wasn't scary at all, and I think it's because of the winter season in the movie. The movie attempts to show a horror of three friends being lost in a forest and getting killed by a witch, that might be scary for the characters, but not for the audience. Winter feels cozy and relaxing where everything seems to slow down, some species even go into hibernation. And the leafless dead trees do not create that fear of forest and being lost that a dense dark forest full of life does. The remake did it better by setting the movie in summer.
I’m out for my daily walk. I travel to parks far outside my territory so I don’t run into any dubs. I see an Uber dub couple coming toward me. I’ve ghosted the wife about 5 times. I do a graceful ballet style 180 put up my furry hood and walk up an icy side trail risking life and limb to get away from them. The trail is a massive loop so I figured if I just follow them 5 mins later I will be in the clear.
Nope a mile later they’ve turned around and are coming at me again. Ballet twirl. Shit they are walking fast. I take out my phone and start voice recording to my POMO friend in Ohio.
The cult members won’t go away.
They are in the forest....
They are after me.
Oh god.
I’m out of breath.
If this is my last message please tell my family I love them and tell my kids not to get baptized.
I walk around a corner. I hide behind some bushes and stay quiet.
Will they see me.
Oh god I’m so scared.
Oh shit, they are so close I can hear them talking about cult stuff.
Won’t it ever end.... I whimper quietly in the bushes grieving the loss of my quiet time away from the Borg.
They are everywhere!
Swarming around in my happy places and making me think I’m going insane.
I stealthily make my way up the trail.
Is that them coming toward me again?
My eyes are playing tricks on me. My breath is shallow and my pulse is racing.
I lock myself in the car and weep. They didn’t get me. But there will always be a next time.
Happy Monday y’all!!
**some creative liberties were taken in the storytelling. (Especially the crying part)
For context I’m a PIMO with PIMQ elder husband.
I finally admitted this when I watched the Japanese film Noroi, which is a documentary-style horror film done RIGHT. So there, I’ve said it: The Blair Witch Project is boring.
So what if people thought it was real back in the day? Clever marketing doesn’t make for an actual good movie. Who cares if the kids were really stuck in the woods while filming? Immersive filming doesn’t equal an immersive film.
Kids wandering in the woods with the occasional stick figure in the trees is boring. Oooooh, a guy is standing in the corner while some girl drops a camera. Yaaaawn. I’ll go keep watching J-horror now.
Hi all, I'm looking for some good stuff to get into the Halloween spirit. I realize the two movies I mentioned in the title are vastly different from each other, but they share something in common in that don't try to gross out their audience. This is exactly what I'm looking for because I want to be scared not lose my lunch.
Blood is totally fine, some gore is fine too but not too much. Just nothing like insects and other things crawling all over a body gross or flesh rotting zombie gross. Also no torture movies like SAW.
I've seen all of the Halloween franchise movies, and the early Friday the 13th movies. I mentioned Halloween and Blair Witch specifically because I think those 2 do great jobs of actually scaring the audience instead using cheap jump scares.
Thanks all :).
The movie sucks. Its boring. Nothing happens. The movie ends like every shitty found footage movie ends. And its not as revolutionary as people make it look. It was not the first movie to experiment with found footage. Cannibal holocaust did it 10 years prior. The way it was marketed is fascinating but again cannibal holocaust also did it a fucking decade before them and did it better!!! People make it look like this movie did something that was never done before. But thats a lie. This movie is honestly not worth a watch in my opinion. Yeah it made horror movie history i guess But its horror movie history you can easily skip and you missed literally nothing.
