The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez, 1999)
My second inspirational horror film I have chosen to take inspiration from, as said above, is The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez, 1999). Below I will describe the genre conventions within the film, but I won’t go into as much detail as the previous post as this film has certain moments I don’t want to spoil.
Synopsis
Three students, Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael ‘Mike’ Williams, venture out into Maryland forest to film a documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch and the mysterious incidents associated with the legend and the woods. However, as they go deeper into the forest to explore and film, they begin to get lost and lose their map, leading each one to descend into madness. As the film progresses, each character experiences weird and terrifying encounters with what is assumed to be the Blair Witch watching, following, tormenting and torturing them, leading them to become missing. Only their footage was left behind showing the disturbing events leading up to their disappearance.
Genre conventions and features within the film
The whole concept of the film is that there are three students with nothing particularly outlandish about them, nothing particularly special about them. They are just normal, everyday teenagers making a documentary about a local legend. The characters in the film, Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael ‘Mike’ Williams, are also named after the actors who played them (Heather Donahue played Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard played Joshua Leonard and Michael ‘Mike’ Williams played Michael ‘Mike’ Williams) and so make the situation feel incredibly real. This is because instead of having a barrier between what’s real and what’s not, as regards to the characters and the actors, the actors are essentially playing themselves instead of fictional characters. They are playing themselves, making the film seem more real and breaking the barrier between reality and fiction. This links in with the genre features for horror as having realistic characters make the scenes and situations feel more real, heightening discomfort. As well as this, the actors were told that they needed to go into a forest, they were given a two cameras and told to film some things. Each day, the directors would send them a brief for that they wanted filmed and the cast would film them and sort of improvise what they were to say. This then meant that sometimes they wouldn’t know what as going to happen and would wake up to random noises or things being thrown at the tent amongst many other horrible things.
The film begins with a title card explaining that “in the October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found”. This already connotes that something bad happened to them and so links in with the genre features associated with the horror genre.
We are then introduced to the three main characters through a very low quality camera, which makes the situation feel more authentic, and again reinforces its genre as horror films, especially with films like these, usually make its characters and locations more familiar to its audience to heighten discomfort. This is used throughout the whole of the film as every single shot, every scene, everything was filmed by the three main characters. Nothing was filmed by any crew member, it was all done by the three which adds to its authenticity as having everything done by the cast makes it seem more real. Having every shot slightly bumpy and not quite right makes the situation feel more relatable and real as if you film something yourself with what you can access, it won’t be smooth or crystal clear, it’ll be bumpy and low quality and whatnot. This adds to the genre features for the horror genre as the idea of familiarity is commonly used within horror films.
After the introduction to each character we then see the stories told by the locals of Burkittsville, formerly named Blair, about the legend of the Blair Witch. This includes the haunting tale of what happened in the 1940s about the disappearance of several children and their untimely, gruesome deaths. Having the tales from the locals make the film seem all that more haunting and authentic as it is supposed to be a documentary made by students.
One of the most haunting moments of the film is the discovery of the stick figures hanging in the trees around their tent. Heather, intrigued and scared about who put them there and why they are there, films it to include in her documentary. It is at this point where Josh and Mike both tell her to stop filming because it is truly disturbing, and adds to how authentic it is.
As the film progresses, we are introduced to the idea of the unknown as something has been watching and slowly tormenting the three students, leaving to their descent into madness. The idea of the unknown is a common genre feature for horror films as it plays on the audience’s minds as to what is doing all of these things to the three. However the unknown is assumed to be the Blair Witch and so also links in with another genre feature in horror films as witchcraft is a common factor for said films.
Throughout the entirety of the film, we are constantly shown the film through their experiences, their encounters and so we are left as oblivious to what is about to happen as they are. This makes the situation feel all the more real as we experience things as they do.
Since the film is filmed using everyday cameras and no professional equipment, the lighting is going to depend on the time of day and weather. This also means that the film is set in low lighting which conceals a lot and leaves an element of mystery to the film. This is also a common genre feature within horror films as high-key lighting exposes things and so won’t have the same effect as low lighting does with horror.
Towards the end of the film, the final location is an abandoned house in the middle of the forest. Not only is the forest a common genre feature for horror films as it has no walls or roof and so has many hiding places for things to hide in, but the abandoned house is a very common place for horror films. This is because they are usually associated with hauntings and ghosts and so having an abandoned house in a haunted forest where things have gone horribly wrong so far, is extremely scary. The ending scene to the film is set within the abandoned house and whilst I am not going to go into detail as it is a huge moment for the film, it is one of the most terrifying moments at all times. This is because it has very little lighting and so uses a night camera to capture the moments.
Key elements
One of the main key elements is the sound of the film. The film only uses diegetic sounds, there is no non-diegetic sounds at all and only relies on what actually purports to come from the world of the film. It not only focuses the audience’s attention on the conversations and what is actually happening, but also makes it feel even more real. By only having diegetic sounds, it makes the situation feel like it actually happened and it is real life, not fictional.
The film also uses long shots to create a sense of reality to the situation as life doesn’t have cuts to several things, it is a long continuous shot and so having the film use the same long shots make the situation feel all that more real.
How I will use it as my inspiration
I will use the use of the POV shots in my film as I want the unknown entity to be watching the characters like the witch is watching the characters. Whilst the POV shots in the film are from the three characters POV, I will use them from the unknown’s. I will also use the woods as my main setting as I want the feeling of you don’t actually know what’s around the corner, what’s lurking behind the trees. You never fully know what is in the forest because it is so vast. I will use the feeling that something is watching my main character as it again creates a sense of discomfort and uneasiness to the film. I will also use Heather Donahue as my main source of inspiration for Louise as regards to her clothing style as it’s not particularly outlandish, it’s just normal clothing.