THE `BLAIR' KVETCH PROJECT; DETRACTORS OF `WITCH' COMPLAIN INDEPENDENT FILM IS OVERHYPED.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer Nearly two months ago, ``Blair Witch Project'' co-directors Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick were finishing an interview with a reporter. When asked if there was anything else they'd like to add, Sanchez replied, ``Yeah. Don't hype the movie too much. Just tell people it's a good little film and leave it at that.'' Too late. With hundreds of appreciative articles and reviews and simultaneous covers this week on Time and Newsweek, ``The Blair Witch Project'' has gone from independent darling to full-blown cultural phenomenon. Television shows (``Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place'' was the first) are spoofing (1) Faking the sending address of a transmission in order to gain illegal entry into a secure system. See e-mail spoofing. (2) Creating fake responses or signals in order to keep a session active and prevent timeouts. the movie in promos, Web sites are buzzing with discussions (and sales items!) and the film's tiny setting, Burkittsville, Md. (pop. 214), has become the nation's most unlikely tourist mecca. But the hype seems to have come with a price. A considerable number of people out and out hate the movie, with many moviegoers feeling they've been sold a poorly lit, shakily filmed bill of goods bill of goods n. pl. bills of goods 1. A consignment of items for sale. 2. Informal A plan, promise, or offer, especially one that is dishonest or misleading: "The salesman himself . . ``I'd put it right up there with Hitler's diaries,'' says Jay Johnson Jay Johnson can refer to:
Says Ed Mintz, president of the exit-polling firm Cinemascore: ``People's expectations for this movie went totally awry. Many just plain despised it. The 35-and-older audience gave it an F, and we don't see that too much. (For ``Blair Witch,'' Cinemascore polled 619 moviegoers in three cities The Three Cities is a collective description of the three fortified cities of Cospicua, Vittoriosa, and Senglea on the Island of Malta, which are enclosed by the massive line of fortification created by the Knights of St John, the Cottonera Lines. .) It's like they couldn't wait to voice their anger.'' The independent film, fast approaching a $100 million take at the box office, follows three student filmmakers shooting a documentary about a local legend, the Blair Witch. The three disappear. What we see is their epitaph epitaph, strictly, an inscription on a tomb; by extension, a statement, usually in verse, commemorating the dead. The earliest such inscriptions are those found on Egyptian sarcophagi. , film footage found buried beneath an abandoned house a year after they vanished. None of this actually happened, by the way, although many people who see the movie leave convinced that it's the real thing. ``We still get calls to our office with people offering to help find the three students,'' says ``Blair Witch'' producer Greg Hale. The movie's mock documentary format isn't the issue with ``Blair'' bashers. After all, if the events in the movie had actually taken place, ``The Blair Witch Project'' would approximate a snuff film snuff film n. Slang A movie in a purported genre of explicit pornography culminating in the actual violent death of a participant in a sex act. . Most of the anger comes from people who dislike the movie's amateurish, naturalistic look or come away feeling it didn't properly scare them. A select few - those given to motion sickness motion sickness, waves of nausea and vomiting experienced by some people, resulting from the sudden changes in movement of a vehicle. The ailment is also known as seasickness, car sickness, train sickness, airsickness, and swing sickness. - find the film's herky-jerky camera movements to be a stomach-turning problem. ``We've had a few people throw up, but no big deal,'' says Victor Marquez, assistant manager of Pacific's Winnetka All-Stadium 21 multiplex See multiplexing. . ``Headaches have been more of a complaint.'' But it's intellectual, not physical, disagreements that comprise most of the ``Blair'' backlash. The Internet has served as the main forum for seething seethe intr.v. seethed, seeth·ing, seethes 1. To churn and foam as if boiling. 2. a. To be in a state of turmoil or ferment: emotions, a bit ironic given that the film's grass-roots success is partially owed to the hard-core Net surfers who discovered ``Blair Witch'' a year before it opened. The Internet honeymoon is over, though, with parody Web sites like ``The Blair Bitch Project'' popping up and chat rooms full of dissenters dissenters: see nonconformists. venting their spleens. ``Since fans of `Blair Witch' were responsible for most of the hype going into the opening of the film, they built a monster that could not live up to most people's expectations,'' says Jeff Johnsen, 33, who launched the movie's first fan site last December. ``What gets me, though, is the rabid dislike some people have toward the film. They still frequent the fan sites, trying to exact some kind of revenge for having their $7 stolen from them. They just won't let it go.'' The movie's core group of supporters are college-aged moviegoers weaned wean tr.v. weaned, wean·ing, weans 1. To accustom (the young of a mammal) to take nourishment other than by suckling. 2. on reality shows like ``Cops'' and MTV's ``The Real World.'' For them, the film's handheld aesthetic feels like art. The movie's extensive Web site (80 million hits and counting) adds to the blurring of fact and fiction with fake newspaper clippings about the three filmmakers, fictional diary entries and mythical lore about the Blair Witch. ``It's low-tech - and that's its strength,'' says media analyst Jon Katz This article is about the technology and dog writer. For the queer studies professor, see Jonathan D. Katz. For the actor, see Jonathan Katz. For the historian, see Jonathan Ned Katz. Jonathan Katz (born 1947) is a U.S. journalist and author. . ``Kids found it themselves on the Web. In fact, it's almost as if kids designed it and made it apart from grown-up grown-up adj. 1. Of, characteristic of, or intended for adults: grown-up movies; a grown-up discussion. 2. money and hype.'' ``In some ways, it's the first Internet movie,'' adds Bill Block, a partner at the film's distributor, Artisan Entertainment. Older audiences (and, in this case, age 35 is considered over-the-hill) often find little to admire in either the film's look or execution. ``You can't even see what you're supposed to be afraid of because the lighting is so bad and the camera is moving all over the place,'' complains Lydia Hurst, 39, of Studio City. ``Everybody keeps saying how terrifying ter·ri·fy tr.v. ter·ri·fied, ter·ri·fy·ing, ter·ri·fies 1. To fill with terror; make deeply afraid. See Synonyms at frighten. 2. To menace or threaten; intimidate. it is. Nauseating, yes. Terrifying, no.'' Harry Clein, whose public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most firm, Clein + Walker, handles ``Blair Witch,'' has a message for such naysayers: Give the movie a day or two. Or a night or two. Then see how you feel. ``This is a delayed-reaction movie,'' Clein says. ``I've met a lot of people who said it initially didn't affect them and then, two nights later, they can't sleep.'' Of course, it doesn't always work that way. ``Sure, there's no small number of people who hate it,'' Clein says. ``But that kind of passionate response means you have not only a good movie, but something that's really tapped into the culture. With a movie, the worst thing you can have is indifference.'' ``Besides,'' Clein adds, ``with `Blair Witch' nearing $100 million, somebody out there must like it.'' Look for the sequel next summer. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1) The camerawork in ``The Blair Witch Project,'' with Heather Donahue, is a sore spot for some viewers, especially those who say it gave them motion sickness. (2) Eduardo Sanchez, left, and Dan Myrick, envisioned the backlash against their much talked about film. |
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