The Back of the Boy in the Basement

Another great movie that will celebrate its 10th anniversary in the autumn of 2009 is The Blair Witch Project. Dark Horizons recently published a blurb about the possibility of Artisan Home Entertainment releasing an "extra-special edition" DVD this year, and it may contain a lot more "lost" footage of Heather, Mike and Josh.

Of course, there's already a "special edition" DVD, which includes the amazingly deceitful "documentary" that was originally broadcast on Sci Fi Channel, "Curse of the Blair Witch."

IMHO, the very best way to recapture the full Blair Witch experience each year is by watching it in October, close to Halloween, late on a Sunday afternoon with all the windows open, allowing the crisp autumn air to fill the room and surround you. It's critical that your viewing environment be as similar as possible to the cold, deep-woods environment that led Heather, Mike and Josh to their "deaths."

Finally, turn off any artificial lighting and watch "Curse of the Blair Witch" first. Allow yourself to suspend disbelief so you can really buy into the background story. Then watch the film itself. Hopefully, you'll be in such a mind-set that the whole experience will scare the shit out of you all over again. This is the lasting legacy of The Blair Witch Project.

You see, this was how I originally experienced the whole thing. I caught the Sci Fi "mockumentary" on a Friday night, and — no fooling — I absolutely believed it was all true. Nothing in it suggested otherwise. Then, that Sunday afternoon, I saw the movie with my friends, and, again, I completely bought into it. I was scared shitless, I tell you, until ...

... the ending credits rolled. Something didn't seem right about that, because all the footage taken by Heather, Mike and Josh was supposed to have been "found" a couple of year after the three went missing. That's what the "documentary" said! So why were screen credits being given to gaffers and best boys?

My friends had to "break the news" to me in the car on the way home. I was still shell shocked, though, for the rest of the evening. An experience like The Blair Witch Project isn't something you can easily put aside — as long as you believed it was all true right from the beginning.

I consider it a God-given "gift" that I'm able to watch most movie thrillers and become completely absorbed in them. It enhances the whole moviegoing experience ... and gives me more "bang for my buck," as I always say.

Anyhow, I thought I'd share something I wrote on 26 October 1999:

"I, like the majority of those who posted yesterday, never believed that Mike was 'hanging' from anything at the end of 'The Blair Witch Project.' In fact, I believe that the ending was deliberately left vague for a dual purpose: to confuse and scare the hell out of us.

"Don’t forget that Mike was hit first. The question, however, has always been about what Mike was doing in the corner of the basement when Heather finally saw him. He wasn’t screaming or warning her away or even moving, so clearly he was unconscious. How exactly was he propped up? Was he impaled but still living? Was he suspended in place by that Blair Witch’s black magic? It doesn’t matter. The ending works so well and sears itself into our memories because we don’t really know.

"But let’s go back to that legend that everyone cited yesterday, about how the witch’s minion in the 1940s had one child stand in the corner while [the witch] killed another. This implies that [the witch] lured [the children] in two at a time. But how many children were reported killed? Seven. That means one poor kid was lured in alone and never had to wait in a corner while his or her companion was killed first. Perhaps this lone child was slain before the other six, who were, in turn, lured in two-by-two (just by happenstance). Coincidentally, of course, this is how Mike and Heather met their demise: They were lured into the 'evil house' by what they believed were Josh’s screams for help.

"I always found it interesting that, when Josh’s stuff was 'slimed' that morning, he seemed listless and withdrawn for the remainder of the day until his disappearance that night, almost as if some part of him knew that he’d been 'marked' for death, and [he] was [...] helplessly waiting for it to happen. He, of course, shared this with neither Mike nor Heather, but his awareness of his coming demise was clear as he withdrew into the bushes for those 'five minutes' and then requested a cigarette. Similarly, [the next morning,] when Heather found Josh’s 'remains' in that bundle of sticks [in the woods], she did not share her discovery with Mike."