Gabe’s Haunted Double-Features: October 17th

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The spiritual parent of the ‘found footage’ genre in horror, The Blair Witch Project was truly a revolutionary movie. Was it real? How could that footage have ever been recovered?

Well, we know now that it was indeed a produced film and not actual footage but when you have a perfect storm of circumstances, you can ride that all the way to box office gold. An unknown cast means you can question it’s legitimacy as found footage. Nobody would ever believe the concept if you had an A-lister in the cast. Throw in the fact that nobody was making obscure regional urban legend movies at the time and you have far more credibility than you could ever really earn. Fans, including myself, ate this up like re-heated hot dogs from the concession stand (it’s a thing. I used to have to do it at a theater when I worked there. Never eat movie hot dogs).

There aren’t many effects in the film which is why it holds up now better than it should. It’s a primal sort of ‘what you can’t see off-camera’ fear that really drives the movie and it’s a fun ride.

 

Poltergeist (1982)

One of the few films in the pantheon of 1980’s horror. Poltergeist is a relatively standard “haunting” story about a family who suffers through an increasingly bizarre and harrowing series of events once they move into their new home. There are definitely a few moments that will give you the creepy-crawlies which is nice. The climax has a pretty good reveal, too.

What really makes this movie so good, to me at least, are two factors. Firstly, it’s really the standard for the series. Yes, I said it. The series. There are a few sequels to this that really dive into mythos building and it just isn’t very good. Always stick with the original, kids.

Secondly, it’s worth noting that many of the cast and crew reported that during filming, they felt as if they truly were being haunted. Many reported supernatural encounters or events occurring that could not be explained by conventional logic. Was it a case of being so close to the subject matter that your mind played tricks on you? Was the crew really being victimized by something otherworldly?