Friday, October 31, 2014

31 DAYS OF HORROR! - Day 30: What's your favourite found footage horror movie?

I get very nostalgic when I see or even just think about The Blair Witch Project. I was 15 years old and it was during a blistering hot summer. I fell for its genius viral Internet campaign hook line and sinker, utterly convinced it was all true right up to see it at my local cinema where the ticker usher said "Good luck" as he handed me my ticket stub. The experience of see The Blair Witch Project on the big screen was one I'm likely to never forget. I've never been so terrified of a movie that really doesn't show you anything at all, yet it gives you so much. It cleverly relies on myth, small town talk, use of sound and an eerie ambiguous tone to scare audiences. How many times did you think you saw something when in fact you didn't? Just in your mind's eye. It's one of the finest example of less being more and what you don't see is often more frightening. Not to mention the level of intimacy we have with the three ill-fated student filmmakers, stripped of everything and their fears projecting our own. I've seen The Blair Witch Project countless times, most recently last night and it still gives me chills. During each viewing I find myself studying the film very closely hoping to notice something new. It wasn't the first found footage horror to be made, however its overwhelming success did start a craze for the still popular sub-genre. The Blair Witch Project remains the most profitable films ever made, Grossing over $250,000,000 on a budget of only $22,000. To break it down for you that's $11,000 for every $1 spent.

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