Double Feature #9: 'Ghostwatch'/'The Blair Witch Project'

 

These days we're innudated with 'found footage' horror films, primarily because they're cheap to produce, easy to shoot and have a history of turning a profit regardless of quality. Some are very good (the first Paranormal Activity, [REC], Chronicle, Trollhunter), while the vast majority are very not. It's easy to forget there was a time when pseudo-documentaries simply didn't exist - an audience was always aware of the dividing line between fact and fiction. But two pioneering films took it upon themselves to erase that line in an attempt to frighten unsuspecting and (let's just say it) gullible audiences: Ghostwatch and The Blair Witch Project.

 

Unfamiliar to many in America, Ghostwatch (Lesley Manning) was the BBC's big 1992 Halloween treat, airing on the night of October 31st. It takes the form of a pseudo-scientific examination of poltergeist events occurring in an average home in north London, all presented as a special live broadcast. A single mother and her two daughters are being terrorized by a noisy, vengeful spirit they call 'Pipes,' because the thumping sounds he makes in the walls sound like the plumbing backing up. Familiar British TV personalities take part in the program - talk show veteran Michael Parkinson hosts, while the husband and wife team of Sarah Greene and Mike Smith handle the roles of on-site reporter and in-studio call-in host respectively. Written by Stephen Volk, the brilliance of Ghostwatch is how it suckers viewers in with the familiar banality of these type of shows - the awkward interviews with the family, an obnoxious man-on the-street reporter (Craig Charles) acting the fool, the obvious skepicism of everyone involved (particularly Parkinson). But things begin to take a turn when unexplainable events and possible blink-and-you'll-miss-it ghost sightings make this silly, entertaining lark look like it might just be the real thing. As the show progresses it becomes clear that the BBC isn't running the show - Pipes is. He becomes a genuine 'ghost in the machine,' infecting not only those on-site and in the studio, but everyone watching at home as well.

 

Made in 1999 at an initial reported cost of $20,000, The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez) takes the form of a documentary consisting of found footage of a trio of student filmmakers who'd vanished in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland five years earlier. Led by Heather Donahue (the characters use the actors' real names), they are attempting to document the legend of Elly Kedward - a woman accused in the 18th century of having supernatural powers who was left in the woods to die. Over the years the area has experienced a series of terrifying and brutal events, all of which are attributed in some way to the vengeance of Kedward, dubbed The Blair Witch. Venturing into the woods the filmmakers quickly become disoriented, unable to find their way back to their car. Maps prove useless, and each night brings an escalating series of creepy encounters with... what? Elly Kedward? Mischievous townfolk? Wild animals? Things come to a head when one of the trio disappears, his distant screams leading them the next night into an abandoned house where the two survivors seem to finally encounter their tormentor - as their camera is knocked to the ground and stops running.

 

To say these films pissed off audiences is an understatement. Much like Orson Welles' 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast, viewers who tuned into Ghostwatch after the opening credits were unaware what they were watching was fiction. As seemingly ghostly events unfolded in the house - intensified by quick glimpses of a figure that may have been Pipes himself - viewers across England freaked out. Many tried to call the phone-in number presented on the screen, but lines were quickly overwhelmed leaving them listening to a busy signal, WHICH IS JUST WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF PIPES WAS TAKING OVER THE SYSTEM!!! (Those that did manage to get through heard a message from the BBC assuring them the show was a drama, and Pipes wasn't coming to get them.) The uproar that greeted the filmmakers and the BBC following the broadcast was surprisingly hostile, with those who were fooled speaking out angrily, and the tabloids having a field day. The reaction was so overwhelming the BBC has never re-aired the film.

 

The Blair Witch Project suffered a similar backlash upon its release. Distributor Artisan Entertainment created a groundbreaking ad campaign - essentially inventing viral marketing on the Internet. Presenting the story and footage as real, they and the filmmakers devised intricate character histories and backstories (including a brilliant history of the town of Blair and the life, and after-life, of Elly Kedward) which could be accessed through their website. It was all so convincing that people pored over every minute detail, every snippet of footage released, many becoming convinced of its veracity. On more than one occasion I witnessed people claiming not only that the story had actually happened, but that they had some personal connection with which to prove it. An especially popular claim seemed to be having a relative who'd taken part in the search for the missing filmmakers in the woods outside Burkittsville in 1994. After the film was released and revealed to be a work of fiction (the actors appearing on the cover of Newsweek was a pretty good tip-off), those people who'd fallen for the hype were less than thrilled. And suddenly this gripping, tense, suspenseful documentary became a 'stupid,' 'boring' horror movie where 'nothing happened.'

 

People don't like to be made to feel like dopes - especially when they've behaved like dopes. Those taken in by the format and effectiveness of these films acted as though they'd been on the receiving end of a mean-spirited practical joke aimed specifically at them. The truth, of course, is that while the moviemakers may have played coy in an attempt to increase the intensity and impact of their films (especially in the case of Blair Witch), the fact of their true nature was always available to anyone who paid even the slightest attention.