There's Something About Scary

We know one sophisticated filmgoer who, until the closing credits, figured the whole sordid deal was real and got so frazzed she begged for an escort home. Not many will see Blair Witch in that state of Edenic ignorance; word is out that the film is one serious fake--it's just a story, folks. The picture operates under two rigorous rules: it will show only what the team could plausibly have filmed, and it will not reveal any sources of outside terror--no monsters or maniacs. Directors Eduardo Sanchez and Dan Myrick gave the actors the merest outline of the scenes to be played. No wonder the film dwells on the edge of seemingly genuine hysteria.

There's another filmgoer (this one) who found the rules so confining, the characters so strident, the climax so muddled, that Blair Witch was only a fascinating failure--a campfire tale turned into a ranting, John Cassavetes-style improv movie. No one can deny the ambition and intensity of this horror mockumentary. For those who fall under its spell and feel deep shivers scampering down their backs, this is spinal tap.

"I loved Blair Witch," says Joel Silver, producer of The Matrix and The House on Haunted Hill. "It was scary, man. The genius thing about it is what makes our business so great: a spectacular, pure idea will touch people. It's not about being bigger and scarier. It's about being fresher, newer--uniquer, if that's even a word."

Movies will try to be uniquer by scaring you without cheapening you. If upscale horror clicks as art and commerce, only those big bully comedians will be terrified. Grateful viewers will have the last ghoulish laugh.