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| Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez; Starring Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard |
The thing that I find interesting is that even though I thought that The Blair Witch Project could have been a little better, I’m sure that my opinion would be even more so on the Haxan screener copy that was sent to me. This is the copy of the film that Artisan sent out to theatres and critics to get a hype generated before the general release. It is also the version that was seen at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. At the festival, Blair Witch lost to Three Seasons for the three top prizes (the fact that Three Seasons won the top three was a big suprise), an occurrence I think would not have happened had they seen the version that was shown in theatres.
Of course one must keep in mind that this opinion is completely from someone that first saw the film in its theatrical version, people have a tendency of liking what they see first over other versions of things. For example, I would much rather watch the original cut of Wolfgang Petersen’s Das Boot, then the recent director’s cut. My feelings are that there is a lack of a dramatic structure in the second cut and makes the film seem to lag on, a feeling I also found in the screener version of The Blair Witch Project.
This version has more differences than one would imagine. Though little is changed in the over all length of the film, the things that are cut out from this version are understandable, while the things present in the theatrical but not in the original are unbelievable. While I shall do my best to keep from giving anything away, there are many places in the screener version that are different from what I saw in the theatre. One difference is in the fact that there is a different pacing of scenes. When one scene would take five minutes in the theatre, that same scene in the screener would be shoddily cut down to three. This gave the characters less feeling and believability as they seemed one dimensional (I’m guessing that those critics that bombasted the film over really bad performances saw this cut). The two biggest and most annoying differences are found in the ending, or at least important for the ending. The actual last shot is tinkered with slightly, making the finale less enthralling and much more boring. Also there is a story early in the theatrical version that is very important to the ending, in the screener, that part of the story is cut out. This leaves the audience with a feeling of “what was that?” and “that was stupid”, doubtfully the effect the directors were going for (in comparing it to 2001: A Space Odyssey’s weird ending, it’s like getting to the end without the film ever mentioning or showing the monolith).
The screener version lacks any workable narrative structure as it shows a nice novice attempt at filmmaking. On the other hand, the theatrical version is more believable and better crafted. While it still does deliver a good film and a nice ending, the Haxan screener version is only half as successful.
