DEVILS ADVOCATES
DEVILS ADVOCATES is a series of books devoted to exploring the classics of horror cinema. Contributors to the series come from the fields of teaching, academia, journalism and fiction, but all have one thing in common: a passion for the horror film and a desire to share it with the widest possible audience.
The admirable Devils Advocates series is not only essential and fun reading for the serious horror fan but should be set texts on any genre course. Dr Ian Hunter, Reader in Film Studies, De Montfort University, Leicester
Auteur Publishings new Devils Advocates critiques on individual titles offer bracingly fresh perspectives from passionate writers. The series will perfectly complement the BFI archive volumes. Christopher Fowler, Independent on Sunday
Devils Advocates has proven itself more than capable of producing impassioned, intelligent analyses of genre cinema quickly becoming the go-to guys for intelligent, easily digestible film criticism. Horror Talk.com
Auteur Publishing continue the good work of giving serious critical attention to significant horror films. Black Static
DevilsAdvocatesbooks
DevilsAdBooks
ALSO AVAILABLE IN THIS SERIES
Black Sunday Martyn Conterio
Carrie Neil Mitchell
The Descent James Marriot
Halloween Murray Leeder
Let the Right One In Anne Billson
Saw Benjamin Poole
The Silence of the Lambs Barry Forshaw
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre James Rose
The Thing Jez Conolly
Witchfinder General Ian Cooper
FORTHCOMING
Antichrist Amy Simmonds
The Curse of Frankenstein Marcus K. Harmes
Dead of Night Jez Conolly & David Bates
Near Dark John Berra
Nosferatu Cristina Massaccesi
Psychomania I.Q. Hunter & Jamie Sherry
DEVILS ADVOCATES
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
PETER TURNER
Acknowledgments
For my parents who let me grow up on a strict diet of horror, and for my wife (and Final Girl) Beth who admirably tries her best to withstand all the horror I can throw at her. Special thanks to Beth and her family, and to my own sisters, Emma and Helen, for their constant support and encouragement. Thanks also to John Atkinson at Auteur for believing I could do it, to Dr Paolo Russo for his guidance and to Ian Cooper for being a great teacher at the beginning of my Film Studies journey.
First published in 2014 by
Auteur, 24 Hartwell Crescent, Leighton Buzzard LU7 1NP
www.auteur.co.uk
Copyright Auteur 2014
Series design: Nikki Hamlett at Cassels Design
Set by Cassels Design www.casselsdesign.co.uk
Printed and bound in Great Britain
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the permission of the copyright owner.
E-ISBN 978-1-906733-88-9
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN paperback: 978-1-906733-84-1
ISBN ebook: 978-1-906733-88-9
CONTENTS
1999: the final year of the millennium and, to be more precise, the end of the first real century of cinema. At just over 100 years young, cinema had grown from simple unedited one shot wonders such as Train Arriving at a Station (1895) to bloated blockbuster behemoths of over three hours in length. Cinema was very much about spectacle at the end of the century and audiences lapped up explosive, visual effects laden blockbusters in their millions.
Cinema in the 20th century became a huge business with multinational conglomerates competing for global audiences by offering international stars, the latest special effects and corporate synergy that meant films were just one part in a bigger branding strategy that would continue to fill a studios pockets long after a film was released and then removed from cinemas.
1999 should have been the year of Star Wars. After a 16 year wait, fans of George Lucas blockbuster science fiction franchise were eagerly expecting the return to a galaxy far, far away that was promised with the release of Star Wars Episode I:The Phantom Menace (1999). Fans of the Star Wars saga since childhood had sky high expectations for Lucas prequel that would see the back story of how young Anakin Skywalker became the dastardly Darth Vader. All grown up now, many of these fans were in for quite a shock and a crash landing back to Earth, for which Lucas would never quite be forgiven.
Despite some disappointment, Star Wars Episode I did however go on to become the biggest winner at the box office in 1999. With a $115 million budget, it eventually made over a billion dollars across the globe, making it both a huge success and incredibly profitable for 20th Century Fox.
However 1999 was also a pivotal moment in the future of film production and it was another very different film that made an equally, if not far more, significant splash at the box office. The Blair Witch Project (1999) was a tiny budget independent horror film that unlike Star Wars, no one had ever heard of at the beginning of the year. There was no in-built fan base, no special effects, no stars or promise of anything approaching the imaginative planets and alien creatures of Star Wars. Made for a tiny fraction of the The Phantom Menaces budget, The Blair Witch Project may not have made over a billion dollars at the box office but it became easily the most profitable film of the year and one of the most profitable films of all time. Fighting its way to nearly $250 million worldwide, The Blair Witch Project made back nearly 10,000 times its production budget at the box office compared to the Star Wars prequel making roughly ten times its own budget back.
To put this into even sharper perspective, The Blair Witch Project with its tiny budget and horror genre trappings was the tenth biggest box office earner of 1999, nearly beating the romantic-comedy reunion (after the hugely successful Pretty Woman (1990)) of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in Runaway Bride. Not only that, The Blair Witch Project did beat Tom Hanks in The Green Mile, nineteenth Bond film The World is Not Enough, Richard Curtis rom-com Notting Hill and Will Smiths blockbuster mess Wild, Wild West.
Even with strong competition in the horror genre, The Blair Witch Project managed to stand out from the rest. The Sixth Sense starring Bruce Willis and the biggest twist of the year got people talking and managed to become the second biggest film of the year behind Star Wars. Universals The Mummy remake on the other hand only managed to sneak in to the box office chart two places above
