You can make a hundred comparisons between Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity and that monumental symbol of the hype machine, The Blair Witch Project.
The similarities are obvious: both are essentially ghost stories, told from faux-documentary video footage. Both have small casts of nobodies, first-time directors, and most critically, both have witnessed huge theatrical success despite low budgets.
In almost every review or editorial about Paranormal Activity, you’ll hear about The Blair Witch Project, and for good reason: Peli’s film couldn’t exist without Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez’s film. Love it or hate it, Blair Witch was a seminal film, a shift in how independent film was seen in the public eye.
So why do I hate The Blair Witch Project and really like Paranormal Activity?
Here’s why: Paranormal Activity is the definition of a slow burn, with a finale that delivers the goods by twisting you around its little finger and then slicing that finger off with a knife. After watching it, you’ll never need to see it again. It’ll never function as well again on a second go around, because the marvelous thing about this sort of film is not knowing where it’s headed.
The Blair Witch Project, on the other hand, isn’t a slow burn — it’s stagnant water. I’m not simply talking about the ending, which I refuse to believe scared anyone, in theaters or on video. I’m talking about a film filled with rustling leaves and not much else.
Peli’s film shows us things, using old tricks that are comparable to a magician’s slight of hand. It’s not fancy, but it’s also not afraid to take the concepts that Blair Witch started and push them in the direction they should have gone since the release of that film.
Instead, there was a decade long silence since Blair Witch. Is the basis for all these comparisons really the fact that no film like Blair Witch has been given a chance to explode in the mainstream until Paranormal Activity?
Unfortunately, the Hollywood system will make the same mistake it always has. Just as the studio pumped more money into Myrick and Sanchez to make Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, this weekend revealed the news that a sequel to Paranormal Activity is in the works, which will certainly up the ante in the budget area.
Let me clue you in, studios: this is a horrible idea that flies in the face of everything that has college kids screaming in crowded theaters this month. Whether you love or hate Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity, they have succeeded on the level of being immediately relatable to audiences via the appearance of realism. With more money, that foundation is lost.
And when that foundation is lost, Saw will reign supreme again. A chance at showing studios that audiences are savvy to something new and exciting will be lost, and it’s back to Formula A, the one we’re so well-acquainted with already.
That’s the worst thing for the horror genre I could possibly imagine.
Just to quickly correct you, yes, there are people who were scared by the ending of the Blair Witch Project, myself included!
Just to quickly correct you, yes, there are people who were scared by the ending of the Blair Witch Project, myself included!
Yeah. Let's make a second Blair Witch just so that we can make more money. Nevermind the fact that the crew and the media did a PHENOMENAL job with the original of making everyone think that it was REAL for a REALLY long time before Heather came on the Leno show and revealed it all to be just another movie. That had people scared out of their minds for a long time and it was a brilliant move! Even though people now knew it wasn't real, the psychological implications to audiences remained- people were still scared of it, even if they were a tad disappointed. Making a second after that just cost more money than it made and it took away the allure of the massive success that was the $55,000 budget to a $70,000,000 smash at the box office! I HATE that Hollywood has lost all integrity and originality and instead of writers coming up with new ideas like the first Blair With or PA, they just make redundant sequels and ruin the originality of the original project. I hate to sound redundant when I say that but I'm making a point aren't I?
Yeah. Let's make a second Blair Witch just so that we can make more money. Nevermind the fact that the crew and the media did a PHENOMENAL job with the original of making everyone think that it was REAL for a REALLY long time before Heather came on the Leno show and revealed it all to be just another movie. That had people scared out of their minds for a long time and it was a brilliant move! Even though people now knew it wasn't real, the psychological implications to audiences remained- people were still scared of it, even if they were a tad disappointed. Making a second after that just cost more money than it made and it took away the allure of the massive success that was the $55,000 budget to a $70,000,000 smash at the box office! I HATE that Hollywood has lost all integrity and originality and instead of writers coming up with new ideas like the first Blair With or PA, they just make redundant sequels and ruin the originality of the original project. I hate to sound redundant when I say that but I'm making a point aren't I?
You are wrong, the end of the movie of Paranormal Activity spooked me. But the end of Blair scared me the most, you don’t know how loud I screamed at the end of that movie. Paranormal Activity just made me jump. So there’s a correction. The end of Blair IS scary.
The Blair Witch Project is both a better and scarier movie. I think that Paranormal Activity tries to hard to really terrify it´s audience while The Blair Witch Project gives you a good build up until the pretty scary final scene. The thing with Paranormal Activity wich i did not lika was that there were to many scares and jump scares. It was just to much and i actually felt numb to it after a while. The Blair Witch as i said before gives a good build up. And The Blair Witch Project is actually the first of it´s kind.
dude i totally agree wit u paranormal activity trys too hard to sare the pee out of you when Blair Witch is just movie that “makes itself popular” with its graphic and movie natures and ect. on a scale from 1-90 i give Paranormal a 35 for Blaire its off the charts
about the endings of the films . i watched both of them i think that The Blair Witch Project was way better than Paranormal Activity . The Blair Witch Project seems more real and i was really frightened when i saw the man (forgot his name) standing in the corner of the room . my best friend & i laughed about all the people who was frightened by this film but then we watched it and we were both scared . i think the scariest thing about this movie is that you can’t see what is catching the people and i seems so real how they behave and become crazy . & somewhere deep in your soul you are scared even if you say you’re not.
& about Paranormal Activity. some of my friends watched the film and told me that it was awesome and very scary . so i decided to watch it too ’cause i love horror movies . so i watched it and i was really dissapointed . the whole film seems so unreal & the ending was a joke . it may be that she was obsessed of something but i can’t imagine that she turns into something like a vampire . and i also think tha Paranormal Activity was only produced to make money ’cause they saw how good a film like this works but they tried way to hard to scare the audience . so in my opinion The Blair Witch Project ist a better and scarier film .
All is L
The end of The Blair Witch Project did not scare me at all. I was asking questions about things that did not make sense through out the movie. It had it’s moments but failed to deliver. The end left me with more questions. If that was supposed to be a horror film on a scale of 1-10 I give it a 2. Same with Paranormal Activity, it sucked! Nothing in that movie scared me. On a scale of 1-10 I give it a 1. I have seen scarier things on prime time shows like Ghost Hunters or The Haunted. However Paranormal Activity 2 was a lot better movie. I think they actually took the time to write a good movie that time around. The end of that was scary. I have not watched Blair Witch 2. I can’t help but feel it is a waste of time. The first one had you asking questions about what was going on from the first minute to the last.