Blair Witch Plus 10 | Buzz Blog
Support the Free Press | Facts matter. Truth matters. Journalism matters
Salt Lake City Weekly has been Utah's source of independent news and in-depth journalism since 1984. Donate today to ensure the legacy continues.

Buzz Blog

Archives | RSS

Monday, July 20, 2009

A&E / Culture

Blair Witch Plus 10

Posted By on July 20, 2009, 1:42 PM

  • Pin It
    Email
    Print
    Favorite
blog1300widea.jpg

A decade ago, a low-budget horror movie became the ultimate Sundance Film Festival game-changer. And in a new look backward by Michael Atkinson, it might be possible at last to figure out what it all meant. ---

Atkinson raises some intriguing points, most notably how easy it is for the comforting lull of traditional film syntax to make real unease impossible. He also recognizes that despite the film's remarkable box-office success, it took the mainstream movie world nearly the entirety of that decade to latch on to Blair Witch's in-the-moment urgency in films like Cloverfield and Quarantine -- probably because it took that long for the stigma bestowed by Blair-bashers to wear off. For me, the experience of viewing it cold at Sundance '99 remains one of the four or five defining movie moments of my life. Atkinson doesn't get it any more right than when he writes, "The lucky ones who saw it at Sundance, not knowing a thing about it, at the legendary late-night showing and then emerged into the mountain nighttime, could make millions bottling that experience."

Tags: ,

  |  

About The Author

Scott Renshaw

Scott Renshaw
Bio:
 Scott Renshaw has been a City Weekly staff member since 1999, including assuming the role of primary film critic in 2001 and Arts & Entertainment Editor in 2003. Scott has covered the Sundance Film Festival for 25 years, and provided coverage of local arts including theater, pop-culture conventions, comedy, literature,... more

On Topic...

More by Scott Renshaw

Latest in Buzz Blog

Promotions
···

© 2024 Salt Lake City Weekly

Website powered by Foundation