 The original Blair Witch Project holds an especial place in horror cinematic history. Released in 1998, it was, for many, their original exposure to the phenomena of “documentary horror” (i.e. the conceit of genuine, amateur footage that has somehow been “discovered” and cobbled together into a kind of feature), a format that, by its very nature acts as a parody of its own medium, calling into question what we as audiences assume and allow ourselves to be told from entertainment media (even now, there are those who genuinely believe the events of The Blair Witch Project are documentarian, despite the supposedly “missing” cast having made multiple appearances since, the creators having made documentaries and conducted interviews on how it was originally contrived etc etc). The piece serves as a stark examination of how we relate to media, how credulous we are when something has the simple veneer of authenticity. Furthermore, the work serves as a transitional marker between eras as determined by escalating technologies: whilst the internet was in its infancy at that point (most homes lacking easy access to the network), the film's marketing utilised the then-infant medium to its fullest, creating false police reports, community and tourist sites for the entirely contrived tonwship of “Blair,” Maryland and numerous journals, missing persons reports, blogs et al, ensuring that great swathes of the viewing public were taken in by the phenomena, making their engagement and interaction with the “footage” in the film even more intimate and intense. On a personal level, The Blair Witch Project is a key piece of input in my own imaginative development: it taught me the value of space and quiescence, of how emptiness and silence can be as disturbing and engaging as the most evocatively drawn monster or set piece, how audience engagement can be enhanced by suggestion and intimation as much as it can statement. As a teenager of barely fifteen, the film was my first experience of documentary or “found footage” horror, outside of the seminal 1992 BBC Halloween prank, Ghostwatch. It engaged me in ways very few horror films ever have. Whilst many are certainly superior in terms of their production, their narrative, their storytelling, the wider implications of their imagery and situations, when it comes to pure, sincere dread, there is very little that evokes the same degree of creeping inevitability, the moribund sense that the people on-screen are dead and don't know it, and we as the audience are just waiting, waiting for that axe to fall. It has since become a perennial watch, a piece I return to again and again and never tire of. In that, it is highly subjective; the kind of experiment that people will either respond to or not. But, for my own personal tastes, there is very little that captures the same degree of hostile beauty, the same desolation, the same sense of nihilism that intensifies and intensifies up to the film's disturbingly oblique climax. Unfortunately, like so many out-of-nowhere success stories, the film quickly became a victim of its own success.  Emulated and emulated to the Nth degree, rendered into a crass, sequel-baiting franchise by the Hollywood sequel-machine, the extended media deriving from the original film has universally exhibited a lack of comprehension of what made it so successful. A sequel that lacks any and all of the quiet wit, the cleverness, the versimilitude of the original, video games that were clearly some other project before they were adapted to shoe-horn in the Blair Witch mythology, a 2016 addition to the franchise that so profoundly misses the central ambiguity that rendered the original so disturbing, it commits the cardinal sin of physically showing the damn witch on screen. . .as you can imagine, as horror franchises go, it is one of the most illegitimate and unnecessary when it comes to spin-offs and sequels. However, that has not stopped the mythology from spawning everything from comic books to video games, TV documentaries et al. There are even toys of the damn franchise; honest-to-god action figures of the eponymous witch (who is never actually depicted in the film and may not exist at all) and of her various victims. Like many original horror films, The Blair Witch Project is one that does not lend itself to expansion or elaboration: the original film succeeds through its obliqueness and its suggestive nature. Engagement occurs because of the mysteries it establishes: the great gaps in lore and back story and the general lack of explanation. Therefore, when self-proclaimed “storytellers” (or, more accurately, hacks) start tromping all over the woods in their size-9s, presuming to narrativise those elements that are best left unspoken and un-rendered, you can understand why I respond with more than a degree of skepticism.  It's not even that successive instalments to the franchise can't necessarily work: I can certainly see how, for example, a period drama set in the days when the “Blair Witch” herself was purportedly left in the Blackhills Woods to die of exposure by the townspeople could potentially be very effectively rendered, especially if the audience had no idea that it was linked to The Blair Witch mythology until its closing chapters. But the success of such expansions relies heavily upon the agendas and comprehension of those involved: if they are simply cynical attempts to make money off of a familiar franchise, they will be doomed to failure, and will inevitably further dilute a franchise which hasn't been particularly healthy for nigh twenty years now. Even those who come to such projects with some degree of passion or genuine enthusiasm can so easily screw it up. So, you can imagine my ambivalence upon discovering that, at the recent E3 show, a trailer was aired exhibiting a video game instalment to the franchise. This is not the first attempt to render the franchise in this medium: way, way back in the early 2000s, there were several semi-successful “survival horror” video games that came under the banner. Whilst they were fairly servicable (though by no means revolutionary) on a technical level, as instalments in The Blair Witch Project mythology, they fail dismally. This is largely due to their reliance on traditional horror video game tropes and subjects such as monsters, jump-scares and so on and so forth. Everything is highly visual, more redolent of Resident Evil than a piece of “found footage” work, everything is codified and particular and absolute. Whilst the games could have potentially played with the “found footage” format of the film to great effect, they simply neglect to, resulting in experiences that, whilst not terrible in and of themselves, are profoundly lack-lustre and incongruous with the tone and ethos of the original film.  Since then, many, many horror video games have seized upon the “found footage” and “documentary horror” formats, either in part or completely, to create novel and fascinating sequences and overall experiences. Most notably, a recent addition to the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil 7, borrows significantly from The Blair Witch Project and numerous others in several key instances, even defaulting to a “found footage” format in several notable sequences. So, it can be done, but requires a degree of experimentation and risk that is very, very rare in mainstream video game development. Having viewed the trailer a number of times, it's somewhat clear that, whilst the new game itself might be a fantastic piece of work, like almost every entry to the franchise since the orignal film, it has profoundly missed the point. The trailer is full of extremely familiar horror techniques and set-pieces, none of which are redolent of the “found footage” verisimilitude of the original film, has a high degree of visual horror, from hallucinogenic distortions to phantoms, monsters, shapes in the woods etc (again, elements which the original film refutes by its very nature) and audio cues, stings etc to signify when the “scary moments” are happening, in the manner of a traditional horror film. It also has a musical score, which, if the trailer is anything to go by, is servicable, but no great shakes in the annals of truly amazing horror video game soundtracks (Silent Hill 1,2 and 3, Resident Evil 1 and 2, System Shock 2, Outlast, Darkwood etc). Now, in and of itself, none of these elements suggest that the game will be bad. At all. As a trailer, it's actually rather well put together. Whilst it doesn't betray anything supremely interesting, it does have one or two notable moments (such as when the protagonist looks through a video camera view screen and sees himself entering the woods), suggesting that the work might have merit in and of itself, beyond its purported place within the Blair Witch mythology. The first-person perspective the game seems to take certainly emulates the sense of wandering around the Blackhills Woods for the player, the gnarled and twisted configurations of trees in conjunction with the natural murk of the environment making for a perpetually paranoid atmosphere in which the player will no doubt find themselves jumping at shadows and shrieking at nothing at all. And that is precisely what a game based on the Blair Witch mythology should ideally be: like the film itself, largely empty: something that preys on the player's own imagination, that convinces them that they're being chased or stalked by something that perhaps isn't there at all. Clever use of sound and environmental cues, breaking twigs, shifting shadows, all might conspire to evoke that atmosphere, as previous horror games have. Where this trailer falls down for me is that there most certainly ARE things in the woods that the player most definitely encounters. Beyond calling into question the player character's perceptions (it's entirely possible that the game will suggest that what is happening is purely psychological as opposed to actual, thereby allowing space for the conjuration of all manner of phantoms and beasties), this demonstrates the same profound lack of understanding of The Blair Witch Project mythology as any of the ancillary media. As previously detailed, the original film made its mark by making something out of nothing at all, by playing with the audience's perceptions and paranoia, leading them to believe they've seen something when they haven't at all. The woods as an environment are perfect for this, as trees can very often look like twisted or intertwined figures, configurations of branches and boughs can look like shapes or silhouettes. The manner in which the film relies upon the natural human proclivity to see humanoid shapes and familiar patterns in random configurations of objects is phenomenal; witty, engaging and sublimely clever, as it entices the audience to look closer, to engage their imaginations and project them onto the film itself.  A video game set in the Blair Witch mythology could do this. There are games that already do. However, if this trailer is anything to go by, that's not what this game is about. The tone of it is far closer to the likes of Outlast and FEAR than what I would expect from a Blair Witch Project game. Barring the aforementioned phantoms and figures we've already been shown, the woods also boast qualities such as musical cues, horror set-pieces, jump-scares etc etc, all of which might be well placed and handled, but none of which work within the context of The Blair Witch Project. There is a particular type of game (though some argue that it stretches the definition) that is so well-suited to this subject, it might have been tailor-made for it: The -often perjoratively called- “Walking Simulator.” Those who have played the likes of Dear Esther, SOMA, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, Firewatch etc will already be well familiar with the nature of these games: quiet and slow-burning works of pure atmosphere, they rely exclusively on their environments to tell story, to evoke mood and suggest what might be happening around the player. Often criticised for lacking game-play, the player's part in these games is often nothing more than to walk around, observe, occasionally interact with objects etc. They are purely atmospheric, aesthetic and narrative exercises, which has led to them being incredibly divisive. Some -such as myself- generally adore them, whereas others bemoan their general lack of action, engagement and specific purpose. However, for a video game that seeks to elaborate on the Blair Witch mythology, there is hardly any better format. The original film itself has drawn similar criticisms from various circles -the lack of “monsters” or overt antagonists, the lack of overt narrative or plot, the reliance on implication and suggestion rather than more traditional means of exposition- and for similar reasons: The Blair Witch Project is to film as “walking simulators” are to video games: highly experimental, often jarring with tradition, but, at their best, incredible emotive, evocative works that rival arthouse cinema in their conception and beauty. The up and coming video game has the potential to be that, to be as deviant and transgressive and novel as the likes of Dear Esther and its contemporaries, and thereby tie itself to the original film in terms of its genre-breaking revolutions. Judging by this trailer alone, though, I have sincere doubts that it will. Time will no doubt tell. George Daniel Lea   Comments are closed.
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