The smash-hit haunted- suburban-house thriller Paranormal Activity may not be a sequel to The Blair Witch Project (that movie already came out, and was best forgotten). But in spirit, at least — cheesy paranormal pun intended — there’s no denying that it’s a complete and total Blair Witch companion piece. Super-duper-low-budget shot-on-video vérité spook show. Starring no-name actors as antsy squabbling twentysomethings who record their every interaction on shaky handheld camera. As they look to document tangible evidence of an old-fashioned, otherworldly demon — a witch! a ghostly spirit! — that the audience virtually never sees. Which is part of what’s so freaky. Except that by the end we sort of, kind of do see it. Which is even freakier.
The comparison, of course, hardly ends there. There’s the matter of…low-profile indie creepfest turned film festival triumph. Released with an ingenious grassroots Internet marketing campaign. Which helps to bring about the ultimate word-of-mouth hit: a sleeper turned crossover megaplex blockbuster that whips all those bloody/CGI-overkill/big-budget horror films at their own manufactured-fear game.
So now that Paranormal Activity has trumped the odds to become a triumph of popular cinema, one that’s every bit as remarkable and zeitgeisty and chattered-about as Blair Witch was a decade ago, it’s time to pose that simple, irresistible, and — to me — critically vital question:
Which movie is better?
As a fan of both films, I confess that I haven’t entirely made up my mind yet. In fact, here are a few of my back-and-forth thoughts:
The Blair Witch Project did it first. Originality counts for a lot, and Blair Witch gets points for inventing the whole peekaboo-vérité, form-follows-function, monster-mash-as-MTV-reality-show vibe.
The two characters in Paranormal Activity are more fun to watch. The Blair Witch crew, apart from the fact that I totally bought their authenticity, never made that much of an impression on me; they were a tad nondescript. But the two Paranormal actors, spiky/winsome Katie Featherstone and nattery/glum Micah Sloat, pack a yeasty little couples drama, which they more or less improvised, into the movie. Their interaction is tense, affectionate, cranky, and alive, even when they get on each other’s nerves (or, on occasion, ours).
Most memorable iconic shot: In Blair Witch, it’s that kid literally dripping with fear while talking into a flashlight. In Paranormal, it’s that endlessly repeated and varied black-and-white surveillance-cam shot of the bedroom — a slowly dawning view of primal terror on a time-code.
Blair Witch convinced a lot of folks it was real. Ten years ago, that was an amazing stunt to pull off.
Paranormal Activity is “only” a movie. Which reminds you, 10 years later, that you don’t have to believe a horror movie is real to believe in it.
Blair Witch is subtler. It’s not just about witches, demons, monsters — it’s about the terror of night, the godforsaken weirdness of the unknown. Which is exactly why a lot of folks hated it; they thought it was too much floating-dread atmosphere and not enough payoff. But that, to its fans, is exactly what made Blair Witch so shivery and artful.
Paranormal Activity is scarier. Let’s be honest: When we go to a horror movie, even one that glories in its lack of special effects, we want to see the thing that scares us. We want to know what’s under the bed, what’s behind the door — and Paranormal Activity provides that catharsis.
So now it’s time for everyone to put on their film critic hat and decide: Which movie is better? Paranormal Activity or Blair Witch? And why?
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The Blair Witch Project is better in EVERY WAY IMAGINABLE! I seriously can’t believe people actually think Paranormal Activity is scary. I’ve seen disney movies that are scarier! I’m sorry, but it takes more than weird noises and bumps to scare me. It is seriously one of the most overhyped and overrated movie of all time! It baffles me that people actually find it to be scary!
Then what scared you about The Blair Witch Project? Being lost in the woods is scarier to you than being stalked by an invisible demon? I vote Paranormal Activity because the camera isn`t flying around the entire time.
the constant movement of the camera was one of several reasons why I disliked TBWP.
The camera didn’t bother me. PA was also quite shaky during the daytime scenes.
Blair Witch was just the better film. It had originality. The better mythology and more believable.
The boyfriend is a complete douche in PA. I am sorry, but after the stuff that happens, I am calling the demonologist. I know that the demon is attached, but I am leaving that house and sleeping in a hospital or airport.
Both films strain to give a reason for the cameras to remain on. However, Blair Witch does a better job of showing Heather as being obsessed with filming and using the camera as a coping mechanism. Micah seems to make a camera pact in PA. Yet, the camera remains on for the remainder of the film.
Having seen both, Blair Witch is simply superior.
I found PA to be more believable because my family experienced a similar thing. With the exception of the last 15 minutes it was fairly accurate in it’s portrayal of someone who’s haunted by a demon. Blair Witch was fun and exciting but not in the least did I feel like it could happen…for spirits and demons to have the ability to harm someone they need time to wear their victim down…3 days is not enough time.
Count me among those (few here?) who hated Blair Witch. Seriously, the thing that scared me most was the worry that — with the handheld camera work — I’d end up heaving my guts onto the theater floor, or in the theater restroom afterward. I’ve come to hate handheld cameras in movies ever since.
You are not alone. I saw the Blair Witch Project when I was in middle school and was bored out of my mind. I can deal with shaky camera work but I felt like that was part of the ploy to make us scared which just didnt work. Paranormal activity scared the crap out of me though. Alot of people complain that not much happens at first but in that time we get to know the characters, become skeptical and then watch as things fall apart.
PA scores as better because I could re-watch the movie again. TBWP is a one-time event – once you’ve seen it, there’s really no point in ever watching it again.
seriously? the first hour was a freaking drag! Half of the people in the theatre were texting — DURING THE MOVIE!
I don’t think people are giving the story of PA enough credit. Those two could have been any of us. They slowly pull you in, then you feel for what they are going thru.
If you don’t have an attention span, you’ll probably think it’s a drag.
The Blair Witch Project is a rip-off of The Last Broadcast.
I didn’t dislike “The Blair Witch Project” because it was “too much floating-dread atmosphere and not enough payoff,” as Mr. Gleiberman suggests above. I disliked it because it was boring – nearly 90 minutes worth of a bunch of foolish kids running around the woods, saying the “F word” every 10 seconds and quivering in fear every once in a while? Yawn. One of the biggest ripoffs perpetrated on the movie-going public. You want suggestive horror? Try the original version of “The Haunting.” But then again, that’s probably not gory enough or expletive-laden enough for folks today.
This was THE STUPIDEST movie I have seen in a long time, and I agree that I have seen DISNEY movies that are scarier. I cannot believe you people think it was scary. Wow.
What Disney movies? I’m not disagreeing with you, I just wonder if you have any specific examples
TBWP kept me awake and thrilled, I fell asleep during PA. That tells me all I need to know.
I saw PA last night and I don’t know if what I experienced was the same as some of you, but many people were laughing throughout the whole movie! I really wanted to be scared and spooked but it was so hard to when the audience is laughing during the “scary” parts. It honestly turned my fear into something funny and I couldn’t help but laugh too since everyone else was. Did this happen to others too? Should it have been a funny experience more than a scary one?? Or is that just how some people respond to being scared?
I know what you mean! My friends and I went to see PA and we had a terrible audience that either laughed (I would like to think that is how they responded to the fear) at everything or had to explain everything to each other. I was still riveted by the movie but I know that I would have loved it even more if only we had an audience that wasn’t so disrespectful!
your not the only one. Myself and others were laughing after seeing some some scenes that were supposed to ’scare’ you. lol i saw the movie last night with a female. we firat sat in the back but soon i bought us down closer to the front… while i was excited to be ’scared’ out of mind like the ads said you would! But was I? Hardly at all! But i’m not gonna lie the last two scenes where Katie got dragged out of her bed followed by the scene where she was possesed, yelled out for Micah, killed him, (etc, etc) still staya in my mind and haunts me a bit! i wasn’t scared but more like in some kind of shock from it… fine maybe i was a little scared. But what it comes down to is this, I’m not saying i didn’t like the movie but dont see it in thethers UNLESS you know the thether has good surround sound! unfortunately thats the way i saw it last night and throughout the movie myself and my date were saying that if the thether had surround, then we more likely would have been scared rather than laughing! Who agrees?
TBWP sucked so much it pulled my organs out. paranormal activity is a very excellent movie in the way its presented, the budget they had, and the total experience the 2 actors had. o and thanks alot of all the insight to what makes the movie so horrible. comment n00b
this was a great movie PA that is BW was not i do not like these movies but took all 3 teenagers to it and we were all scared like wow
Yeah…..right. And the rest of us are just a bunch of wimps, right? Guys like you have NEVER SEEN THE MOVIE because YOU ARE TOO SCARED to make comments like this.
I love both movies, but Paranormal Activity scared me so much. Even though I knew it was just a movie, the stuff that happened seemed like they could actually happen in real life. So many of the scenes have stayed in my head that I still get chills thinking about it.
The brilliance of PA is that it’s still scary after you see it due to the relatability factor. Obviously we all live in homes / apartments where we sometimes hear noises. Not a lot of us spend significant time in the woods.
I agree, a home is more everyday than the woods. PA rules.
i feel the same way. after seeing it last night, the idea of the girl being dragged out the bed like that still haunts me… And the part when she was posssesed at the end, screamed for Micah downstairs and then nothing but dead silence… Literally! my two favorite scenes of the movie w/o question. when thinking about the budget of the movie i’m starting to appreciate it a little more now. when i walked out i was kinda dissapointed over all and thats due to the way media overly hyped this movie.
In the original (non-theater) version of PA, you don’t “see” anything. Much better film and would be a better comparison for Blair Witch. Personally, they both freaked me out, though I think PA is a better “movie”.
what exactly happens in the non-theater version? i’m really curious after seeing it last night in the theaters.. my friend last night was telling me the same thing of another version. she told me something about the cops coming in and finding katie in the bedroom, with a knife in her hand, a day and a half after she killed Micah! is that true? let me know what u think
Yeah, i had a copy of that one. IT’s true. The friend finds the guy downstairs as Katie is rocking back and forth for hours. Then the cops come, the demon runs for it and Katie is shot because she has a knife. I kinda wish i saw it in the movies and not like bootleg like i originally planned
OK, I just watched a copy and that’s the version I saw – Katie rocking in the bedroom, cops find her, etc. What’s the ending for the theater version?
I saw Paranormal Activity days ago and it’s still as fresh on my mind. I still get nervous going to bed. I was young when I saw Blair Witch, but its effect on me was nowhere near the effect Paranormal Activity’s had. Paranormal wins hands-down for me.
so i saw paranormal activity last night and honestly hadn’t even heard about it until a few days ago. so i went into the theatre not knowing what to expect, and i’ll admnit that until the end of the movie, i actually thought it was real footage. so it may be the fault of my own ignorance that i couldnt sleep last night..but i gotta give it to them for the camera work. you only really saw what was going on once the couple returned home for the night, and there wasn’t a really a storyline to fallow which made it seem much more real than the blair witch project
Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but why are there always people who think that this stuff is actually real? It’s playing in a movie theater. When have you ever watched a horror movie in a movie theater that was real? Of course it’s not real! Reality shows aren’t real either, in case you were wondering.
Paranormal Activity, no contest. Blair Witch was iconic and is a classic, but Paranormal was WAY scarier and had better acting and more suspense.
love both movies. i do think paranormal activity was better executed. i saw the original ending to PA, thank God they changed it in the theatrical release.
I saw the original ending as well (but not the theatrical one….yet) and from what I read about it, the original was creepier. the theatrical version seems more “in your face” and more open ended. Although I also heard that the “Diane” excercism scene is not in the theatrical version, which I think is a very important scene. It was replaced for the photo scene (which I haven’t seen). Overall, PA does for the bedroom what BLAIR WITCH did for camping. I LOVE both. Fear of the unknown is much scarier than the “in your face” horror movie.
Totally agree with Derek. Blair Witch and PA are the only two horror movies that have ever really freaked me out. I think most horror movies are pretty stupid and it’s not a genre that I am particularly fond of but these two worked so well. I still think Blair Witch is a better movie but PA was great as well.
Blair With was not a good movie. The ending was the only interesting part of the whole flick. Whereas Paranormal had a great build up to a satisfying ending. Seriously, Paranormal all the way.
I agree about Blair Witch, I fell asleep several times during the movie and when I was awake, I was hoping that everybody were hurry up and die, the ending was the best part of the movie. I have yet to see Paranormal, I hope it is better.
Let me clarify, the best part was not the ending, it was tht the movie ended period.
Got to disagree, Joe. ALL of BW was awful, including the ending.
Amen Alan!! That movie had no redeeming features, and the fact that they used f*** every second or third word showed a lack of imagination
*Witch
Blair Witch could NOT have been more boring. I’m avoiding Paranormal Activity precisely because I hated Blair Witch so much. Maybe that’s not fair, but when I hear the comparisons, it feels like something to avoid.
Agree!
Blair Witch was some Bull$hit. How anyone could believe that the movie was real is beyond me. Why would they( the movie industry)ever release a movie of people dying. Ding Ding Ding, I do want to see p.a though
This is the thing with BW. When I saw it, it was not out in theaters. It was in a limited run and at the theater I went to had a display case willed with artifacts and dirt covered journals and tapes. Couple that with the editor of the film explaining where the ygot the footage from and thats how a lot of us fell for it being real. Once it got wide release and critics pretty much told people it wasn’t real, it lost that appeal of being real. PA is a really solid scare but I think what made people mad with BW was they expecting to SEE something. I don’t think BW was aweful. If it wasn’t for BW no one would have tried to up the ante and give us PA.
But putting BW in context, it came out during a time period just after the boom of reality TV, when people were questioning how far the media would be willing to go…would the media actually show footage of people having sex, being injured, and even dying on camera? Several movies addressed the idea. BW was much more relevant to the overall cultural environment than PA is.
Yes, avoid PA. It is NOT scary at all. I was diappointed when the movie ended!!
How many movies are really scary to grown adults? PA was one of the 3 or 4 best I’ve seen.
Matt i think you should see it. it is nothing like tbwp. This let you wonder and be like whats coming up the stairs and since we have all heard those freakish noises in our house Its really dead on the actor man i loved micah he was that querky jerk that we all loved at sometimes and hated and rolled our eyes. i almost pissed myself laughing cause at the end when it says katies whereabouts are unknown all we hear is some teen say Yeah fcking unknown quite loudly. Anyways it would be a horrible choice to miss out on its not gross like most movies are now AND CAN YOU BELIEVE THE AUTHOR OF SAW IS 19 ????? he is sick.
I have to say, OG, you have some valid points. But if it is up to us to decide, well I definitely would choose PA. Its so much more relatable, and the scariest part is how much it hits close to home (pun?). I think its more scarier because of the fact that everyone has at one point or another thought about what happens in their homes at night. Everyone has that curiosity about what happens when they are at their most vulnerable- in their sleep. And to come up with such a high concept, with such a low budget, and almost no Hollywood meddling, I have to say – this is movie-making at its finest. This is what I want to see in a movie, and I’d pay another $12 to go see it at 11:00pm in a big empty theater.
Blair witch by far better!! Blair witch made you believe it happened.Paranormal was the worst movie I have ever seen.I was laughing. How anyone got scared is beyond me.Go to a haunted maze or haunted house and you’ll get more scared.Blair witch had the web site about the town legonds ect that fed into its real
i’ve attempted to watch the blair witch project 3 times and i’ve never got past the first hour. ill admit i laughed a few times during PA. but only when the girl gets out of bed and stands there for more than 2 hours, and you slowly see her turn into a nut case. but this “ghost” or “demon” if you will, had me jump out of my seat more than once. I guess i can’t compair the two since i’ve never actually seen blair witch, but i do know that i’d rather laugh at a scary movie than fall asleep
PA!! hands down..the scariest movie I’ve seen yet! I saw it last week and I still think twice about going to bed.
Paranormal Activity was a tighter story, but made the (at this point) cliche choice of the disclaimer at the beginning. So many horror movies are doing it now, and it is irritating beyond belief. When Blair Witch did it, it was new and spooky. Now, you are telling me before the movie even starts that the main characters die in the end. Thanks for cutting the tension in half.
Blair Witch — because last one there’s a rotten egg!
Blair Witch spooked me for days. The image at the end, of the kid in the corner, and the girl’s endless primal screaming haunted me for days. Maybe being 10 yrs older jaded me because I did not find Paranormal Activity one bit scary. Honestly, most people were laughing during the movie. You get a couple jolts that are forgettable but Blair Witch left me disturbed for days.
I have to admit that I was a laugher, Alex: the last twenty minutes or so of “PA” got totally ridiculous to me and all of the nail-biting tension from the first half was washed away by my eye rolls. Yeah, I had a hard time falling asleep that night, but I agree: when I permit it to, “Blair Witch” haunts me still.
I saw Blair Witch when I was 12 years old and it was a huge disappointment. I didn`t find it scary in the least. It still exists in my mind as one of the largest failures in movie history, despite the box office totals.
However I will agree that the climatic scenes of PA were a bit sillier than they were scary. But the tension of the build up still made it a very scary movie.
to Uhh: I have to admit, I’m impressed with your vocabulary and ability to form complete sentences.
That’s impressive for a 22yr old.
keep it up!
You hit the nail on the head Alex regarding BW. The kid in the corner, the girl screaming as though her throat is being ripped out, plus the bloody handprints all over the walls….wow, it still gives me chills. I haven’t seen PA yet, but I think I’d like to. I’m kind of wimpy about scary movies, so I’ll probably be terrified even if everyone around me is laughing.
I have to agree, I was young when I first saw Blair Witch but it has stuck with me. I still have trouble camping alone in the woods. Ha! My GF makes fun on me all the time because I wake her up when we’re camping to go to the restroom with me! I was traumatized by BW!
No offense, but I’m not convinced that a 12 year old can or should be the judge of what is scary or not. Subtlety, realness, and the slow buildup of tension is kinda lost on 12 year olds…scary to them means a grisly murder every three minutes or else it’s boring.
Hey, i liked both movies! Loved the camera gimmick. Heather from BWP and Katie from Paranormal did a great job pretending not to act. It doesn’t hurt that they both have big boobs, hehe, just kiddin! Go see the movie!!
Well I’d just like to say that they were both freaky movies, but Paranormal Activity would have to come out on top. Anyone with some sort of imagination will go home from this movie and have shivers sent up their spine hearing and small thing in their sleep. If that doesn’t get you though, I am sure the thought of how PA displays how vulnerable you really are in your sleep will leave you up at night.
I agree about the sleep thing. but also i loved how it pointed out that it feeds off of negitive energy and then when they were fighting bad things happened and ouji boards are terrible i was with my dad and he was playing around with it and the rocking chair started going back and forth while no windows were open And There was a wierd bum implant in it so dad threw out the damn thing
“Blair Witch”, with hardly a contest. Even despite the obviousity (consider it coined; you can thank me later) of “PA” cribbing everything from its fore bearer, “Witch” trumps it in believability, storyline cohesion, and even acting (which is saying something, considering how not-very-good Heather whats-er-name was). I’d also argue that the final, more ambiguous moments in “Witch” are exponentially more terrifying than the cheesetastic conclusion of “PA” (the horrific genius of Mike facing the corner in the last seconds STILL gives me the heebies).
Also, standing outside the question of the films themselves, “Blair Witch” also had what was–and is–the most genius marketing campaign for any film, ever. That, my friends, is an inarguable fact.
See, I would argue that PA had the better marketing campaign, from a pure business standpoint. I think we will be seeing a lot more of the “Demand It” type of movie marketing, which I think will encourage better movies.
I think the Blair Witch ending was brilliant, maybe edging out the PA ending. maybe. But they both do great building the dread.
You’re right that it was a smart move, using the “Demand It” feature (especially since it was a ruse and you were gonna get to see it anyway, demanded or not). But remember that “Blair Witch” used the internet for the best marketing effect EVER. No film had successfully built the elaborate backstory and hype that “Witch” had done before, making people wonder if it was real; it was completely unprecedented and, to this day, still never duplicated to nearly the same result (“Cloverfield” used a similar tactic, but didn’t get its hooks in nearly as deep as “Witch”).
I think a lot of it comes down to the “payoff” and which you think has better effect. Both films actually build much in the same way, in small increments of disturbances in the middle of the night until the terror is literally breathing down their necks every moment. If you subscribe to the theory that the greatest fear is of the unknown, then BW probably gets the nod. That, and the fact BW’s victims are trapped, it creates a better sense of their doom. It’s the one thing I didn’t like about PA, anywhere would have been better option than that house, and there isn’t a clear reason to stay, demon following them or not. It breaks the film’s diegesis. That said, PA builds it’s tension in a more calculated and methodical fashion, and the “payoff” at the end is more enthralling. The only thing PA did absolutely wrong was the CG at the end, when Katie lunges at the camera. It completely breaks the film’s form and is an unforgettable error that erodes authenticity I believe the filmakers strived hard to convey.
Yeah, this was my biggest problem with PA. Aside from the explanation that the thing follows her around, I still think anywhere would be better than that house if you were even slightly sane. I’d move into a house with a lot of people in it to watch my back. Of course, in the end, he couldn’t get her to leave. But seriously, I would think if I were Micah I would have found another girlfriend after the door opened and closed by itself. lol
the thing is that when she smiles into the camera its not katie its the entity and it knows that its being filmed so its kinda following past behaviour. playing with minds
PA…better build up
I enjoyed both movies very much. and every post here has good points and opinions.In PA the way they built the intensity of the “paranormal activity” throughout the movie was done very well and the fact that they let your imagination create your fear is straight out of the hitchcock book of horror and that is something both PA and Blair Witch did with success.i agree that blair had a lasting fear to it but after i found out it wasn’t real it killed my joy of the movie. Knowing off the bat that PA was fake let my imagination run more freely and enjoy it as carnival ride or as a huanted house attraction, even though it isnt real you still jump when the boogie man pops around the corner. I did not like the end so much to PA as i did Blair ( to quote ellipsian “the horrific genius of Mike facing the corner in the last seconds STILL gives me the heebies.”) you hit the nail on the head. because when you saw him standing there you knew why because it was foreshadowed in the movie. PAs originality was they didnt foreshadow anything so you didnt know what to expect. PA did at times seem slow and you always knew when something was gonna happen because of the lead in sounds before something happened but i still feel it delivered over blair witch only because when you watch blair witch you watch for the climax scene at the end of the movie where depending on your idea of scary PA gave you multiple scenes that trigger outright fear.
I swore I would never watch BW again, the last minute of it freaked me out so. But now you guys are making me want to revisit it. Maybe for Halloween.
I have to admit, i knew before hand that BW was not real. I had friends that had gone and seen it already, so i did a lot of digging. But the legnths they went to, to make you think it was real? Greatness. And the end of BW…yeah…it freaked me out big time.
The question is: which had the better marketing campaign? Both films have creepy moments, but really only impress EW critics and the kind of people that don’t normally go to see horror films.
“blair witch” was an original idea and was more fun because of that than it ever was scary. “paranormal” is definitely a scarier film and a fine companion piece to the already classic “blair witch”
Blair Witch wasn’t an original idea. It’s a rip-off of The last Broadcast.
Alan did you see the Last Broadcast. Now THAT was a bad movie. I bought that film after I heard that’s where BW came from.
Nope, I haven’t seen it. I am just aware of it in relation to BW. Like the film school movie that was about life told from the eyes of a baby from birth. That was stolen and turned into Look Who’s Talking. For a good indie with some scares, I recomment Dark Remains. It’s low-low budget but had some good frights in it.
well considering that blair witch had about an hour of interesting story developement and psrsnormsl hsd only sbout 15 min i have to give blair witch credit for being more intertaining…but i did like paranormal too just not as much.
I’m a horror movie buff and add to that to me the scariest movies are the ones that play on your own fears/insecurities or on vivid dream imagery that doesn’t have to involve an abundance of gore but can shock or paralyze you with fear. That said – I think Blair Witch wins this battle hands down. Where it might be true that both movies were accompanied by brilliant marketing campaigns to draw audiences, the beauty of the Blair Witch Project rests in the fact that all the protagonists were doomed from the moment they became lost and started to give in to their own primal fears. The Blair Witch played on all of our simple fears one right after the other – getting lost, the “dark”, fear of the unknown,& the fear of signs/jinxes/hexes and ghost stories. In Paranormal Activity, you’re left wondering why they just don’t move to another house or among a lot of people so that the demon who’s been “following” Katie since childhood might regress once more into the background. You get the sense that if this supposed demon has been with Katie all along, what has she done different this time around to provoke it? And if there’s something to that, is it reversible somehow? In the Blair Witch Project, you realize that Heather, Josh and Mike still have a chance to back out of filming a documentary on the Blair Witch, but once the domino effect takes place after they’ve become lost, you get the sense that at that point it’s just a waiting game that you’re dreading to watch unfold. Both movies were shot similarly, but since the Blair Witch Project used that formula first it just somehow seemed more authentic to me. Although I didn’t find Paranormal Activity terrifyingly scary, I did enjoy the movie (in spite of some of the acting, lol). In whatever case, to me – - if you want to honestly freak me out, lock me in a dark room and force me to watch The Exorcist or The Shining over and over again!!
Reading “The Shining” did it for me, Chicago Abi. Yikes, that book is SCARY. I definitely could not be locked in dark room and read the book. I would go insane!
about 7 years back I bought the blair witch project at the dollar store to see if it was actually good like everyone had told me. They were very wrong, the whole thing was a group of people walking around in the woods breathing heavy and acting scared. so for me paranormal wins by a long shot
pa by far. the last scene still gives me chills. but the scariest real movie is THE ENTITY 1981. IT IS BEIN REMADE FOR NEXT YEAR AND I CAN’T WAIT. WANT TO BE SCARED, WATC THIS ONE
Having lived in an actual haunted house (in old San Francisco) let me tell you that PA was true, scary and very realistic. The movie plays on a subpsychological level will only succeed with those willing to go on the ride. Haters will be left on the wayside with 90 minutes wasted. Blair Witch was awesome in its own right, but PA succeeded at being entertaining all the way through with incredible moments throughout.
Well, I have to say that when I saw Blair Witch, I thought it was brilliant. I watched a girl practically run out of the theater crying because her boyfriend thought it would be funny to tell her that it was “really real”. It definitely was a smart movie that worked on the subtlety, a primal fear of the dark, the woods, and the unknown.
PA seemed slow at first, but as the pace grew, the chills running up and down my spine became nearly unbearable. For the first time in my life (35 years) I found a movie that was chilling enough to tempt me to leave, simply to relax my nerves. However, one of the things that I missed with PA was all of the propaganda to help embrace the potential reality of the film work.
So, here is the difference, while BW was good, it was to me, kinda like seeing something freaky on TV. Yeah, it felt freaky, but in a ‘distant observer’ sort of way. On the other hand, PA made me feel as though I had brought something home with me. It caused me to feel vulnerable, As though I was being stalked by something beyond my control. With BW you felt like staying out of the woods, but with PA you can’t hide. In fact as I sat here reading these posts, an old guitar in my closet just decided to slide down the wall, and I honestly considered leaving the room…. That has never happened to me before, but it is the feeling I have always sought after watching a scary movie. PA delivered!
Blair Witch has an element of mystery — a background story, a legend — which makes it a more intriguing and eerie film. The endings of both films are excellent.