The Blair Witch Project | Eyes Wide Shut | And More

There's a difference between never becoming involved and forcing distance to prevent the willies. Case in point: the same week I screened Blair Witch, I caught the Robert Wise 1963 creepfest The Haunting on Turner Classic Movies. (The Jan de Bont version of novelist Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House will open in theaters July 23.) The original, starring Claire Bloom, is a black and white study in implicit terror, a movie that scares us out of our wits through sound effects and atmosphere, much like Myrick and Sanchez's movie. Bur for some reason, I had to distance myself from The Haunting's sound effects to prevent nightmares. (Remind me to tell you my Jaws story someday. Or my experience with The Shining -- the book, not the movie.)

That didn't happen once during Blair Witch. Too much pre-knowledge spoils enjoyment for me quickly, which explains part of my disenchantment with Muppets From Space (most of my disenchantment stems from it being a sub-par Muppet adventure). Artisan Entertainment has smartly turned the project into the third most-buzzed about movie of the season (behind Phantom Menace and Eyes Wide Shut), but the spoilers inherent in the media coverage and on the Net (much of which, we're beginning to learn, has been planted) could have the same chilling effect on other moviegoers. Believe me, it's the wrong kind of chilling effect.

On July 30, Blair Witch opens wide, and I will see it again then. Part of the problem of this screening was the venue -- the theater routinely leaves the audio at a low lwevel, and many of the eerie scenes of sounds in the woods were inaudible. A better sound system may enhance the movie's spookiness -- I'll post an update then.

RATING: *** (movie) ** (hype)