iTunes Exclusive Episode Blair Witch

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You have listened to the clubhouse podcast live every Sunday night, seven Eastern,
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The 237th one of these.
Welcome.
My name is Rob by the Executive Producer of the Clubhouse podcast and I don't do scary movies.
I am afraid to say it.
Joining me for this particular episode because if he didn't, we probably wouldn't be doing
it.
Is my co-host and a man who does dig scary movies.
He is chat, welcome sir, but I don't like camping.
I used to be more of a camper.
Not the bare bones pack a sleeping bag and a tiny little tin.
When I was younger that didn't bother me.
It's always bothered me.
Whenever we do one of these things, it is to review something this particular episode
is no different.
We're going to be talking today about a film that's a sequel to a film that was a sequel
to another film that we don't talk about.
Kind of like Robert Downey Jr. on the dude pretended to play in the dude pretend to be
another dude.
It is called Blair Witch and who did you get to see when you went and saw this sir?
I believe this is from our friends at Sly Fox.
This is our friend's at Sly Fox, yes.
We were big fans of those guys.
Xenini.
Xenini.
That's all you Xenini.
That's not here to pack you up.
So I'm not going to encourage this.
Basically here's the bit.
If you remember the Blair Witch project from that was that 99, 99, 90, 90, 90,
also another song.
You're going to get us sued.
It was a sample.
I'm okay.
If you remember that film that film ties more to this one than something we may have existed
called Book of Shadows.
After discovering a video showing what he believes to be his sister's experiences in
the demonic woods of the Blair Witch, James and a group of friends head to the forest
in search of his lost sibling being Heather from the first film.
Right.
Directed by Adam Wingard, who you are a fan of and just don't know it.
Oh, I'm a fan of a lot of people that I don't know it.
He directed your next film.
I did enjoy.
A scary film.
I actually enjoyed it.
And also kicked off the VHS.
Yes.
Sology soon.
Also did the guest, which I believe my wife has actually seen.
Let's see what else we have.
Oh, he's going to be the director of Death Note, which is based on a Japanese manga series.
So it's it's it's it's in good hands it's it's in really good hands.
This was based on a concept that he had kind of pitch to him by the original project
filmmakers.
He was he was at a Sundance promoting VHS to and he asked the original producers Greg
Helen Eduardo Sanchez why there weren't any more Blair Witch films.
What happened to that franchise?
Why did just go away?
And one thing led to another and then next thing, you know, they're pitching the idea
of well, why don't you direct the thing?
And this thing had been in production for five years before anybody knew right you know
about probably what would you say six seven months ago I'm like I was watching nothing
but trailers and there was this thing called the woods and I saw the trailer and I went
yeah not so much because again don't do scary movies it's not my bit all right.
Then all of a sudden we find out at common there's a screening at San Diego Comic
Con of the woods.
People didn't realize they walk into the theater wait a minute this is Blair Witch
walk out all the promotional things have been changed because they they had to to roll
it out at that point right so respect for everybody for keeping this thing under
wraps right.
I mean if if anything has been taught to people in marketing by the whoever's responsible
for marketing Blair Witch both the first film and this film they know how to gorilla
market I mean you got to remember that whenever they marketed the first film viral
marketing wasn't a thing the internet was barely a thing with for the first few
weeks we thought this was a real bit but you and I being the kind of people that we
are we did the digging to find out that this was a I hate these words mock
humanry yeah but a fake documentary film you meant really so by the time the film
came out still scared to crap out of me yeah and then let's make no mistake
yes I saw the original but it's only because I was with the man across the
death if I were by myself that dog would not have hunted yeah when this opened
locally here in Dallas it was only showing it one theater and they come to the
end with and they completely immersed you and you know in the environment in the
atmosphere like they had the little handprints all over the walls that stick
figures hanging casting shadows on the way let you out through the alley it was it
was it was creepy so with the recent great marketing done with this screening
as well you said there were people that were actors that were kind of
depicting some of the things in the film I don't want to do deep into a
right a great job yeah by everyone's life off there well done they they they
they suck you in as soon as you walk through the theater door once you check
your gear at the door and they you picked up your comment guard or what
have you as you walk in like you you pass iconic portrayals of what you saw
in the first film it's not necessarily what you may or may not see in this one
see at that point I'm out I'm out like people were approaching you asking
you if you knew where the map was and you know it's it's you'll definite callbacks
to the original place they look behind the couch because it's always behind
the couch you you had a girl that was literally walking up to everybody in
their seats walking up behind them and looking over their shoulders like
literally turn around but she's just there so again kudos to our friends
this life off of a ring it's bravo to you guys but to the film itself to the
to the film proper this picks up well in in present day and James Donnie
Hugh Heather's brother catches wind of this clip online goes to hunt this guy
down that's posted it along with his girlfriend and classmate Lisa who's a
film student so naturally we've got that aspect of a cover just to why we've
got cameras everywhere she wants to document his search for a sister and he
takes his friends Ashley and Peter to meet up with Lane the guy that posted
this video along with his girlfriend tallya and they say they'd an order for
them to show them the location of where they found the tape or the evidence
or the video that he posted on YouTube the conditions is they've got to go
with them to hunt it down they're not gonna tell them where it is they're gonna
show them where it is so they would you say that this is kind of a hybrid of
both of the other films where it's faux documentary slash narrative or is
it just a straight narrative film well it's it's gotten more but let's put
this way it's got more meat on its bones story wise than the first one did
because we knew so little right but now that the mythology has been created
and we've got an established you know universe for this film to take place in
there's more to be explained in this because what I'm saying is it shot in that
documentary style yeah it's shot in the girls of both ways because my my
font process is when they confront him and talk to him about the video is it
is it like their filming the conversation they're filming the story it's
documentary style the whole way through like they all have like little headset
cameras that they were it looks like a bluetooth earpiece that's got a high
deaf camera in it and a GPS tracker okay so they can all be filming in any
given time they got webcam set up all over the campsite and Lisa herself is
carrying this giant enormous camera with a huge lens on it that she'll put on
a trailer to GPS isn't gonna happen that you know she'll put on a tripod so
they can you know film them at the campsite and what have you now this is 89
minutes this doesn't even clear it on a half right and it cooks okay so
so it I mean it's gonna have to for that abbreviated time but you know did you
feel that it was could have been shorter could have been longer well
naturally whenever a film is less than 90 minutes you're gonna wish it was
longer just because of the time constraint sometimes there are times where I
feel like they could have dug a little bit deeper into some of these characters
histories before they just disappear you know they they they they they
introduced you know one of the one of the the gripes that I've got about this
film there there are a few minor gripes that I have about it and maybe even a
couple of major gripes but one of the minor gripes is that they will establish
a plot point and then they don't really go anywhere with it they just kind of
it just kind of goes away like whoever is involved in this particular conflict
just vanishes and you never really see anything see the couple of films like
that reason yeah it's like like somebody gets you know hurt or sick or
whatever and then you see that they're kind it looks like they're going in one
direction with it and then they're just gone you know it's it's not really
explained all that well and it's been also very well publicized where as the
first film was more about being lost this one's more about being oh yeah this
this thing comes after them with the vengeance so this is more it's just kind of a
weird way for the feel is like it's more of a horror style film than the
original yeah okay yeah like whereas the first one was really heavily based in
psychological you know almost like a bait and switch thing it's like you didn't
there's a lot of what you didn't see here you see a little bit more of what's
what's after you or at least the evidence of something chasing you is made a
little bit more visually evident okay so you said the pacing was fine let's talk
about the storytelling itself was it was it on par with the original for
because I know there were just one of your favorites was it more on par with
that better worse it's about on par with it I mean again because they've got
so much back story that they've established now you know a lot of it gets
told from the perspective of the kid who's you know the guy that they go
this lane kid that they go and find and you know he's okay you could tell like
this is like his bit like he's obsessed with it kind of like oh what's his
name's character the guy that's in burn noticed the one that was in book of
shadows that that he was a an obsessive type who was taking people out
and touring the woods and stuff without yeah I think it gives you power yeah
thank god for that you've been a thorn in a side of this town since you were
dead but I say boy I say boy so so the story really did keep your attention
for eight nine minutes yes it really did I mean you you really couldn't look
away you know I don't know a lot of people compared the first one to I don't
know people would see this is blasphemy but and I know that the filmmakers
themselves said that they took the original jaws as inspiration because this
is more about what you don't see what you do you were constantly being hunted
by something that you couldn't see couldn't identify to know where it was coming to me
yeah yeah that's a very overactive imagination it's same here you know
and I know people think like you that thing actually scared you yeah did because
don't judge me to to me okay I'm gonna I'm gonna put put this out there on
front street I went out of camping trip when I was about ten years old with
my family and in the middle of the night while tent camping I saw the
silhouette of something outside of the tent that did not look or sound human
or an animal I could identify all about all I heard was breathing and we
were leaving the next day so I'm like okay I didn't kill me so if I just
keep my mouth shut no one's gonna think I'm crazy so it freaked me out and
ever since then I've never wanted to camp outside there'd be a Rob size
hole in the tent I mean it it's scarred me for life so I've never wanted to camp
that you know you better put me in an RV if nothing else I ain't camping okay
so story well done very well done great good pace pacing performance
wise how does it hold up the there is this where the gripe because she said
you had some gripes with it well well the the fact of a plot point being
established and then going nowhere with it that's a matter of gripe for me and
you could tell that this what because so much of what happened in the original
was unrehearsed it was all right the most part it was improvised they were
left GPS locations of things in milk crates and they would open these things up
and they were given instructions on where to go with the idea but they weren't
told how to get there just to get there and that's what they did a lot of it
was improvised and and Blair which one this you can kind of tell they were a
little bit better informed about what was going on like you could tell they were
the most of snob bubbles I mean there are some close-up shots but I don't
remember it really seeing any snob bubbles but it does its job it's very effective
it making you feel cut off isolated nowhere to go no idea how to get where
you're going you're completely engulfed in darkness and there's never any
daylight anywhere anything else you want to talk about for me it's filing
else the only major complaint that I would have with this and I think that
some people that are that are long time fans of this film or this film
franchise was that it just feels like it's 10 years too late okay that's the only
problem that I think people will have with this is that this should have been
Blair which two instead of book of shadows right the the six and I'm not
blaming anything in any of the film franchise but I really feel like the
success of films like paranormal activity and and things of its ilk they were
able to capitalize which is really standing on the shoulders of the
it really is and I really feel like with Blair which dropping the ball and just
walking away from from film I think they let the opportunity slip away from
them and now a lot of its thunder has been stolen and now a genre that it
kind of helped pioneer because I know that a lot of people want to credit this
is starting the genre it actually goes to another film that was released like
year earlier called the last broadcast which is equally creepy but but this was
the one that went that went more mainstream yeah and now it just kind of
feels like it's trying to regain past glory like it's it's basically looks
it it comes off is more of a slickly rate made remake or reboot than a sequel I
will be interested to see how this works out from a box office standpoint because
I think if it does as well as it probably will given the promotion behind it
maybe that maybe there's a re birth of a franchise if you will well horror
always does well horror horror always make it for ten bucks in a bucket of
chicken and it makes thirty five million dollars yeah and plus you're opening in
the fall right and you know on the cusp of Halloween so you'll get a lot of
that too it should be in theaters for a while then let's get to the final
analysis the way we do the final analysis on this show a little bit
different if you've never been with this before we're not gonna give you
thumbs up thumbs down numbers stars letters you know pictures of footballs
whatever we do things a little bit differently we are audience whom we
affectionately refer to as the empire they want us to go deeper we're gonna go
deeper two questions I'm gonna ask chat up to that many first question will be
does he want to see this again if the answer's no we're done here but if the
answer's yes I'm gonna ask him how far he's willing to go the spectrum runs
from best to worst for a full first run of the theater twilight matinee early
morning second run of the dollar theater red box netflix cable
chat would you see Blair which again oh yeah how far you're willing to go
I've got to kind of break the mold here a little bit all right I think the best way to
see this is with a bunch of fellow fans of this genre and it would be perfect
for like a midnight showing or a double feature with the original leave book a
shadows out of it and just tell your show your backstory with the first one show
this one at midnight okay that's fair I think I think that any theater that
wants to jump on board that you have you I endorse maybe a little something called
the drive-in oh yeah I could see the draft house doing something like this yeah
right in their wheelhouse the greatness of animal draft house we're a fanza I
think they would do a really I think they make a part in the pun killing doing
something like that it is Blair which directed by Adam Wingard written by Simon Barrett
thank you again to our friends at Slyfox zineenie zineenie you guys know how to
marketing let me tell you zineenie you guys know how to market all right let's do the plugs
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for the empire I'm Rob clubhouse is closed if you put Britney Palmer in this I'm you wouldn't
like how he turned out I'm just saying