iTunes Exclusive Episode Blair Witch

Greetings Empire member and our members. If you're hearing the sound of my voice, it means the following conditions have been met. At least once in your life.

You have listened to the clubhouse podcast live every Sunday night, seven Eastern, four Pacific, your one stop shop for all things pop culture, but it also means you subscribe on iTunes because it's time for another...I don't text close to them. 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 visit our website it is located at www dot the clubhouse podcast dot com find out everything you need to know and some stuff you don't both our Facebook and our Instagram or the same those are the clubhouse podcasts please use all three words you can wind up somewhere else our Twitter feed is at clubhouse show you can follow me on Twitter if you'd like I am it yes that Rob Irvin that is built ERV IN I am at Chad in PG69 on Twitter the official fact checker of this show is Don Ford you can follow him on Twitter at fun Don Goo also cinnamon email if you'd like us to come to a live show at your establishment we love do it live remote shows he is Don of the clubhouse podcast dot com you can email me questions comments concerns tell me to go pound sand I am Rob at the clubhouse podcast dot com I am Chad at the clubhouse podcast dot com Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are more early obligated to say that and did you want me to enjoy this she did she did indeed our normal show every Sunday night seven Easter and four Pacific is your one stop shop for all things pop culture or just keep subscribing on iTunes you get all the cool stuff so until next time for Chad 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