KillBill20
November 12th, 2007, 09:00 PM
Behold The Blair Witch EXPERIENCE! No, it’s not a new ride at Disneyland or something. It’s a DVD boxed set all about The Blair Witch Project. Say what you must about the film and it’s poorly executed sequel but at the very least you have to admit that it was unique. Unique films are a dime a dozen these days, even back in 1999 so for that we thank you Blair Witch. Now Onto the review
First off the price for this thing is EXACTLY on the money. I picked mine up at the local grocery store (?) for $6.99. However you can pick it up online right through Amazon.com right here (http://www.amazon.com/Blair-Witch-Experience-Collection-Set/dp/B000056V6H/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3481629-8297514?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1176352941&sr=8-1) Considering I paid almost double that for the original DVD a while back this set really IS a good deal. Even if the second movie totally sucks (which it does)… you’re getting the darn thing for free. Plus it comes in a pretty slick looking package, and has some other freebie crap shoved in it. So plus one star for that, plus one star for the original movie, plus one more star for the price. We’re already up to three stars. Here is what you get:
The Blair Witch Project DVD – Special Edition: This “special edition DVD” is exactly the same DVD that I picked up a few years back. No new special features or anything. Not that it’s really a bad thing. The DVD is pretty much your standard fair, the picture quality isn’t mastered in High Definition, and it only supports a two-channel audio track. Not that it really matters, nobody is buying The Blair Witch Project to show off their new 60 inch plasma screen TV anyhow.
While it’s the same DVD that is already floating around, it doesn’t really matter… since the DVD already floating around happens to be a pretty good one. With Deleted Scenes (dubbed Newly Discovered Footage) and a really interesting Director and Producer Commentary track that’s worth the time to listen to. Along with a cool “documentary” about the “real Blair Witch” that originally aired on the SciFi channel right around the release date of the film, it’s a very solid DVD. Try to think of the set like this, you’re paying seven bucks for THIS film…. everything else in the set is free.
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 DVD + CD – Ugh… thankfully this thing is free. I’m not sure if your standard issue Blair Witch 2 DVD comes packaged with the duel disc CD/DVD combo like what’s found here. I’m assuming it does. First off the movie sucks, plain and simple. The way I see it, The Blair Witch Project is a film that can’t have a sequel, just because of the nature of the best. When it turned out to be the highest grossing independent film of all time, naturally someone wanted to cash in. That’s were Book of Shadows comes in. It’s a film meant to cash in on the name of the original… and it’s really, really bad.
Honestly what baffles me about this film is that it HAD the premise to be a really cool movie. Basically it starts off telling you that the original movie was simply that… a movie. It then leads you to the town of Burketsville (Blair) and how its’ overrun by obsessed movie fans. A cool idea that I don’t believe has ever been done before. Imagine what this town might have really went through? I’d watch a movie about some type of Blair Witch-obsessed fan on a killing spree. That’d be interesting.
Instead you get a stupid movie about a stupid tour group who spends about ten minutes in the woods and then ends up back at this old warehouse that for some reason, doubles as the tour guides house (how they wind up staying with the tour guide is BEYOND my comprehension at this point). So the movie chugs and chugs along and basically nothing happens until the end ten minutes when you find out that the entire hour and a half film you’ve been watching…. didn’t really happen. How? I have no idea. They explain it as some sort of group illusion or hysteria (No, not the Def Leopard album…) Point is it’s dumb. I get what they where trying to do, but I wish they hadn’t.
Check out the special features where they attempt to get you to watch the film in reverse to see hidden messages. Right.
But really who cares about the movie. The soundtrack is the reason why you want THIS thing. Best track (hands down) goes to Tony Iommi (of Black Sabbath fame) and Dave Grohl (of Nirvana/Foo Fighters fame). Yes.... the ENTIRE CD is worth it for that ONE track. The rest of the soundtrack pretty much sucks.
The Blair Witch PC Games Collection – Holy crap… they made a Blair Witch video game? Not only that, but they made THREE of them? Who knew such a thing even existed. The games, collectively known as Volume I: Rustin Parr, Volume II: The Legend of Coffin Rock, and Volume III: The Elly Kedward Tale. Quite frankly, these have me intrigued. I’ve only started to get into Volume I and honestly it isn’t the worst game in the world. I would expect something really bizarre out of a Blair Witch VIDEO GAME, but somehow… thus far it has managed to have nothing at all to do with the Blair Witch Project. Instead you play as some sort of female detective, and you get to shoot at these weird zombie type monsters. It’s not ground breaking… but it’s not totally crappy like I would have expected. I’m interested to see what the heck Volume II is about… it sounds interesting.
Stickman Necklace – I’m a pretty big movie buff and I love my collectors stuff. I’ll never EVER wear the stupid thing… but just knowing that I have a Blair Witch Necklace makes me feel all warm and tingly inside.
All in all for a boxed set that by all rights shouldn’t even exist, The Blair Witch Experience ends up being a really good buy for your buck. If you don’t already own the original on DVD it’s well worth tracking this set down. You’ll be paying more or less the same price and getting tones of extra crap for free.
I’d say the set is about a 4 out of 5. Mostly because the price is so incredibly low you’re almost guaranteed a good deal out of this. Even if the second movie sucks, the games are basically average, and you’d look like a weirdo wearing the necklace. It’s $6.99. Cheap things rule. If you can find it… buy it.
~Kyle
First off the price for this thing is EXACTLY on the money. I picked mine up at the local grocery store (?) for $6.99. However you can pick it up online right through Amazon.com right here (http://www.amazon.com/Blair-Witch-Experience-Collection-Set/dp/B000056V6H/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3481629-8297514?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1176352941&sr=8-1) Considering I paid almost double that for the original DVD a while back this set really IS a good deal. Even if the second movie totally sucks (which it does)… you’re getting the darn thing for free. Plus it comes in a pretty slick looking package, and has some other freebie crap shoved in it. So plus one star for that, plus one star for the original movie, plus one more star for the price. We’re already up to three stars. Here is what you get:
The Blair Witch Project DVD – Special Edition: This “special edition DVD” is exactly the same DVD that I picked up a few years back. No new special features or anything. Not that it’s really a bad thing. The DVD is pretty much your standard fair, the picture quality isn’t mastered in High Definition, and it only supports a two-channel audio track. Not that it really matters, nobody is buying The Blair Witch Project to show off their new 60 inch plasma screen TV anyhow.
While it’s the same DVD that is already floating around, it doesn’t really matter… since the DVD already floating around happens to be a pretty good one. With Deleted Scenes (dubbed Newly Discovered Footage) and a really interesting Director and Producer Commentary track that’s worth the time to listen to. Along with a cool “documentary” about the “real Blair Witch” that originally aired on the SciFi channel right around the release date of the film, it’s a very solid DVD. Try to think of the set like this, you’re paying seven bucks for THIS film…. everything else in the set is free.
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 DVD + CD – Ugh… thankfully this thing is free. I’m not sure if your standard issue Blair Witch 2 DVD comes packaged with the duel disc CD/DVD combo like what’s found here. I’m assuming it does. First off the movie sucks, plain and simple. The way I see it, The Blair Witch Project is a film that can’t have a sequel, just because of the nature of the best. When it turned out to be the highest grossing independent film of all time, naturally someone wanted to cash in. That’s were Book of Shadows comes in. It’s a film meant to cash in on the name of the original… and it’s really, really bad.
Honestly what baffles me about this film is that it HAD the premise to be a really cool movie. Basically it starts off telling you that the original movie was simply that… a movie. It then leads you to the town of Burketsville (Blair) and how its’ overrun by obsessed movie fans. A cool idea that I don’t believe has ever been done before. Imagine what this town might have really went through? I’d watch a movie about some type of Blair Witch-obsessed fan on a killing spree. That’d be interesting.
Instead you get a stupid movie about a stupid tour group who spends about ten minutes in the woods and then ends up back at this old warehouse that for some reason, doubles as the tour guides house (how they wind up staying with the tour guide is BEYOND my comprehension at this point). So the movie chugs and chugs along and basically nothing happens until the end ten minutes when you find out that the entire hour and a half film you’ve been watching…. didn’t really happen. How? I have no idea. They explain it as some sort of group illusion or hysteria (No, not the Def Leopard album…) Point is it’s dumb. I get what they where trying to do, but I wish they hadn’t.
Check out the special features where they attempt to get you to watch the film in reverse to see hidden messages. Right.
But really who cares about the movie. The soundtrack is the reason why you want THIS thing. Best track (hands down) goes to Tony Iommi (of Black Sabbath fame) and Dave Grohl (of Nirvana/Foo Fighters fame). Yes.... the ENTIRE CD is worth it for that ONE track. The rest of the soundtrack pretty much sucks.
The Blair Witch PC Games Collection – Holy crap… they made a Blair Witch video game? Not only that, but they made THREE of them? Who knew such a thing even existed. The games, collectively known as Volume I: Rustin Parr, Volume II: The Legend of Coffin Rock, and Volume III: The Elly Kedward Tale. Quite frankly, these have me intrigued. I’ve only started to get into Volume I and honestly it isn’t the worst game in the world. I would expect something really bizarre out of a Blair Witch VIDEO GAME, but somehow… thus far it has managed to have nothing at all to do with the Blair Witch Project. Instead you play as some sort of female detective, and you get to shoot at these weird zombie type monsters. It’s not ground breaking… but it’s not totally crappy like I would have expected. I’m interested to see what the heck Volume II is about… it sounds interesting.
Stickman Necklace – I’m a pretty big movie buff and I love my collectors stuff. I’ll never EVER wear the stupid thing… but just knowing that I have a Blair Witch Necklace makes me feel all warm and tingly inside.
All in all for a boxed set that by all rights shouldn’t even exist, The Blair Witch Experience ends up being a really good buy for your buck. If you don’t already own the original on DVD it’s well worth tracking this set down. You’ll be paying more or less the same price and getting tones of extra crap for free.
I’d say the set is about a 4 out of 5. Mostly because the price is so incredibly low you’re almost guaranteed a good deal out of this. Even if the second movie sucks, the games are basically average, and you’d look like a weirdo wearing the necklace. It’s $6.99. Cheap things rule. If you can find it… buy it.
~Kyle