Blair Witch Project

Artisan's DVD of The Blair Witch Project is a Dolby 2.0, full-screen 1.33:1 presentation. What would one expect from a movie famous for shaky camerawork? Predictably, plenty of the special features explore the made-up mythology of the film. The best of these is "Curse of the Blair Witch," the 45-minute "documentary" originally aired on cable TV to hype the film. The fascinating commentary and production notes step out of the "documentary" conceit to explain the nuts and bolts of the filmmaking. Two things were frustrating about the commentary by directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez: discussion of deleted scenes that the filmmakers hoped to see "end up somewhere" (they didn't), and references to specific dialogue that the viewer can't hear over the commentary (the directors may have the movie memorized, but most of us don't). Beyond those two problems, the commentary is a great window into the movie-making process, including the techniques used to make the actors almost as hungry and scared as their characters. To find some semi-hidden features, select "Special Features," arrow down to the stick figure symbol, and press enter. Ignore the ad for Stephen King's The Stand and watch the trailers for Blair Witch instead.