This is a reboot of a column that will express my misgivings with a reboot of a movie franchise. The column is also only partially pro-witch.
The original idea behind this column was that I would post quick things that would be, as the title says, a distraction from politics. It's been through fits and starts since its conception, but I'm in the mood to do more short form content. We will need all the distractions that we can get this year and, Lord knows, my regular political columns are plenty long.
For the purpose of accountability, I'm promising that I'll do this right this time. I've also got a new setup for my "Beyond the Briefing" vids, and there are going to be a lot more of them.
As many of you know, I have become a bit of a horror film nut since last summer. I may not have achieved "aficionado" status yet, but I'm close. From July of last year until March of this one, I watched almost nothing but horror/slasher fare.
If I ever go back to therapy I promise to figure out what that was all about.
The abundance of films in the found footage horror subgenre all owe their existence to one movie: "The Blair Witch Project." True, it wasn't the first found footage film ever, but it is the movie that made the subgenre explode.
It's not easy to pull off a successful found footage flick (no charge for the alliteration). Get a trial subscription to Shudder and start watching them and you'll see what I mean. Most of them are steaming piles of yak dookie. I hadn't seen "TBWP" in 20 years, so it wasn't as if my harsh judgement of the movies it spawned was nostalgia based.
I finally decided to rewatch the original and liked it even better the second time around, even though I knew how it ended. After that, it was nigh on impossible to watch any more found footage stuff. The original is pristine, if that can be used to describe a movie. The first super-successful found footage film is the mic drop of found footage films.
Now they want to try and do it again.
On the heels of their collaboration on the horror film “Imaginary,” Lionsgate and Blumhouse will partner on the development and production of a new “Blair Witch Project,” Adam Fogelson, chair, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group and Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse, announced at CinemaCon on Wednesday.
“The Blair Witch Project” is the first film in a multi-picture pact with Blumhouse reimagining horror classics from the Lionsgate library.
Look, I love the work of Blumhouse Productions. Jason Blum produced "Paranormal Activity." The company is behind most of the movies that I really enjoyed during my binge, most notably all of the "Insidious" flicks. If any production company could pull off an entertaining "reimagining" of "The Blair Witch Project" it would be Blumhouse.
But why?
Let the witch continue her work in our imaginations, where the tale remains pristine forever.
Click the button below to get the Morning Briefing emailed to you every weekday. Have your coffee with me, people. It's free and it supports conservative media!
