The Blair Witch Project
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Most of the booking decisions at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater make sense to me. Even if the movies in question are not necessarilly my cup of tea, I can see that there's an audience for it and that people will show up and have a great time. Having said that, I can definitely see the attraction in bringing The Blair Witch Project back to the Mahoning two years after it was last screened here, but the way in which it was done seemed a bit odd to me.
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Most of the booking decisions at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater make sense to me. Even if the movies in question are not necessarilly my cup of tea, I can see that there's an audience for it and that people will show up and have a great time. Having said that, I can definitely see the attraction in bringing The Blair Witch Project back to the Mahoning two years after it was last screened here, but the way in which it was done seemed a bit odd to me.
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| 2022 show banner designed by Andrew Kern |
My first time seeing The Blair Witch Project at the Mahoning was on July 24th, 2022. The show ended up being an unexpected sellout, or close to a sellout, with fans from around the area packed onto the lot to see a modern horror classic in an atmosphere that extended the reach of the story beyond the screen. The sounds of the wildlife in the trees around the lot made for an immersive experience in which it felt like you were in the woods with Heather, Mike, and Josh. It was one of the coolest screenings that I've ever attended on the lot.
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| 2024 show banner designed by Andrew Kern |
This weekend, The Blair Witch Project was brought back to the Mahoning this weekend in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the film. It's not uncommon for a movie to be shown more than once in a relatively short period of time, especially when it's brought back for an anniversary or as a part of an event. It would have made sense if it was brought back as a single feature on a Sunday, or maybe as part of an announced double or triple feature on a Friday or Saturday. What didn't make sense to me was to show it on back-to-back nights with a different "secret feature".
There aren't many things about the Mahoning that I dislike, but one of those things is the advertised secret feature. They used this same gimmick last weekend at the Grindhouse double feature and I wasn't going to air any grievances about it, but this is now two weekends in a row that they've done this and it's a trend that I'm not happy to see. Secret features can be a lot of fun when they're a surprise bonus that gets put on the screen for folks who want to say up late, but the gimmick of advertising two different secret features that will be screened after the same movie leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's exploiting your customers, plain and simple. If you're going to show the same film two nights in a row with a different co-feature, have enough respect for the people who keep the bills paid to announce what the second films will be so that they can choose which of the two nights they would rather attend.
My complaints are being made under the assumption that they are paying the licensing fees for the films that are being advertised as the co-feature that customers are buying a ticket to see. I don't want to think that this isn't the case because it would be an asinine decision that could put the future of the Mahoning Drive-In Theater in jeopardy.
The poster for this show (right) was created by artist Tom Bifulco. He's the same artist who created the poster for the Blair Witch screening two years ago (left). Aside from the obvious similarities, I thought it was a bit odd that this year's poster doesn't have the name of the film. I'm not sure if that's a first, but I can't remember seeing a Mahoning poster that didn't include the name of the movie prior to this one.
The experience of seeing The Blair Witch Project at the Mahoning is truly special. I can't imagine a better atmosphere for seeing this film unless you somehow found a way to erect a massive cinemascope screen in the woods outside of Burkittsville where it was filmed.
Our friends Susan and Anthony joined us for this screening. They're about ten years younger than us and this was their first time seeing The Blair Witch Project. When we talked during intermission, I was shocked to find that neither of them really liked the movie all that much, but it started making sense to me when I thought about it. This really is a movie where you had to be there back in 1999 to get the full effect. This film may have had the strongest marketing campaign in the history of cinema. It was released in the days of dial-up internet, years before streaming video or social media took over the world, and years before the overwhelming majority of moviegoers had ever heard of found footage filmmaking. Between the perfect marketing, the general public's unfamiliarity with the technique, and television documentaries like Curse Of The Blair Witch, the word of mouth that spread about this movie was that it might be real. This might actually be footage that was recovered from three people who went off in the woods and were never heard from again. It seems ridiculous today, but back in 1999 when this movie first came out, every discussion I heard about The Blair Witch Project was a debate over whether or not it's real. It didn't take too long for everybody to understand that this was just a movie, but it was the initial uncertainty that made this feel special.
When I try to imagine this movie from the perspective of someone who is seeing it for the first time in 2024, the only conclusion I can reach is that The Blair Witch Project really doesn't hold up. It no longer feels fresh and original. It gets lost in the sea of the countless mediocre found footage films that came out in the years that followed. Speaking of which...
The secret feature for Friday night was the 2015 found footage horror film; Hell House LLC. I typically don't write about secret features, but if they're going to advertise them as part of the show, I'm going to write about them as part of the show. This shouldn't be a problem if everything is on the up-and-up.
I'm not a big fan of Found Footage filmmaking. I realize that The Blair Witch Project wasn't technically the first found footage film, but films like Cannibal Holocaust weren't exactly household names in 1999. The Blair Witch Project was the right film at the right place at the right time, and with the right marketing team to promote it. Most of the found footage horror movies that have been released over the past 25 years came across to me as lame copycats that were thrown together to cash in on the success of Blair Witch, and Hell House LLC absolutely fits into that subgenre. The acting is terrible, the story is dull, the special effects are basically costumes from a Spirit Halloween store, and you can replicate a lot of the cinematography just by hitting record on your mobile phone and waiving it around randomly in the air while shouting "what the f*ck was that".
One of the folks who was sitting next to us mentioned that they made four sequels to this movie. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that anybody can make a horror movie these days. Just grab your camera and a few friends and start filming because there's some distributor out there who will pay you for it.
The only thing that I found interesting about Hell House LLC is that it was partially filmed just down the street from the Mahoning at the Waldorf Hotel in Lehighton. If it wasn't a secret feature, it could have been a cool opportunity to cross-brand with the Waldorf Estate Of Fear attraction; maybe to include a few passes for this year in the raffle. I've never been to the Waldorf Estate Of Fear, but I'm told that it's one of the best haunted attractions in the country so I might have to check it out one of these days. The rest of the Hell House LLC movies... not so much.
