The Blair Witch Project
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Seducing the Future
To say that the transformations that film and film technology have undergone since Filmmaker’s inaugural year — 1992 — are revolutionary is an understatement. DVD was still on the horizon, DV camcorders were several years away and the notion of shooting and editing a full-length motion picture with no actual film seemed downright futuristic. There have been book-lengths’ worth of changes since that first issue, but here are just a few. I. Metadata The information surrounding a film has stretched far beyond mere publicity (the classical era) and merchandising (post-1977 Star Wars), becoming enmeshed within the very fabric of a […]
by Nicholas Rombes on Sep 14, 2017 -
We Tell Ourselves Franchises in Order to Live
Last weekend I took a trip to the Regal Union Square Stadium 14 and paid seventeen bucks to see Blair Witch. Based on the reviews, I was pretty certain that I wasn’t going to like it very much (spoiler alert: I was right). But still I felt compelled to hop the Q train and head into Manhattan to meet my friend at the multiplex. What brought me out there? Maybe it was the changing weather and its subliminal indication of Halloween’s approach. Maybe it was the faint hope that director Adam Wingard — whose previous work I’ve really dug — would elevate what […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Sep 26, 2016 -
THE POST-CINEMATIC CINEMA OF THE “PARANORMAL ACTIVITY” MOVIES
In his “Six Asides on Paranormal Activity,” published here at Filmmaker, Nicholas Rombes placed the Paranormal Activity films (particularly Paranormal Activity 2) within the realm of avant-garde cinema, even developing what he termed “the Fixed Camera Manifesto” to delineate the strategy of the latter film. Now, Rombes has elaborated upon his ideas as part of a group discussion about “the post-cinematic” as it relates to these films over at La Furia Umana. Also participating are Julia Leyda, Steven Shaviro, and Therese Grisham. From Rombes: In the Paranormal films, it’s not the house or the characters who are haunted, but the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 17, 2011 -
Lady Vengeance: Trollhunter Review
Any genre fan will tell you that when it comes to movie beasties, delayed gratification is key. It is considered classic good form to mount anticipation via quick glimpses of scales/fur/claws, or unnerving detritus left in the creature’s wake, all leading up to the spectacular fashion in which the monster will finally emerge. Rather than bend completely to convention, Trollhunter, with dry Scandinavian aplomb, breaks with this rule of horror suspense by having the grizzled titular character run out of the woods, shout “TROLL,” and cause his disbelieving companions to disperse chaotically amid earth-quaking snorts and stomps. The troll isn’t […]
by Farihah Zaman on Jun 10, 2011 -
10/40/70’s NICHOLAS ROMBES INTERVIEWED
The rise of the web has led to an explosion of film writing — Roger Ebert has called it “A Golden Age of Movie Critics.” I don’t disagree with him, but I also think it’s fair to say that with the exception of comments boards and social media, the web hasn’t changed the actual form of film writing that much. A few people (Matt Zoller Seitz, for example), are exploring long-form film criticism online through engagingly edited videos. And, of course, the web has brought David Bordwell’s essential essays exploring films through the history of their technologies, styles, and audience’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 12, 2010
