Hello Kitty remakes "The Blair Witch Project."

October 18, 2002 8:16 AM

Hello Kitty remakes "The Blair Witch Project." This is either the most clever or most inane Yahoo! Greeting I've ever seen...wait, is "inane Yahoo! Greeting" redundant? Happy pre-Halloween Friday...does anyone remember TBWP fondly these days, as the nights grow spooky? Going to see "The Ring" tonight?
posted by serafinapekkala (32 comments total)

I'm hoping The Ring is good. The Japanese original had an excellent reputation.

I remember going to see The Blair Witch Project opening night. I knew too much for the experience to be completely effective, but I thought the movie was pretty creepy. The ending was great.

It's not a repeatable experience, though. Once you've seen the Blair Witch, you're done with it.
posted by hipnerd at 8:28 AM on October 18, 2002

Isn't next Friday also pre-Halloween Friday?

I was interested in seeing "The Ring" (not least of all for Naomi Watts, who's phenomenal in "Mulholland Drive"), but I've been reading mixed reviews. I'd hate to see it only to have it ruin the original for me, which hasn't been released in the U.S. apparently so it won't compete with the remake.
posted by UnReality at 8:34 AM on October 18, 2002

I wasn't quite convinced by this Hello Kitty thing. It misses something. A creep ending, no doubt. Also, I tend to care very little for animated kittens.

Or kittens in general for that matter.

*runs, hides*
posted by NekulturnY at 8:39 AM on October 18, 2002

Well, that was special. About halfway through, Yahoo! popped open a new window on my desktop that proceeded to try and load some sort of program that put my system into thrash mode and locked up my workstation! It took a reboot to clear it out. Anybody care to enlighten me as to what the purpose might be behind this virus-like behavior?
posted by MrBaliHai at 8:41 AM on October 18, 2002

The Ring website has a similar appeal to the Requiem for a Dream site.
posted by adamms222 at 8:44 AM on October 18, 2002

I saw The Ring last weekend as part of the sneak preview release, and as a scary movie aficionado I can safely report that it freaked the holy living crap out of me. I haven't seen the original, but I certainly wasn't disappointed by the remake.
posted by jess at 8:49 AM on October 18, 2002

I am definitely going to see "The Ring" some time this week, but still anxious to see the Japanese original.

Also greatly looking forward to the "premiere" of London After Midnight on Halloween night, reconstructed entirely from stills. It will be the first time the film has been seen in nearly 50 years in any format, as the last print known to exist was destroyed in a vault fire at MGM in the 1960s. It is listed on the American Film Institute's Ten Most Wanted "Lost" Films.

Oh look! Soylent Green is on tonight!
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:53 AM on October 18, 2002

I like Elvis Mitchell's review of the Ring: "It includes violence, blood, animal endangerment and spooky distant rumbling on its soundtrack."
posted by panopticon at 8:59 AM on October 18, 2002

I'm glad to hear this isn't anything like "Fear Dot Com." The trailers were earily similar.
posted by me3dia at 9:07 AM on October 18, 2002

I didn't see it, but just by the name "Fear Dot Com" sounded like it was released about three years too late.
posted by risenc at 9:17 AM on October 18, 2002

On the subject of the ring. Why remake a perfectly good film? If it's better than the original, I take it back, but I doubt it... and having watched the trailer I doubt it even more.
posted by devon at 9:42 AM on October 18, 2002

I saw "The Ring" the other night at a promotional preview and have to say that it was one of the better horror films that I have seen in a long time. They didn't over do it on shock and gore like so many do. It's only PG-13, but still pretty good. (One of my favorites is still "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and that was only PG... who says you have to have an R rating for it to be a good horror flick?)
posted by darian at 9:52 AM on October 18, 2002

does anyone remember TBWP fondly these days, as the nights grow spooky? Going to see "The Ring" tonight?

No, and no.


But thanks for asking.
posted by Ayn Marx at 10:06 AM on October 18, 2002

This "Ring" move.... it'll probably be the scariest PG-13 movie since Titanic.

*shivers*
posted by dopamine at 10:09 AM on October 18, 2002

obligatory Hello Kitty sex toy link
posted by gen at 10:09 AM on October 18, 2002

Horror movie afficianados with the ability to screen VCDs (either on your computer or on a DVD player which also plays VCDs) can see the original "Ring" quite easily, by visiting here. The subtitles are so crappy as to be surreal, but it's still worth your $7.99 - creepy as hell. I'm probably going to cave on my original resolution to boycott the remake, just because I'm curious as to whether they managed to live up to the original. Also, what else does a horror fangirl have to look forward to these days - Ghost Ship? Jeeze...
posted by hilatron at 10:36 AM on October 18, 2002

Am I the only one that I hated the Blair Witch Project? I ate a large, extremely sour pickle bfore seeing it in a theater. The dumb friends of my ex-husbands who had bought the tickets earlier were late, so we ended up sitting in the front row. Needless to say, I got motion sick and puked up pickle. And I fail to see what was so scary about it, unless you have a phobia of rocks and sticks.
posted by CoFenchurch at 11:21 AM on October 18, 2002

My roommate and I got sick from bad movie theater hot dogs when watching Blair Witch. She threw up in a trash can and enjoyed the last half of the movie. I didn't and was sick for four days.
posted by Foosnark at 11:24 AM on October 18, 2002

Hilatron:Horror movie aficionados with the ability to screen VCDs (either on your computer or on a DVD player which also plays VCDs) can see the original "Ring" quite easily, by visiting here.

I really want to see The Ring, but I'm pretty sure that site is mostly or all pirates. They sell "The Archives of Studio Ghibli" which is definitely illegitimate. Not to be a big ol' buzzkill or anything.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 11:36 AM on October 18, 2002

hipnerd: "Once you've seen the Blair Witch, you're done with it."

I'd say that about Blair Witch 2, but I saw the first film in the theater seven times and then bought the VHS when it came out. I still watch the film now and then. I sincerely enjoy the acting and appreciate the faux, insincere approach to realism. I mean it's on par with the best of the worst B-rated movies. Definite Golden Turkey Award. I love it!
posted by ZachsMind at 11:44 AM on October 18, 2002

CoFenchurch and Foosnark: woah, sorry to hear about your vomitrocious experiences at the movies... *wiping tear of mirth from face* ;-P

as for me, i remember stumbling on the BWP website (which as you recall had all this fake background material on the film, back when they were passing it off as "real") many months before the film came out, and i guess it hit some Jungian nerve in my subconscious. the movie freaked the hell out of me, i saw it in the afternoon and i couldn't walk into my apartment afterwards without jumping at everything. but it wasn't really the film itself; it stirred up my own scary memories of camping with my family as a little kid, and once getting lost in the woods sans flashlight. it was the shots of the woods at night, really plain and normal and yet impenetrable, and the sound of unknown crackling and thudding that got to me...BOO!
posted by serafinapekkala at 11:54 AM on October 18, 2002

PST: I bought my "Ring" VCD from that site and the picture and sound are decent although not DVD-quality or anything...I still contend it's worth the 8 bucks if that's the only way you can see it, you buzzkill you. ;-)

In other news, I liked BWP but it seems like a like-it-or-hate-it film to me; its scares are completely subjective and you have to be drawn in in order to for it to work for you. My lack of motion sickness probably helped with the whole experience, too.
posted by hilatron at 12:33 PM on October 18, 2002

Well, if it's the only way one can see it...
*completes journey to the darkside, goes back to getvcds.com*
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 12:42 PM on October 18, 2002

As if Sanrio's Kitty wasn't creepy enough - indeed!
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 12:53 PM on October 18, 2002

hilatron: "its scares are completely subjective and you have to be...

The Blair Witch was supposed to be scary? ...Ohhh!

Well in that case it was a bad movie. I thought it was just supposed to be a dramadie about stupid self-centered college students getting lost in the woods. On that level it's an excellent film, but scary? Nrepted.
posted by ZachsMind at 12:55 PM on October 18, 2002

The Blair Witch Project was a lot spookier and fun when I first saw it in April of 1999, which was about three months before it was released nationally. There was very little buzz about it outside of the Internet (first Internet-spawned movie marketing, was it not?), so I hadn't heard too much about it, and neither did the rest of the audience. We had a great time, and it seemed like a sincere effort as a low-budget ghost story can get.

By the time it was released, and subsequently grew insanely popular, all the mystery and fun had been sapped out of it. It should have remained a small-time indie feature.

As for The Ring, I might check it out. I love a good creepy movie that isn't a gore-fest.
posted by Down10 at 6:57 PM on October 18, 2002

I saw the Japanese version of "The Ring" last weekend and was unimpressed. It wasn't scary in the slightest. Probably the most dissappointing movie I've ever seen. It was just so predictable. The pacing killed the suspense. I do look forward to seeing "Dark Water" however.

As far as the BWP goes, I think it was the second best horror movie I've ever seen behind Dario Argento's "Suspiria". If you didn't like it then you probabaly don't like this genre of movies.
I thought that it left so much to the imagination and that the presentation (although nauseating) was original. I truly wish that there were more movies like it.
Few horror movies compare.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing the U.S. Ring this week. It looks like they improved on the video itself which was by far the best part of the original.
posted by ttrendel at 2:56 AM on October 19, 2002

And oh yes,

Ayn Marx,

I sincerely hope that you are a 13-17 year-old girl. The useless angst that you release here is surely on-par with that.
If not, grow up, get a life, and quit pissing all over threads. Ayn Marx as a username? Yup, that's cool. Idiot. Your parents clearly did not pay you enough attention. Perhaps you were not worth it.

Get over and go fuck yourself sincerely,
ttrendel

That is all. You may now return to wearing Lisa Loeb glasses and listening to alterna-rock. (Ayn Marx? What a hoot. Are you going out of your way to be an obnoxious, pretentious moron? If so, good luck.)
posted by ttrendel at 3:13 AM on October 19, 2002

Stready on, ttrendel.
posted by lucien at 11:54 AM on October 19, 2002

Are you going out of your way to be an obnoxious, pretentious moron?

One could ask you the same question.

But back to the thread. I saw the Ring about three weeks ago. I think I was the only one in the theatre that liked it. It's almost like the director was trying to combine Blair Witch with the Sixth Sense, with some elements of Lovecraft thrown in but couldn't decide which direction he wanted to go in.
posted by euphorb at 12:25 PM on October 19, 2002

I didnt really like The Ring but in comparison with fear.com it was a masterpiece.

I loved the sixth sense and hated the Blair Witch Project. The Ring falls somewhere in between for me. There were some scary parts and interesting twists but nothing really held it together.
posted by Recockulous at 5:07 PM on October 19, 2002

I have yet to see a negative comment on the BWP that doesn't sound like a troll. Most of the comments I read that are critical sound like the writer either didn't "get it" or slept through most of the movie.
I agree that sticks and stones by themselves are not scary but in the context of the film they are extremely scary, if you're paying attention to the story, that is. What is it that the people that didn't like this film expected that they didn't get?

Ducking in anticipation of the responses to the "get it" comment.
posted by waltb555 at 10:43 AM on October 21, 2002