Day: 15 September 2024

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Dead Northern 2024 festival review – The Blair Witch Project (1999) 25 year anniversary screening

The Blair Witch Project opens with the infamous title card announcing the disappearances of three student filmmakers. What follows is the discovered footage of what went on during the fatal trip, culminating in their mysterious and unexplainable vanishings. Legend has it, the trio’s bodies have never been found…

In 1993, film students Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez began to recognise a pattern – they found documentaries on the paranormal far surpassed the fear factor staged by traditional horror cinema. After years of passing the idea of a scripted supernatural documentary around, they (along with Gregg Hale, Robin Cowie and Michael Monello) started the production company ‘Haxan Films’, which, for those who picked up on this detail, yes, Haxan comes from the infamous docu horror Häxan (1922).

With the production company garnering a small money pot from producing corporate and commercial videos, the crew set ahead to get the ball rolling on the long-awaited pseudo-documentary. The premise of something strange, dark and mysterious being real, particularly within its presentation, is terrifying.

Fiction is escapable and, more often than not, non-threatening past the screen. However, the immersive, replicative, and first-hand perspective of vérité cinema can provoke the viewer to suspend their belief and mediate reality into the fictitious narrative. Whilst the contemporary commonality of reality-coded horror falters the chances of the cinematic events being perceived as real, in 1999, this was groundbreaking and convincing to audiences. As such, Myrick and Sánchez weaponised the diegetic camera brilliantly utilised by previous filmmakers such as Shirley Clarke, Ruggero Deodato and Satoru Ogura and created one of the most infamous horror movies of all time. 

At the start of production, the focus characters, Heather Donahue (now Rei Hance), Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard, were all informed that this was not an archetypal experience. The screenplay was 35 pages long, but the content was more stage directions, with the directors opting for the dialogue to materialise from improvisation. The footage was primarily shot by the three characters on a Hi8 camcorder, enhancing the amateur feel and consequently embedding the sense that these personalities on screen are genuinely filming a documentary. Further detaching the cast from the facets of their actions belonging to a broader project is the actions of genuine contention arisen by the crew behind the scenes.

As the actors would essentially be left alone to record the loose script, the cast would be given clues as to where their following location would be via secret messages located inside 35mm film cans. This would often lead to the trio becoming lost and hostile with one another about their directions. A few of these squabbles were left in the final cut of the film but cut around to match the context of being lost amidst the horror of the plot. The directing duo would also make the characters traverse extensive journeys throughout the day, heightening the already low mood and making them irate. As one last push to both blur the lines of fiction and reality and weaponise what the filmmakers coined ‘method filmmaking’, when the night drew close, and the cast could unwind, the crew would show up unannounced and play creepy pranks, all before whittling down their food supply each day. 

The sick, twisted, and undoubtedly cruel tactics resulted in raw footage that, regardless of the scripted mythos of witchery, was an authentic portrayal of people reaching the brink, hitting their peak and unleashing wraths of turmoil and anger over the dreaded scenario. With such a defiant approach to achieving the filmic goal, it is no surprise that the immediate reception was primarily one of praise, with many outlets applauding the innovativeness and ‘less is more’ approach towards the antagonistic force.

On the other hand, the media also reported on the buzz the film received at its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival (1999), where audience members were fainting and vomiting at the dizzying handheld, motion-sickness-provoking cinematography. However, as any horror fan knows, festival drama and antics over the gruesomeness of horror is a good sign of quality gnarly, horrid and shocking filmmaking. As the film’s now notorious reception was building, a secondary force of conversation was budding amongst audiences. 

A key detail in The Blair Witch Project’s reputation is its marketing campaign. Prior to the premiere, the film launched a website which featured fake police reports and newsreel-esque interviews seeking to find the ‘missing’ students. However, the most ‘alarming’ snippet showcased a missing poster of Heather, Michael and Josh, complete with the standard height, age and weight typical to a genuine missing person flyer.

It was one thing that the film purported its diegesis to be one of pure authenticity, but if there were any ‘unconvinced’ spectators were not buying the ‘truth’, Myers and Sánchez would keep up the act off-screen, pretending that the film’s festival screenings were motivated by wanting to get the message out there about the disappearances; even going as far to distribute print outs of the missing poster to audience members. The final flourish regards how the official IMDB page listed the performers as “missing, presumed dead”! Although the internet did not have the colloquial sharing aspect nailed to a fine art in terms of sharing and speculating as it does today, the film managed to go ‘viral’. 

It took Myrick and Sánchez seven years from the initial idea to the premiere at Sundance, proving that whilst independent cinema can involve intensive labour that is a marathon, not a sprint, indie horror can turn passion and creativity into payoff. In the last twenty-five years, The Blair Witch Project’s reputation is still thriving, with the film spawning comic books, video games and two sequels, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) and Blair Witch (2016), as well as an array of parodies, including the criminally underrated Scooby Doo Halloween Special – The Scooby Doo Project (1999).

What comes with such notoriety is a sense of familiarity. Even if a non-horror fan were to come across imagery from the film, they would immediately recognise where the callback originated. It could even be said that those who have never seen the movie can distinguish the continuous references made to the film in pop culture. Think of the infamous extreme close-up of Heather trembling with fear, looking straight into the lens, essentially saying her goodbyes, or the shot of Mike standing, staring at the wall as if in a trance, with Heather screaming bloody murder in the background. 


The Blair Witch Project is akin to a landmark, standing proudly in a brimming genre, with its history and legacy granting it a place against all of the greats before and many of the classics yet to come.

You can catch the film Friday 27th September at this years festival, tickets here!

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Dead Northern Festival News and Reviews Reviews

Dead Northern 2024 Festival review – Lake Jesup


Written and directed by Michael Houston King is Lake Jesup, which brings back the rip-roaring, ultra-violent and brutal creature feature. This monstrous exploration chronicles the havoc wrecked upon Jesup City, Florida, circa 2003 as a deadly alligator named Bonecrusher escapes from its home at Gator Galaxy, owned by the greedy Angus Sullivan (Jeff Benninghofen), who is content with the missing, colossal reptile as long as he is profiting off of the mayhem. The increasing body count reaches headline news as the people of Jesup City are killed off one by one, leading Mayor Sam Neuhauser (Houston King), along with Jim Fisher (Essex O’Brien), the city’s Fish and Wildlife Commissioner, to bring in the only man skilled enough for the deadly job, ex-convict and ‘gator hunter Bubba Coggins (Derek Russo).

The film’s namesake and inspiration originates from the real Lake Jesup, located in Seminole County, Florida, known as one of the most alligator-infested lakes in the U.S., with the estimated number of species being upwards of 13,000. The terrifying quantity is thanks to the draining of Floridian wetlands in the late 1960s to make room for the tourist infrastructure, resulting in thousands of alligators having to be moved to the shallow backwater swamp of Lake Jesup. As the title card rightly affirms, the term ‘moved’ or ‘rehomed’ is too gentle; in reality, the creatures were “displaced and dumped like trash”. This element of being treated as refuse, disposing of ‘problems’ for the sake of profit and greed is precisely what the film so brutally, effectively and movingly captures. 

Whilst the on-screen gator-mania is a pure rollercoaster of thrills, exciting and ferocious kills and energising sequences of bloodied waters, what Lake Jesup does is unveil a layered subtext to the plot that reveals an emotional story of monopolising tragedy. No nitty gritty spoilers below, but as the film progresses, it is clear that Bonecrusher’s fugitivity exposes the harsh reality of the characters. Subsequently, as Houston King evidently knows, a stellar lineup of performers is essential to flesh out the comprehensive story.

Lake Jesup’s lead and bayou huntsman, Bubba, played by the commendable Russo, is equipped with a brilliantly dark yet incredibly traumatic backstory that provides plenty of ample moments for Russo’s raw talent to shine through as the audience is witness to his portrayal of a man willing to do anything to fight for his and his family’s freedom. Equally praiseworthy is Houston King himself, who plays the Mayor desperate to get reelected for another four. Joining the cast is the seedy Gator Galaxy owner Angus Sullivan, who plays a corrupt business owner like no other. The contextual-heavy plot shines at the hands of its actors, who truly act as the ideal vessel for the delicate and narratively rich film. 

The spirited Lake Jesup is further glazed with an abundance of stellar cinematography. Endless shots of lush green landscapes, bodies of muddied water, images of characters deep in contemplation, and the impressive angles of alligators in their various habitats all radiate on the screen, transporting the viewer from their position right into the depths of Lake Jesup. Not to be overlooked is how the film interprets its thematic palette against the aesthetics within the visuals. The dense swampland that features throughout is quaint on the surface, but underneath the facade of serenity and stillness of the water lies trouble, lying in wait to cause destruction. Similarly, this embodies what Bubba is made to endure, with his liberty being at stake if he does not capture Bonecrusher before it is too late.

This engaging, riveting and arresting independent horror is not simply an unmissable feature, it is a surefire crowd pleaser that starts conversations, prompts powerful reactions and will have you wanting more.

You can catch the film Sunday 29th September at this years festival, tickets here!

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Dead Northern Festival News and Reviews Reviews

Dead Northern Festival 2024 Review – The Monster Beneath Us

Bursting with tales of losing control and challenging reality, all entwined with a hint of familial trauma and ladened with a haunting gothic aesthetic that bodes stunning imagery and a grippingly tense atmosphere is Sophie Osbourne’s The Monster Beneath Us. 

Yorkshire, England, 1898, sees Lord James Abbington (Jack Forsyth-Noble) of Doloridge House turn a gun onto himself, leaving his wife Grace (Becca Hirani) and their son Charles (Marshall Hawkes) to leave the bustling city of London and return to the quiet countryside to settle affairs. However, they soon realise that they are not alone inside the grandiose manor as Charles develops a strange bond with a mysterious entity below the house. 

Writer and director Sophie Osbourne shows no qualms in creating valiant horror that shies away from the bold and sharp barbaricness of slashers and body horror. Alternatively, the film opts for a tremendously eerie slow-burn aura that creeps up on the viewer one haunting moment after the other before completely enveloping you into the maddeningly nightmarish world that is meticulously crafted throughout this British horror. The Monster Beneath Us’ cunning ability to rouse great terror inch by inch is a testament to the film’s sundry charms, from the evocative performances and the thoughtful milieu of designs that echo the time period all the way through to the atmospheric soundscape that conspires with the harrowingly toned cinematography. Take the first act as an example; at this point, whilst we expect malevolence and understand the ominous threat of the situation, Osbourne ensures that we are not entirely privy to the full extent of the torment just yet – essentially, the film knowingly hoodwinks us, throwing any chance of predictability far away. 

Simultaneously, as the intricate and complex story unravels, the screen brims with scenes lit with a glow reminiscient of the film’s 1800s zeitgeist, adding to the visually arresting gothic pathos that screams darkness, melancholy, romanticism, tragedy and a plethora of other fantastical elements that The Monster Beneath Us utilises. Further saturating the film with an air of suspense is the array of performances put on display, namely lead Grace Abbington, portrayed by the excellent Becca Hirani, who slips into the cleverly written role with commendable ease. 

Last but not least, in the long line of ovation is The Monster Beneath Us’ setting. It is no secret that British horror is remarkable, particularly when it comes to shadowy, macabre period pieces due to the naturally eerie forestry settings and longrunning folklore, with The Monster Beneath Us skillfully adopting this first element. Yorkshire is alive with countless landmarks, woodlands and, of course, ‘The Moors’, which in the light of genre cinema can provide atmospheric tones of gloominess, a cold, distinct dusk where expressive and powerful ghostliness can creep in. Consequently, the film that has an equal measure of the visual uncanny and a spectral uneasiness that is typically hard to capture on screen.

The Monster Beneath Us artfully moves the goalposts of what one is to expect when entering the world of a monstrous story. The result is a film that delves deep under the surface and extracts themes of grief, alienation and despair to conjure a narrative that is persistently vast and one that makes The Monster Beneath Us a horror that deserves a place on a watchlist.

You can catch the film Sunday 29th September at this years festival, tickets here!

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Dead Northern Festival News and Reviews Reviews

Dead Northern Festival 2024 Review – The Healing

The Healing makes two things clear: be careful who you trust, and be careful of what you trust. This tense and unnerving descent into chaos is an exercise into the dark underbelly that seedily lies amidst seemingly tranquil and ‘healing’ situations…

The film follows Lyuba (Alyona Mitroshina), who, in a bid to escape from her abusive relationship to Sergey (Vyacheslav Chepurchenko), heads off to a weekend retreat with her friends Sveta (Victoria Skitskaya) and Zoya (Ekaterina Solomatina). The retreat seems warm and welcoming at first, a chance for Lyuba to distance herself from her troubles; however, when she becomes anxious and starts hallucinating and wants to leave the increasingly strange retreat, Lyuba fears that what’s waiting on the outside is far worse. 

Troublesome woes of domesticity are trickled through The Healing with an appropriateness that gives credence to the gravity of the situation. As Lyuba’s experiences with Sergey are revealed, it becomes clear that matters such as unsettling manipulation and loss of autonomy are central to the film’s effectiveness. The Healing joins the likes of Silent House (2011), Midsommar (2019) and The Invisible Man (2020), where scenes showcasing the erosion of reality speak to underlying concepts that arise from traumatic relationships. Whilst the magnetisation of horror and terror play prominent roles in keeping The Healing entertaining, what director Den Hook ensures is a level of sincerity and solemnity in showcasing such an emotionally deep and courageous film. 

Adjacent to the intense core of The Healing is the film’s isolated setting, which is almost a character within itself. The remote destination of the retreat replicates an intense feeling of remoteness, which outwardly represents the serenity that such a supposed haven should have. Yet, the vast openness of untamed woodlands teeming with towering trees and sweeping landscapes exploits the psychological paradox of the film. The seemingly endless spaces of land harness a form of affective, emotional claustrophobia, where despite the purported freedom of the sanctum, there is an evocative sense of inescapable surveillance from both Lyuba’s introspective visions and the followers from the retreat. 

The Healing elevates the already powerful ambience through its parading of subjective reality with the assistance of Lyuba’s intense visions, which she experiences throughout the film. The film often wears a cognisant coat by virtue of Lyuba’s apparitions that embody both a sense of fantasia, alongside startling spells of disorienting horror. The amalgamation of surrealism and unsettling horror lines the film’s double edged sword, with the almost ethereal-like illusions drawing the viewer in, only to stun and disconcert when the reveries quickly become dark, crazed and twisted. 

The combined powerful cerebral knowingness of the narrative and the aesthetically striking nature of The Healing works to create a richly detailed and rigorous end product in its means to engage, alert and disturb.

You can catch the film Saturday 28th September at this years festival, tickets here!