The New Blair Witch?

[S-Des]

So I'm at Transformers (which I heartily enjoyed on a completely superficial level ), and there's an excellent looking trailer for Will Smith's upcoming movie, 'I Am Legend' (which is Omega Man for anyone who's seen it). Right afterwards comes this bizarre trailer that consists of a going away party for some guy named Rob. It's a bunch of friends, hanging out and having a good time, all being shown through a grainy, hand-held video camera. Suddenly, there's a loud noise and a terrific movement, so they rush to turn on the TV, which is reporting a possible earthquake. They hear another loud roar and run to the roof, where they see a tremendous explosion in the distance (they're in NY) and they run back into the building to avoid the flaming debris raining down in every direction. They reach the street and find people fleeing wildly something behind them, and someone says, "I saw it! It was huge and it's alive." Seconds later, you see something flying from the distance. It careens off a skyscraper and hits the street. When it comes to rest, you realize it is the head of the Statue Of Liberty. The screen goes black and it gives a release date in Jan, 2008. The camera comes back on and one of the friends says, "This is going to be the best night ever." The screen goes black again, but doesn't give a movie title, just flashing a few credits, then going black for good.

It's a movie by JJ Abrams, by Bad Robots studio. It's currently called Cloverfield, but subject to a name change (possibly why they're being mysterious). The creature is reportedly a giant alien, nicknamed 'The Parasite' by insiders. It had a spectacular effect on the audience, and there has been an internet buzz created by something so small. Evidently, the entire movie will be shot Blair Witch style, telling the story through the eyes of the people running for their lives. If you get the chance to check out the trailor, do so . . . it's very effective. I wonder if they might finally get a giant monster movie to have the kind of impact it really should have on the audience; understanding the sense of awe, terror, and helplessness you would feel in a situation so ridiculous. It would be about freaking time.

 

[S-Des]

Well, nobody seems interested, but I'm curious enough for all of us. I checked out the rumor boards and found out there was a new site for the movie (actually 2). One is a blog that says derrogatory things about the "movement" and the director. The other is a clever site that has a puzzle on each page you must get past to reach the next. After the first, there is a star you click on, which brings up your email with an address and a subject line ("I'm one of you... help me!"). After sending them an email, I received two auto-responses, welcoming me to the movement and providing clues for solving more of the puzzles.

The whole thing seems to be based on the premise of the movie, which is evidently a psychic who predicted a number of things for the future, all of which are coming true. There are believers and non-believers (some of whom have ulterior motives), necessitating an underground movement (hence the cryptic videos and puzzles you must solve to "prove your worthiness"). The final predictions involve the deaths of millions, caused by the monster, which some people are speculating is Cthulhu, others that this is based on a Lovecraft novel (or using it for a general feel). I love the concept, the director, and what they've done so far. Anyone who likes interesting puzzles, the site is ethanhaaswasright.com and ethanhaaswaswrong.com. They've even got their own alphabet with clues for translations.

Please forgive me . . . I'm geeking out.

 

[RogueLurker]

Well, I'm intrigued.

I'll be checking out the sites later - I just hope that it turns out that the hype isn't better than the movie.

RogueGeek

 

[S-Des]

Well, I'm intrigued.

I'll be checking out the sites later - I just hope that it turns out that the hype isn't better than the movie.

RogueGeek

I got through the first three puzzles pretty easily, but the fourth is a nightmare. It involves using your arrow keys to move 4 dots on a board that all go in different directions simultaneously (every arrow click makes all four move in their own direction at the same time, so it takes a decent bit of setting up to get them to the right spots). Each puzzle gets you a little further into the site, although I doubt it's going to reveal anything earth shaking this far out. There are some really twisted theories going on right now, some involving an old TV show with a character named Haas that has a Wikipedia reference (obviously added recently) that refers to him predicting the end of the world because of the return of Cthulu, so it appears it is a Lovecraft story and that is the monster in question (although it's all internet speculation, so who can really tell?).

 

[TheeGoatPig]

It got my attention before Transformers. I won't be researching it like you are, but I will be keeping an open eye for more media on the film.

 

[S-Des]

It got my attention before Transformers. I won't be researching it like you are, but I will be keeping an open eye for more media on the film.

LOL, it sounds like I'm an internet stalker, doesn't it. I just checked RottenTomatoes.com (looking at the reviews of Harry Potter) when I stumbled across the Web sites. The puzzle thing really struck me as interesting, so I checked it out. Now I'm hooked until I can beat it. Like I said, I'm not actually expecting any big secret at the end of my search, but these are some addicting games.

 

[Guest]

You got me to check out "I am Legend". You're right, sounds like an Omega Man remake. Loved that one. It also starts Alice Braga, niece of Sonia Braga. If she's half as sexy as her aunt, she'll be worth the price of admission. What is it about Brazillian women???

Never saw Blair Witch, but love the idea of small scale movies becoming huge.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

You got me to check out "I am Legend". You're right, sounds like an Omega Man remake. Loved that one. It also starts Alice Braga, niece of Sonia Braga. If she's half as sexy as her aunt, she'll be worth the price of admission. What is it about Brazillian women???

Never saw Blair Witch, but love the idea of small scale movies becoming huge.

I think I'm more interested in "Cloverfield" than I Am Legend. I'm not in the mood right now to watch a lone man roming the streets of New York by himself for half a movie.

I also don't see the set-up as being feasable, but then again I just saw Fantastic Four and Transformers and didn't argue that with either of them...

 

[S-Des]

You got me to check out "I am Legend". You're right, sounds like an Omega Man remake. Loved that one. It also starts Alice Braga, niece of Sonia Braga. If she's half as sexy as her aunt, she'll be worth the price of admission. What is it about Brazillian women???

Never saw Blair Witch, but love the idea of small scale movies becoming huge.

Actually, I never saw the movie, but I loved the advertising camapign. The thing that's a turn-of about I Am Legend is the comment I red that they were ready to go to filming and the studio made them change it to make it "more like Omega Man". I am so tired of remakes. If it is like O.M., then I've seen it before, so what's the point? Poseiden Adventure, War Of The Worlds, we keep getting these rehashes that studios believe will fly because kids are "too young" to have seen or cared about the original. I don't believe that's true, but even if it is, you're cutting off a large portion of your audience who've already seen it (often who've seen versions they really treasure). With O.M., I remember it affecting me, but I hated the end, so why would I pay $10 to see it again? Why not just remake Planet Of The Apes or something . . . oh wait!

 

[deathlynx]

I saw the trailer...I'm not sure what it is but it looks interesting...heck when it firstr started I commented to Mrs and she thought it was the begining of Transformers...

 

[JamesSD]

It's either going to be mindblowingly good, or kind of suck. If I was a betting man, right now I'd pick the latter.

I hope it goes with something Lovecraftian, rather than just being a monster movie with the novelty of being shot from the perspective of the characters.

 

[only_more_so]

I saw the trailer as well, but was rather unimpressed. Of course, I didn't really care for the Blair Witch project either. Especially because I'd been in the wood where the movie was filmed and knew that there was a road just over the hill. Close enough that you can hear it unless you are swearing up a storm.

 

[S-Des]

I saw the trailer as well, but was rather unimpressed. Of course, I didn't really care for the Blair Witch project either. Especially because I'd been in the wood where the movie was filmed and knew that there was a road just over the hill. Close enough that you can hear it unless you are swearing up a storm.

hehe Well, that's the attraction of having something like this made. It's daring . . . not everyone is going to like the style. The entire thing shot with camcorders (or simulated ones)? Very daring. I'm so tired of movies not taking chances. You can't achieve brilliance without some risk. I don't know if this will achieve the former, but at least they seem willing to try the latter.

 

[vixenblack]

I don't understand, Is this a real movie? IT doesn't make any since at all.

 

[S-Des]

I don't understand, Is this a real movie? IT doesn't make any since at all.

Yes. It's a movie that's been kept completely under wraps (virtually no one knew it was being made). It's being marketed similar to the Blair Witch movie, in that the marketing campaign is completely different than other films (their site makes you pass a series of "tests" just to get info on it). I'm guessing they feel the internet buzz created will be as effective as a big marketing campaign. *shrug*

No one knows the plot (other than it's about a giant alien) where the script came from, or what the creature is. There is speculation that it's from a Lovecraft novel or at the very least, influenced by one. Cthulu is a giant monster created by Lovecraft to basically be the epitome of all nightmares . . . a cross between a squid, a dragon, and a human. It's enormous (in the D&D manual I first found it in, it was said to be 900 feet tall) and not a dumb animal, but actually some sort of previous race of demons or something (it was called one of the "old ones" in the novels). Depending on how seriously they director takes the subject matter, and what direction they decide to go in, it could make a very interesting horror movie (not a silly, 'giant monster knocking down buildings' sort of thing). Then again, as James pointed out, it could suck ass. *shrug*

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I saw the trailer as well, but was rather unimpressed. Of course, I didn't really care for the Blair Witch project either. Especially because I'd been in the wood where the movie was filmed and knew that there was a road just over the hill. Close enough that you can hear it unless you are swearing up a storm.

It seemed to me, that anyone who lives near any kind of sizable wooded area wasn't afraid of The Blair Witch Project. We already know what it is like to be out in the woods camping or whatever. We aren't afraid of the stories of weird people in the shack on the hill. Heck, some of us are the weird people in the shack on the hill. Only city folk seem to have been frieghtened by it.

Untested theory for anyone who wants to argue that, but for now I'm standing by it

 

[Guest]

Cloverfield Trailer on Apple's Site

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/

 

[Selena_Kitt]

wow, this looks COOL!

 

[rgraham666]

I Am Legend was originally a book by Richard Matheson. He also wrote The Incredible Shrinking Man.

An interesting take on the vampire mythos with a delicious twist at the end.

The Omega Man was an very poorly done riff on it.

If the new movie is closer to the book it should be quite good.

 

[S-Des]

I Am Legend was originally a book by Richard Matheson. He also wrote The Incredible Shrinking Man.

An interesting take on the vampire mythos with a delicious twist at the end.

The Omega Man was an very poorly done riff on it.

If the new movie is closer to the book it should be quite good.

That's what scares me. When reading about the movie and it's various delays, they said that the studio insisted on making it closer to O.M. with Heston, then to the book. If it's just going to be a cool, special effects version of O.M., then I'll be busy taking out the garbage that week.


BTW, interesting note on the Web sites I mentioned. JJ Abrams is denying that they have anything to do with the movie. It seems bizarre that someone set these up on their own (as they were up a month ago, long before anyone knew the trailer was coming), but I wouldn't recommend anyone solving the puzzles replying to the email (it might wind up getting you a billion pieces of spam). If you're bored, I recommend the puzzles highly though, they are quite challenging.

 

[deathlynx]

Yeah, Lovecraft is very interesting to read...virtually all of his works are short stories so they're quick and easy reads...The general theme is that there are horrors in the world that are better left unseen...As it is, most of the main characters in them end up either dead or in an insane asylum...

When they made a role playing game for it there's a stat called sanity...as it goes up you realize you're loosing the game...You can even slowly become so knowledgeable in a skill that it doesn't seem human which begins to speed up your insanity...the funny thing is, at some point, you actually become so good at something that it acts as a focus to retain your sanity..."Hey, no matter what they throw at me, at least I got my trusty research to handle it!"

 

[S-Des]

Yeah, Lovecraft is very interesting to read...virtually all of his works are short stories so they're quick and easy reads...The general theme is that there are horrors in the world that are better left unseen...As it is, most of the main characters in them end up either dead or in an insane asylum...

When they made a role playing game for it there's a stat called sanity...as it goes up you realize you're loosing the game...You can even slowly become so knowledgeable in a skill that it doesn't seem human which begins to speed up your insanity...the funny thing is, at some point, you actually become so good at something that it acts as a focus to retain your sanity..."Hey, no matter what they throw at me, at least I got my trusty research to handle it!"

I've never read his stuff, although that description sounds very cool. The Wikipedia thing I read on Cthulu seems to fit with that description (something so terrifying, even knowing it exists changes your life). That's what gives me some hope for this film, if it is handled that way. Hellboy took a swipe at it, but missed badly. Monster movies can be fun and goofy, but the reality of something existing that could wipe out civilization should be about as scary as it gets. I just hope they don't follow the War Of The Worlds premise. I liked the remake, but don't need to see another version of the same thing.

At the same time, I'm probably putting too much stock into the rumors. It's the internet, so quite possible that some geek at home with nothing better to do has taken a cool trailer and used it to create his 15 minutes. That's the beauty of a mysterious trailer that leaves us wanting more (rather than the current trend of showing you all the best moments of a film).

 

[rgraham666]

I've got all of Lovecraft's work, in one form or another. My favourites are a toss up between At The Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time.

Both have their 'Holy Fuck!' moments.

 

[deathlynx]

I've got all of Lovecraft's work, in one form or another. My favourites are a toss up between At The Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time.
Both have their 'Holy Fuck!' moments.

"At The Mountains. . ." is quite possibly the best example of what I love about Lovecraft's work...A horror monster that is left virtually entirely up to the imagination! And yet he still manages to maintain the tension without truly seeing it...

 

[cloudy]

The only Lovecraft story I can remember much about is The Dunwich Horror (I think that's what the title is). And what I remember isn't much beyond it scared the shit out of me when I read it in my early teens.