User Reviews

The woods are scary. It's something instinctual to the human mind that the woods is a place to be on high alert.

This movie depicts a walk in the woods. For 98% of its runtime, that's all it is. Anytime the scenery changed, I perked up. I can tell that there's a definite tendency toward what I can only assume is "art" with the shots in the film. I like to look at trees. I don't like to watch a movie that promises horror and is somebody just being lost in the woods. Blair Witch worked because there were several characters. Much of this film is made up of our near-silent protagonist wandering. Don't get me wrong, it's much better than listening to Shia Lebouf jabbering about everything and nothing.

You aren't allowed to see anything. Ever. So if you want to see something scary, this isn't the film. I'm not sure who I would recommend this movie to. The woods are scary. You can see things in the trees and shadows. Watching someone lost for an hour and a half is not a horror movie.

Side notes: I can only assume the Acts and Chapters with the titles were inspired by House of Leaves (another example of something overly long and boring for a good idea), but don't pair the two up. Just stick to acts and scenes. Don't try to reinvent the wheel.

When making horror, many people may prefer the instantaneous gratification of jump scares and plots which more often than not, fall victim to many cliches to achieve their 'frightening' aura. I personally find these types of movies quite boring, they bring nothing to the table that has not been done before. Don't get me wrong, campiness is great, but it is sadly what saturates the horror genre to the point where it is a stereotype for itself. Some may say the same about found footage, but I'd differ. The genre has increasingly been accentuated by amazing works of creepy atmospheres, such as this.

BlackHills.mov joins the ranks of other low-budget yet extremely well done horror media whose focus is on delivering an slow-burn, immersive, explorative, creepy atmosphere rather than cheap, rehashed thrills. Examples like Skinamarink, The Blair Witch Project, Sleep Has Her House, The Empty Man, and even other found footage films on YouTube such as Kane Pixel's Backrooms and The Oldest View. This does not come without it's own drawbacks in this instance of the genre, as it did suffer from being a bit too long in my opinion. This could have been equally as good had it been half the length. Skinamarink, Blair Witch, and Sleep Has Her House are all great examples of how to use the feature-length runtime while maintaining the atmosphere with minimal pacing and set design, and that could serve as inspiration for enhancing the immersive experience on future projects.

Indeed, making a film (especially feature length) that aims for this sort of slow-burn atmosphere is challenging for any creator, as it requires the viewer to commit their full attention in order to be immersive, which is definitely a valid thing to complain about for those that are unwilling or unable to do such commitment as when the pacing is too minimal and monotonic, it can be frustrating to sit through. That said, I feel that the same kind of people that will fail to appreciate this sort of atmosphere are the same kind that will dislike Tarkovsky's Stalker, and that is fine. Not everyone is patient enough to appreciate such works.

Lastly, I am confused with people saying this tended towards "art" as a complaint. What do these people think movies are, if not one of the many faces of art? This is like listening to ambient music and saying "this has a tendency towards being music". Well yeah, you can also say fire is hot and it would be equally as insightful.