"Actor: Joshua Leonard"

• The Hole/The Blair Witch Project/The Good Son | DVD | (05/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Hole (Dir. Nick Hamn 2001): Liz (Thora Birch) staggers towards her exclusive school bloodied and deeply traumatised. Whilst a police psychologist is trying to figure out what happened to her she reveals this twisted and chilling tale. Three rebellious friends Mike Geoff and Frankie are desperate to avoid a school fieldtrip to Wales. Martin the school nerd helps them hide away in an old underground bunker and his only condition is that his friend Liz joins them. Martin is in love with Liz but she wants Mike the coolest guy in school. The teenagers party uncontrolled and undetected in the soundproofed bunker hidden deep in the woods. For three days it is this wild place; Mike even starts to notice Liz for the first time. But when Martin doesn't return to let them out the party atmosphere drains and their sanctuary quickly becomes their living nightmare. The Blair Witch Project (Dir. Daniel Myrick ; Eduardo Sanchez 1999): Now prepare for a motion picture experience unlike anything you've ever seen heard or feared before. The Blair Witch Project follows a trio of filmmakers on what should have been a simple walk in the woods but quickly becomes an excursion into heart-stopping terror. As the three become inexplicably lost morale deteriorates hunger sets in accusations fly. By night unseen evil stirs beyond their campfire's light. By day chilling ritualistic figures are discovered nearby. As the end of their journey approaches they realise that what they are filming now is not a legend but their own descent into unimaginable horror. The Good Son (Dir. Jospeh Ruben 1993): For Mark Evans (Wood) the loss of his mother is too much to bear. What Mark needs is friendship and companionship so in a desperate bid to overcome his bereavement he is sent to stay with his cousin Henry (Culkin). But Mark discovers to his horror that his cousin is hiding dark secrets and a wicked mind full of trouble. His idea of fun is both evil and deadly... so deadly that Mark soon finds himself hunted and on the run in a deadly cat and mouse game of horror.

• The Blair Witch Project | DVD | (23/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Anyone who has even the slightest trouble with insomnia after seeing a horror movie should stay away from The Blair Witch Project--this film will creep under your skin and stay there for days. Credit for the effectiveness of this mock documentary goes to filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, who armed three actors (Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Josh Leonard) with video equipment, camping supplies, and rough plot outlines. They then let the trio loose into the Maryland woods to improvise and shoot the entire film themselves as the filmmakers attempted to scare the crap out of them. Gimmicky, yes, but it worked--to the wildly successful tune of $130 million at the US box office upon its initial release (the budget was a mere $40,000). For those of you who were under a rock when it first hit the cinemas, The Blair Witch Project tracks the doomed quest of three film students shooting a documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch from Burkittsville, Maryland. After filming some local yokels (and providing only scant background on the witch herself), the three, led by Heather (something of a witch herself), head into the woods for some on-location shooting. They're never seen again. What we see is a reconstruction of their "found" footage, edited to make a barely coherent narrative. After losing their way in the forest, whining soon gives way to real terror as the three find themselves stalked by unknown forces that leave piles of rocks outside their campsite and stick-figure art projects in the woods. (As Michael succinctly puts it, "No redneck is this clever!") The masterstroke of the film is that you never actually see what's menacing them; everything is implied, and there's no terror worse than that of the unknown. If you can wade through the tedious arguing--and the shaky, motion-sickness-inducing camerawork--you'll be rewarded with an oppressively sinister atmosphere and one of the most frightening denouements in horror-film history. Even after you take away the monstrous hype, The Blair Witch Project remains a genuine, effective original. --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com