Doc. 33 (2012)

directed by Giacomo Gabrielli
Italy
63 minutes
3.5 stars out of 5
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This movie is totally unashamed about being a Blair Witch Project fan film. It actually has the alternate title "Blair Witch Project Spin-Off", because I guess if you call it a tribute, nobody else can call it a rip-off. I appreciate the honesty about being blatantly based on Blair Witch because the vast majority of found-footage movies after the release of BW have been, in some way, influenced by it, and have for the most part refused to acknowledge that. In attempting to emulate Blair Witch, Doc 33 sets its sights on something that's achievable for virtually anybody with a camera and some friends who are really good at screaming, and that's refreshing too: a reminder that horror can come from anywhere, that anybody can make a horror film, you don't need millions of dollars in your special effects budget to do something creative and worth watching.

At 63 minutes, we don't get a lot of time for backstory; certainly not on the characters and only sparsely on the haunting. Instead of focusing on a witch legend, the location the mockumentary takes place in is more along the lines of just being somewhere that saw so much suffering and pain that it became inherently "bad". There is a figure that looks very witchy, but there's almost something comical about her. As usual, things are much scarier as thumps on the ceiling and disembodied cries than an actual physical creature in your face, and for some reason it was impossible for me to see the "witch" as anything other than another amateur actor, only in a costume this time instead of behind the camera.

I enjoyed this movie's approach to using a ouija board, because it takes an old trope and turns it into something more ritualistic. Instead of simply placing hands on a planchette and asking any ghost who's listening their questions, the characters have to say a specific chant before each question, and then ask something formulaic- "who?" "where?" "when?", short things like that. It feels like a hybrid between a game of Bloody Mary and a classic ouija board session, and I've never seen ouija sessions depicted like this before.

I just thought this was a really nice and well-made movie, and again, it being up-front about deliberately attempting to emulate Blair Witch Project absolves it from criticism for plagiarism as far as I'm concerned. The short running time is also to its benefit as it doesn't include anything it doesn't absolutely have to. There are Christmas decorations visible in the background and as such I consider this a Christmas film.