Really cool to see this kind of content, here. Thanks, Patrick. My brother scared the shit out of me with this movie. He swore it was real. It had its own WEBSITE. And back then, to a couple of middle school kids, that was all we needed.

I've still never watched The Blair Witch Project, I feel like it would freak me out pretty badly and I think thats why I never touched it as a kid, my flight or fight response kicks in when I think about watching it lol.

Video GAMES!!! Wait.... what the fuck...

Not sure why people are complaining. Maybe they'd prefer if we stuck to games 100% of the time. Guess that means the podcast will have to be about 20 minutes long now...

Just thought I'd say that this was really interesting. Thanks, Patrick.

HaHaaaaaHaaaaHahaaaaa!

Seriously?

Listened to the audio version because reading is hard. I remember watching the movie in the theater when it came out, probably one of the first horror movies I saw on the big screen. It was a pretty damn intense experience and got me more interested in the genre as a whole. Good interview, thanks.

This is blackmail!

don't care what anyone says, this is still one of my very favorite horror movies and that ending resonated like fuck with me. i think if the production wasn't as off the cuff as it was it wouldn't have had nearly the legacy infamous or not that it has today. great catch of an interview scoops, and well done! have to watch V/H/S/2 now it seems...

Excellent article, Scoops! I remember going to the cinema twice to watch The Blair Witch. Both times there was dead silence when the credit came up.

V/H/S/2 is pretty good. There is one stand-out segment in particular.

Because lately, games that took all 5 minutes to develop eg. urinal manager and equally bad and conceptual horror games took the stage from the real games and real game coverage and now apparently straight to DVD category movies.

I don't mind it either way, but the lack of real games is baffling, I come to this site less and less, I'd like to see them play game new, old whatever, just not trash which was coded in 5 minutes and a single genre. The site has 3 pod-cast like shows of which it really needs only one, and a huge lack of gaming related stuff. I'd take 2-3 quick looks or breaking brads, load our last souls (and similar) more per week over any Jar time, Bombing the A.M. and similar stuff, any day, but apparently I'm in the minority and people like to hear folks chit chat over random stuff.

They can expand all the way, I even support that, but the content that drove people to this site is less and less and is being replaced by different stuff, above, I don't think that's the right way to approach it, expanding means giving more to people not axing one part in favor of others.

This was worth reading. Good one.

Great article.

Also nice to have a handy example around if I ever need to explain the concept of internet entitlement culture to people.

Dilute the fucking brand indeed.

You know the more I read these kind of comments the only thing I can put it down to is a low-level autism. It's really bizarre to see people having it explained, often by the people who run the website they are on, that something is perfectly appropriate and yet they still claim it isn't.

I can accept people saying that they don't think a particular bit of content is what they want to read but seeing people repeatedly claiming they know what someone else's website is allowed to feature is both challenging and miserable.

I've worked for a number of years as a community manager and with charities that specialise in the support of people on the autism spectrum so this isn't meant as an insult but please people, if the content creators on a site put something up and you think it doesn't belong... Do you think it's their perspective or yours that is off kilter?

And yes, The Stanley Parable is a game and rouge-like can use a hyphen ;)

@fminus: All of Patrick's stuff literally has no implication on the rest of GB's stuff. Patrick and Alex making content isn't preventing or stopping the other guys from making content. Jar Time, Bombing the AM, 8-4, and any other stupid stuff takes nothing away from the website; it's just staff putting in extra time outside of work to provide quality content. The reason why there is a drop in content is that there aren't games to QL - it's really early in the fall and summer just ended. The content will spike post thanksgiving: that's the way it has always worked.

Ah, 14. It was the age of youth and innocence. It was the age of thinking I was tough and grown up. Things were more honest back then. Misdirection was some dope telling you about the double star road, some fake FFVII chocobo plumage color, or that the 121st star would allow you to ride Yoshi. I was suspicious of the TV advertising campaign, but concerned. I was then fully sold on the concept by the website, as to that point the Internet was mostly about information research and slow-loading porn images.

Man, that movie scared me. I knew why the dude was standing in the corner too, so thanks for that.

LOLOL!!!! Oh I'm so stupid... There's always Screened - an out-of-date website that still says it's owned by Whisky Media and connected to Comic Vine and Giant Bomb... and hasn't had content by Alex or Rorie in over a year and never had any content by Patrick. You sure showed me.

@jarowdowsky: Even with your attempt to cover your butt, you still explain stupid comments with a debilitating mental illness. Seriously?

@jarowdowsky: I don't think anyone's trying to dictate what they're allowed to publish. Only expressing their feelings on the directions of a site they've been a fan of for years and would like to continue to be. Do they not have that right? Especially the paid members. Of course the Giant Bomb crew also have the right to ignore them, which most companies tend to do. But it's weird to see people trying to shoot down any criticism or dialogue on the basis of "this is their site they can do what they want" or "look jeff said it therefor it's the right thing to do" as if he's an infallible god and outside of criticism. Yeah, they can do whatever they want, it is their site. It doesn't necessarily mean they should or they're not burning some people by doing it. But the site's pretty much a slower Kotaku already so whatever.

Nice rationalization of your autism insult though.

Anyone complaining about this article doesn't get GiantBomb.

Creepy movie, I remember it well.

If people don't think this article is appropriate on the site, that's OK. This is a reasonable place to have that discussion. (Obviously, I think it's okay, but people can disagree). Here's a question, though. I'd considered making content like this--about movies, with an angle related to games--premium content. It would have been the first premium "written" content. How would people have felt about that?

I come to this site because of the people attached to it. They are dudes that I identify with and enjoy listening to/watching. Their perspective means something to me and a lot of people, no matter what the topic is. Having them talk about games so much is just a sweet bonus.

That's my feeling on people saying GB should, strictly, be a game site.

Excellent interview. Thanks for making the effort to have a good chat with Eduardo Sanchez.

I was only 8 when this came out so I missed actually seeing it, but I do know that the trailer really freaked me out whenever it was on TV, so I might need to suck it up and watch it one of these days.

Thanks for the interview Patrick.

Hearing everyone talk about how they were kids when this came out is making me feel really....really old. I was in college when this was released, and I loved it. I still try to watch it every halloween, one of my favorites.

It might be a regional thing, not sure, but "the air" is exactly what we call air conditioning here in the upper midwest USA.

Sorry, but that movie wasn't scary at all. It's three people lost in the woods and freaking out for no reason. They face absolutely no danger or threat during the entirety of the movie. Those three cowards lacked courage which such absurdity I couldn't shake the disconnect and forget it was watching fiction, fiction as in virtual picture on a screen. It got overhyped on the novelty of being "found footage" and people were duped into paying for what is particularly not a very good movie. It's like Avatar, Avatar is an extremely bad movie, yet the 3D and shinny glowing looks fooled a lot of people.

@patrickklepek: @jeff: Keep on making whatever content you guys are interested in. The content is always good whenever someone has a genuine interest in it. Plus, people just like to complain as this is the internet after all.

Really interesting interview. Thanks for that Patrick!

@patrickklepek said:

Nah, cause then there would be a massive fit over making an article premium content. I don't think there's winning here, other than owning what you make and making what you want.

I watched the film again this past weekend. It sucked the life from me. For two days, I was a shivering, demotivated, empty vessel.

Just seeing that last image is enough to make me need to flee.

@patrickklepek: If you wanna make it premium thats fine by me, but don't do it just cos some people aren't into it. I can't for the life of me see how anyone could have a problem with this article being here, but not with say, talking about Chris with the white car on the Bombcast. It makes zero sense.

@patrickklepek: I'd absolutely be interested in reading more articles along those lines. But from my perspective, it doesn't seem like an especially deep well that could be used for a regular subscriber feature. At least with regards to the specific topic of movies with relation to games.

Would it just be interviews similar to this piece? Could it be more in-depth analytic pieces-- for example something along the lines of how films create tension vs games? Obviously that particular topic has been covered elsewhere, but could it include similar kinds of articles?

What the hell is wrong with people? How does Patrick posting this awesome interview about an awesome movie that also destroyed a summer of mine affect you in ANY WAY? Are you his boss? Do you tell him what to do? Screw off.

Keep it up, Patrick. You're crushing it.

Yeah, I remember all the people bitching about mailbags, and their reviews of energy drinks, and their off-topic discussions on the Bombcast too. This is a video game site! Why am I watching them eat British candies and playing Pathfinder? ARGGGHHH!

Wait, what? People loved that stuff and constantly ask for more? So that makes this whole argument increasingly narrow and unreasonable? Okay then.

I will forever remember my viewing of The Blair Witch Project on opening night at the theatre as a couple of special things:

1. The night that I realized cell phones in theatres are fucking annoying.

2. The night that I realized teenagers in theatres are fucking annoying (and I was 17 at the time!).

3. The night that I realized I would never go to opening weekend for a movie ever again in the history of ever.

I thoroughly enjoyed that film, but the theatre experience was annoying as fuck. It was almost the same exact way as it was for House of 1,000 Corpses.

@theimmortalbum: I loved the blair witch project, and I wish they had made a better sequel, but the original is still fantastic. creeps me out every time, and reminds me why I love horror so much.

I got to see this early access at the FOX theatre in Atlanta with my mom ( I was 16 at the time) and I totally believed all of it. Hook line and sinker. I remember asking my mom, if it was true, and she was unsure herself. This was before all the hype, we just happened to see the marquee and walked in and got seats. Hadnt heard a thing about it before hand.

Thank you for this interview, it was amazing! this movie forever shaped my understanding of "found footage" and my experience is the only reason I can accept that people are actually scared by films like Paranormal Activity. If it happened to me, then sure it can happen to others as well.

I remember all the marketing and seriously thinking that this was a real thing, they really found this footage, and holy crap what is this. Of course, I was twelve at the time, so it just blew me away. It wasn't until the sequel hit, which coincided with our house getting high speed internet, that I really figured it out (plus, you know, the internet helped debunk it).

Still. Incredible.

What about Rorie and Alex's movie podcast? What about the Pathfinder stream? What about the Power Bombcast? I'm all for having a discussion about what's appropriate for the site, but you seeem to be singling this one piece out specifically because you don't like Patrick.

Patrick has been covering horror games AND movies this whole month, because October is the perfect time to do that. if you don't like the content he puts out, you don't have to read it, but if it's on this site then it was approved by the staff and therefore it IS appropriate to the site.

Hmm. Honestly, if this was premium and I didn't have my membership, that would probably make me super mad, because the premium content tends to be less "journalism" type things. Breaking Brad, Load Our Last Souls, and of course, Spookin' are all essentially a time when i can sit down and watch some people I like play games, without especially worrying about the critical aspect of them playing. Sure, this interview came about because you have a great love for the Blair Witch Project, but it's still a professional interview about a piece of media, and as a result I don't think it should be locked away from non-members.

As for whether an article can be premium, that's an issue I haven't yet decided on. I think there are cases where a written piece could be a member-only joint, but I can't think of any specific article that I think should be.

@williemcbride:

In large part, part of putting an article online is letting it get traction in other places, especially when it comes to interviews. If other sites pull a cool quote (like the many that are in here) and source them to GB, that's more eyes on GB -- great for everyone.

As for making an article premium... it's probably not quite worth it. It's far easier to share in a multitude of ways outside of the locked parts of the site where other non-paying members can freely view it (unlike a video, which requires a bit more effort and work-a-round).