Catch the witch

The film begins with five friends: Phil, Anton, Christina, Lisa and Alex sitting in the kitchen and discussing the film “ The Blair Witch ”. They shoot everything that happens on a household video camera . Some of them believe that the events shown in the film are true, but in order not to attract the attention of tourists to a dangerous place, they are skillfully disguised as fiction. Various arguments are given, for example, the subsequent roles of the actors are insignificant, and films with their participation cannot be acquired. Then friends agree to go to the filming location of the film and check the reliability of the events shown.

While waiting for a flight to Maryland at the airport, the group introduces each other to the audience. Next are shooting a flight to the United States .

Upon arrival, the guys interview the locals about the witch and stay overnight at the hotel. The next morning, they set off for the forest, leaving the car on the sidelines. Filming is carried out on two cameras, mostly shot by Anton and Lisa. After some time of the hike, tourists make a halt and find that on all mobile phones there is no network signal, and a little later they find a human figure laid out of moss on the ground. In the evening, tourists stop for the night, put up a tent, have dinner and go to bed.

The next morning it turns out that Phil was gone, and with it the compass and map. Everyone agrees that Phil came back, and continue the campaign. After a day's journey, tourists go out to a stream that was not on the map and set up camp. At night, a group of friends woke up with strange sounds, all scared. The girls wake up Alex and ask the guys to go out to see what is the source of the sound. Coming out of the tent, they discover small cairns, Anton is scared, and Alex invites him to go to sleep. Anton is amazed at Alex's composure, but soon agrees.

Waking up, tourists discover a hanging head on a tree in Phil's cap. Fearless Alex climbs the rope and drops it to the ground. The head is a dummy made of paper. Christine is hysterical and after much debate, she convinces everyone to go back. Trying to return, after several hours of walking, they return to the same place, making a circle. No one can explain what is happening, and the tourists make another attempt, but again they come back in a circle. Anton conducts an experiment by throwing a stick in a stream, thereby checking whether he is looped, and Alex arranges fishing. Without waiting for the stick, the tourists persuade Alex to go again, but again come back.

Trying to figure out the anomalies, Anton suggests going another round. Alex refuses, as he intends to cook dinner, offers to leave everyone his backpacks. Anton, Lisa and Christina leave. Christina gets lost along the way, in an attempt to find her, Anton and Lisa lose sight of each other. Anton, in search of Lisa, runs through the forest, but something unexpected attacks him, he loses the camera, and everything shuts up. The camera turns off. The same thing happens with Lisa.

Soon, Alex finds and turns on the camera, first Lisa, then Anton. He returns to the camp when it is getting dark, he winds the flashlight to the camera and goes in search of friends. Making his way through the forest, Alex discovers an old house. Alex enters the house in an attempt to examine him, but suddenly someone attacks him. Laying the camera on the floor, Alex engages in a fight, after which he sees Christina and tries to explain to her that everything she sees is a mess , visions. The battery runs out on the camera and the recording ends.

In the last episodes, we see interviews of all participants in the campaign, who talk about further events. Phil went away into the forest for a while, and when he returned, the camp was gone, after a short search went to the city and called the police. Lisa only remembers how they all came together and left the forest. Anton does not remember how he lost the camera, but he remembers that he was standing knee-deep in the water when Alex called out to him. Christina heard voices all the time and she was ill, describes a witch. Alex talks about the fight with the witch and how he found the guys.

• Scenario
  • Andrey Challope
  • Denis of Olives
• Music
  • Sergey Patrakov
• Operators
  • Victor Hoody
  • Alexey Begun
  • Victor Zhivanovich
  • Evgeny Antsupov

According to the creators of the film, they were prompted to start this work by the 1999 Blair Witch movie ^[3] . In 2006, the idea came up to make such a movie, but instead of “three spoiled students” ordinary people should appear on the screen ^[3] . At first, the creators wanted to limit themselves to writing only the script, but because of the low cost of the project, it was decided to shoot all the material without outside help ^[3] .

In general, the beginning of the film and the development of events is similar to the original film ^[1] . The plot intertwines fear, despair, black humor , but closer to the finale, the denouement is more and more different from its famous predecessor.

Director and producer of the film Andrei Challope about the film:

This is an independent work in which the source material was used as an occasion to study the nature of human horror through the prism of our national mentality.

Filming, imitating the forests of Maryland , took place near the city of Vyborg . For plausibility, all the material was shot on two household video cameras . September 7, 2008 in St. Petersburg , the premiere of ^[1] . Andrei Shallopa acted as a producer of the film, as well as a director, screenwriter and leading actor. Kim Druzhinin became the second producer and screenwriter, and also played one of the roles. The song, played at the end of the film, was written and performed by Sergey Patrakov together with his group.

The film was ambiguously accepted by the audience, the rating on the KinoPoisk website was 6.3 out of 10 based on 156 votes. The film’s minuses include the unconvincing game of some actors, a certain degree of parody of The Blair Witch , and the predictability of the storyline.

At the premiere of the film as a guest of honor was invited publicist Dmitry Puchkov ^[2] . As he later wrote on his website:

On the one hand, there was no gigantic advertising budget. On the other hand - within the framework of the genre, it was shot and done fairly deftly. And most importantly, an original plot was invented, excellent dialogs were written, roles were played soundly, everything was successfully mounted.

Dmitry noted that in our time for a good film, “neither mega-scenery, nor special effects” are needed, ordinary people and interesting dialogues are needed ^[2] .

• Trailer for Catch the Witch on YouTube.com