Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: THE NIGHT MARCHERS (DVD)

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 09-08-2003, 05:23 PM:

I disliked "THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" very much when I saw it in a theatre a couple of years ago. Now comes another film that tried to be another film like it. The only reason I troubled myself to watch Brent and David Cousin's "THE NIGHT MARCHERS" was because It was shot on the big island of Hawaii here in my state and was about some kids going into the Waipio Valley to produce a documentary about the "NIGHT MARCHERS", a tribe of long dead ancient Hawaiian warriors walking the earth during a full moon. Does the plot ring a bell? The very crude manner it was shot creating an impression of watching actual video footage was exactly like the "BLAIR WITCH PROJECT". Because I watched this film on a television monitor, it was not as bad as watching it on a large theatre movie and it came across looking much better. Although I did not enjoy "THE NIGHT MARCHERS" at all, it is a hundred times better than "BLAIR WITCH" in my humble opinion.

The film received it's world premiere at Wallace Theatre's Kress Cinema in Hilo last year and than moved to another Wallace theatre on Maui before it's Honolulu showings at Wallace's Restaurant Row.I do not know how wide the theatrical release was outside of Hawaii but based on the fact that the DVD of the movie is now only available in Hawaii, I do not think it had very wide distribution elsewhere.

-Claude

Posted by Chris Markiewicz (Member # 1415) on 09-08-2003, 05:43 PM:

Claude, was this "The Night Marchers" or "Night Marchers 2"? The first picture (video) had showings here at Kahilu Theatre a few years ago, played from a DV camcorder through a big Sanyo 4100 lumen LCD projector onto the cinema screen. Sound was fed through the nonsync inputs of the mighty Kintek processor. The image was acceptably bright, but had visible edge enhancement and pixelation. The sound was location sound, sometimes badly distorted, which I guess was the idea. The Cousins brothers brought all the gear in, as they were doing screenings around the island. I have not seen the sequel.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 09-10-2003, 03:38 PM:

Hi Chris,

I did not know the original NIGHT MARCHERS" movie has been out for years. It only played in Honolulu last year and I heard it came directly here after finishing it's run on the big island and Maui. The DVD features the trailer to "THE NIGHT MARCHERS 2" and it looks like more of the same. Like myself, a lot of people did not enjoy "THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" after seeing it in a theatre and stayed away in droves when the sequel was made and released and I predict this is what had happened to "THE NIGHT MARCHER 2" if it already came out. It was never shown in Honolulu and I have not heard of it playing in any theatres in other parts of the state.

-Claude

Posted by Chris Markiewicz (Member # 1415) on 09-16-2003, 03:03 PM:

I saw the "Night Marchers" DVD in Borders in Hilo yesterday; it was indeed the first one, not the sequel. It was in the "special" section with the cult films.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 09-29-2003, 12:36 PM:

Claude,

It's funny... I just noticed this post today. I was vacationing in Hawai'i a few weeks ago, and picked this DVD up out of sheer curiosity. The cover made it sound like it was a Blair Witch type flick. Was this a big hit out there? I'd never heard of this movie before, although I had heard of the legend of the warrior spirits.

If anyone's curious, there is a web site for these films. Click Here.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 09-29-2003, 03:21 PM:

Hi Mark,

I don't think "THE NIGHT MARCHERS" was a hit as the producers would like you to think. Like "THE BLAIR WITH PROJECT", it attracted a curious large first night audience in Hilo, Maui and Honolulu but bad word of mouth has not sustained a cult following like the "BLAIR WITCH" film did. I understand the sequel has been out for some time now and it had only played on the big island in a Wallace theatre which in my opinion are very dreadful place to watch films. Unlike you and many others who purchased "THE NIGHT MARCHERS" on DVD, all I was out was a $1.85 rental fee. I am sure you had already watched the film and I am very curious to know what what your thoughts are about this "BLAIR WITCH" clone.

-Claude

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 10-01-2003, 09:50 AM:

SPOILERS!!!

Aside from the plot holes, I thought most of it was ok. They violated the "don't show the monster" rule pretty early on though, which I think took away from the suspense. I think they would have been much better off finding a creative way of not showing them at all and leaving it to your imagination.

The shakey camcorder thing never bothered me as much as it did other people, so it didn't really bother me here either. But I don't understand why one of the camcorders was shooting in black and white.

The two doctors in the beginning were very unbelieveable, and delivered their lines horribly. When I saw that scene, I thought, "Oh, boy this is bad." And did I hear his name right... Kamakawiwo'ole? I wonder if that's a popular Hawaiian name, or if they just borrowed Iz' last name.

That's the bad things. As for the rest of the movie, it looked like most of the stuff shot in the wild had ad libbed dialog, which was cool. I like the way the story was edited together from two different points of view. The score was interesting. From what I remember, The Blair Witch didn't have any score, and it worked. This movie did, and it worked too.

So, I thought it was "ok", but not great. It could have been a lot better had they not shown the marchers, re-shot the doctor scene, and not shown the end at the beginning.

Mark