The Blair Thumb (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Animation & Audio Scene Selection Anim & Audio Audio Commentary-Sane Audio Commentary-Insane Featurette-Behind The Scenes Outtakes Deleted Scenes-2 Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Thumb Wars; Frankenthumb; Bat Thumb; Thumbtanic; GodThumb Storyboards Easter Egg-A
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	28:19
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Todd Portugal
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Steve Oedekerk Megan Cavanagh Jim Jackman Paul Greenberg
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Jason Nyberg

    This is no cuticle love story. Released at last in its full horrifying, digital glory. Be prepared to he scared, very, very...well fairly scared.

    Three thumbs travel into the backwoods of North America to document the truth behind a modern-day ghost-story of fear, witchcraft and...sharks! Stressy (well acted by Megan Cavanagh) is a would-be movie director, who, for a University assignment takes two colleagues with her to catalogue the story. She is joined by her cameraman Jish (Jim Jackman) and newcomer to the group, soundman Vic (Steve Oedekerk, who plays three of the nine characters in this filmette). Initially filming in the local town, the three unearth local tales which seem to suggest there may be some truth to this particular urban legend. Tales like the group of men found tied to each other by a search party before they finally disappeared, tales of the incredible head-swapped Biarly twins, and tales of the sea...

    The shoot in the woods is supposed to have been fully scouted - "that's what the ad said" - but unfortunately for this doomed trio, they venture ever-deeper into the woods. Rapidly losing their bearings (despite being less than 20 feet from the car), the oppressive surroundings, the urban mythology and the lack of indoor toilet facilities soon begin to take their toll. Playing on that innate fear of the dark which lurks deep within us all, the terror in this filmette is not so much about what is seen to happen...but what remains unseen.

    Could it be mass hysteria? Or, was there something altogether more sinister which lurked in the woods, waiting for these three foolhardy opposable students? Before the filmette ends, you will experience for yourself, from the retrieved footage, exactly what fear is!

    For those of you who have not heard of Steve Oedekerk, you may wish to check out his other work, including the review of Thumbtanic available on this very site. If I may quote myself "The basic idea of his "filmettes" is that he spoofs major films, making use of costumed thumbs (yes...thumbs), with superimposed eyes and mouths with a disturbingly absent nose, to play all of the roles".

    Once again, Oedekerk impresses whilst making you (occasionally) laugh out loud. The alternating black and white, then colour footage perfectly recreates the feel of the original movie on which this parody is based (The Blair Witch Project). If it is some time since you have seen the original, watching it before watching this filmette is highly recommended. This will illustrate just how well-observed some of Oedekerk's humour is. The various textbooks in Stressy's backpack, including "Unsteady Camera Techniques", the hilarious getting lost in the car park sequence, the simulated foot chase camerawork...all add up to a fairly funny, polished half hour.

    The starting material on which the "joke" is based is relatively thin, so the opportunity for a wide-ranging parody is limited. Within that constraint, Oedekerk delivers. He manages to maintain the feel of the original movie, whilst parodying it mercilessly - recommended for those who enjoy the surreal works of Monty Python or Spike Milligan.

Video

    The overall video transfer of this disc is good.

    The filmette is presented in a ratio of 1.33:1 which I assume (as these filmetes are largely made for television) is the original aspect ratio. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is generally sharp and exhibits only occasional grain - some of which is intentional. Blacks are solid with no low-level noise evident. This is important, as much of the filmette is shot in black and white.

    Colours are clean with natural flesh tones throughout.

    The transfer has no major MPEG artefacts. Additionally, there are only minor film-to-video artefacts with aliasing seen on a several occasions, but this was never distracting. Edge enhancement is not an issue. Film artefacts are absent, bar some fake artefacts in the black and white footage.

    English and Dutch subtitle tracks are available. The English subtitles follow the dialogue closely.

    This is a single-sided, single layered (DVD5) disc, and therefore has no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The overall audio quality of this disc is good.

    The main audio is an adequate Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack in English recorded at 224 kbps - the surround flag is embedded. Also available are French, German and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks recorded at 224 kbps. The (two) director's commentary tracks are recorded in Dolby Digital 1.0 (English) at 192kbps.

    The English dialogue was always clear.

    The original music (credited to Jason Nyberg) plays a minor part on this disc but does an adequate job of building suspense.

    The surround channels were subtly used for incidental music and environmental effects.

    The subwoofer is not used to carry any specific LFE bass.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are a large number of extras on this disc for such a short feature.

Menu

    The menus are very well presented, but are extremely irritating to use. There are no clear instructions on what to select, just an interactive photo-montage which leads to endless guesswork when trying to start the feature, or select the extras. The selections lead to random video clips, and it can take quite some time to start the damned feature! This is, I am sure, intended to be funny...I found it annoying.

Audio Commentaries

     You have the option of not one, but two audio commentaries on this disc. Choosing the "Sane Commentary" yields a fun narrative by Steve Oedekerk (creator), Dave Merrell (video effects supervisor), Paul Marshal (producer) and Todd Portugal (director). This commentary really demonstrates the camaraderie between the major contributors, and there is a genuine sense of mutual respect and collaboration evident. On the other hand (boom-tish), choosing the "Insane Commentary" provides an annoyingly surreal sequence of maniacal laughter and gibberish comments for the duration of the filmette. This may be clever - even appropriate - but it's damned irritating and I could not be bothered listening to it in its entirety. This was a BAD IDEA.

Behind the Scenes

    A mildly amusing series of interviews with several of the cast and crew thumbs running for 4:10.

Outtakes

    Intriguing bloopers, most notable because they show real hands interacting with the "actors" - 1:43.

Deleted Scenes

    Two short deleted scenes (0:46) and (0:23) covering the shark attack and Jish's whining.

Trailers

    Theatrical trailers for this and several other Oedekerk "Thumbation" movies:

• Thumb Wars
running for 1:45
• Frankenthumb
running for 0:56
• Bat Thumb
running for 0:36
• Thumbtanic
running for 3:47
• The Godthumb
running for 1:07
• The Blair Thumb
running for 0:48

     These are presented in the (assumed) original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack in English, recorded at 224 Kbps. They are all funny, and will raise a smile or two in their own right.

Storyboards

    A short (1:19) sequence of drawings showing the original storyboard ideas for the filmette.

Easter Egg

    Selecting the wicker Thumb on the main menu leads to a brief (0:12) but terrifying video clip of one of the film's key characters.

    The Region 1 DVD of this movie appears to be essentially the same as the Region 4, with the exception that the Region 1 may, according to Amazon.com, include an additional English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

    The Blair Thumb is cute...but doesn't warrant repeated viewing. Once again, for those of you who like the humour of Steve Oedekerk, this disc will raise a titter or two. If you enjoyed The Blair Witch Project, and have a slightly off-centre sense of humour, then this will make you smile. Running for only 28:19, this DVD, whilst not quite as funny as Thumbtanic, is worth a watch. The quirky menu system is just plain annoying!

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good, whilst not particularly noteworthy.

    The extras are laudable for such a short feature, if a little too clever for their own good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall