In which Wes, Rob and Donald discuss the many facets of this seasonal classic. Other films discussed include Joe Dante's Gremlins, Wilder's The Apartment and one of Capra's less well known films, 1938s You Can't Take it with You. Oh, and we discuss whether James Stewart is a hot lead!

In which Donald, Rob and Wes discuss this enigmatic and eerie example of the Australian New Wave. Set in 1900, the film begins in Appleyard College, a girls private school, with students welcoming St Valentine's Day. The girls and some of the teachers go on the titular picnic to the ominous Hanging Rock. The day ends with three girls and a teacher going missing, and the repercussions of this on the college and the community.

We then go on to compare the film to other examples of the New Wave, specifically, Wake in Fright and Walkabout, as well as a British film, The Falling, that takes its cues from Picnic.

As an added extra we have an interview with Luke Shenton Sharp, writer and co-director of the short film, Hope, that accompanies our screening, about the process of film making.

All this, as well as our regular features and recommendations.

The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American psychological horror film written, directed, and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. One of the most successful independent films of all time, it is a "found footage" pseudo-documentary in which three students (Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard) hike into the Appalachian Mountains near Burkittsville, Maryland, to shoot a documentary about a local myth known as the Blair Witch.

Myrick and Sánchez conceived of a fictional legend of the Blair Witch in 1993. They developed a 35-page screenplay with the dialogue to be improvised. About 20 hours of footage was shot, which was edited down to 82 minutes. Shot on an original budget of $35,000–$60,000, the film had a final cost of $200,000–$750,000 after post-production and marketing.

When The Blair Witch Project premiered at the Sundance Film Festival at midnight on January 23, 1999, its promotional marketing campaign listed the actors as either "missing" or "deceased".

The Blair Witch Project was a sleeper hit that grossed nearly $250 million worldwide. It is consistently listed as one of the scariest movies of all time. The Blair Witch Project launched a media franchise, which includes two sequels (Book of Shadows and Blair Witch), novels, comic books, and video games. It revived the found-footage technique and influenced similarly successful horror films such as Paranormal Activity (2007), REC (2007) and Cloverfield (2008).