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There’s more than one way to die in the woods, although so far as horror-film narratives in that vein go, “The Blair Witch Project” has cast a bit too pervasive a shadow for nearly two decades now.

Source: http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/the-ritual-review-1202553302/

I am not sure how to understand the passage in bold. In my opinion, the sentence tells that the movie “The Blair Witch Project” established one narrative of dying in the woods for horror movies even if there are many ways for that. So if the conjunction "although" is related to the part “The Blair Witch Project” has cast a bit too pervasive a shadow for nearly two decades now, I would write it in this way: There’s more than one way to die in the woods, although, so far as horror-film narratives in that vein go, “The Blair Witch Project” has cast a bit too pervasive a shadow for nearly two decades now.

Andrew
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bart-leby
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    One can add a comma or not, although [comma yes or no] as far as I'm concerned, it is not really necessary. [that's an example]. It does not change how the sentence is read, really. – Lambie Feb 19 '18 at 19:50
  • Not quite sure what a "pervasive shadow" is. – TimR Feb 19 '18 at 20:19
  • I do not want to generalize but I have come to the conclusion that reviews in Variety are a little bit snobbish. – bart-leby Feb 19 '18 at 20:45
  • Variety is the number-one publication in the movie industry in Hollywood. But snobbish is not the right word. It's just very idiomatic. – Lambie Feb 19 '18 at 21:32
  • You are probably correct. Snobbish is not the right word. But in comparison with reviews in – for example – The Guardian, which I read regularly, the Variety ones are more sophisticated and I have the problems to get through them. – bart-leby Feb 19 '18 at 21:54

1 Answers1

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"Although so far as [X] goes" means "within the specific context of X". "In that vein" refers back to "horror-film narratives that involve people dying in the woods." Insofar as is a similar expression:

but insofar as horror-movies in that vein go, ...

To fully understand this sentence, and why it's phrased this way, you have to understand what The Blair Witch Project was and why it has "cast a shadow" over a particular genre of movies. Without going into too much detail:

Blair Witch was perhaps the first virally marketed movie, based on "found footage" taken by a group of young people who supposedly vanished mysteriously in the woods of Maryland. The marketing made people believe that the footage was real, aided by the choppy, shaky-cam cinematography.

Blair Witch achieved financial success far out of proportion to its quality. Because people believed they were seeing real people in real fear, the experience was far more intense than with over-produced previous efforts. This affected an entire generation of horror-film makers who set out to mimic this in various ways, so much so that the "found-footage" genre has become cliche.

Thus "cast a bit too pervasive a shadow". Too many horror movies try to be the next Blair Witch instead of pushing the boundaries in novel ways. This Variety critic laments the fact that every movie in this vein necessitates comparison, although, apparently, this new movie The Ritual is different enough to be interesting.

As for the "clever" writing -- get used to it. Variety targets "the Biz" and its articles will be written with as much style as permissible, and then some. Unless you read it regularly, you won't know what styles are currently in (and falling out of) vogue.

Andrew
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