THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 8/10

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is about three young filmmakers, Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Josh Leonard (actors with same names as their characters), who go out into the woods of Burkittesville, Maryland to document the mythical Blair Witch for a project. They are never found, but a year later their footage is discovered.

I didn’t find the Movie scary, it was just filled with a lot of suspense and tension, especially between actors. It was an excellent idea with the original plot and execution. The way the actors demonstrated genuine reactions and believable dialogue really tie the whole film together. Most of the lines were improvised, so for them to produce such a fluent and realistic performance is impressive. The actors themselves did an amazing job, even some of the more exaggerated scenes still felt chillingly real.

We might see THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT as something which is ‘overhyped’ but for its time (1999) nothing had been seen like this before, from what people knew, everything about this movie was real. The Blair Witch was something which was seen as a true story, so to be presented with this ‘tape’ it was believable. The actors and writers were unknown and the way the videos are presented and cut questioned the viewers into thinking twice about the story.

Yes, it wasn’t perfect, it dragged on for a while and didn’t give you that exact horror factor you maybe were hoping for but that is what the film was exactly supposed to do. It was supposed to seem silly and absurd because that is exactly what you were least expecting. You wanted to see the Witch which is why you kept watching, the way it drags you in without even showing the enemy is something rarely executed well, but THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT completely filled that gap in the horror market.