I wish I hadn't known

Rating: 7/10 (5 November 1999)

When Blair Witch was released in Europe, it was inevitable to go to see it with a high level of curiosity and expectations, given all the rave reviews and incredible box office numbers it got in the States. Unfortunately, one of the things we were hearing about it was not correct: that it was a horror movie.
Because I don't think it is, or at least that it doesn't respond to the perceived conventions of that genre. Blair Witch IS a superb exercise of growing tension, suspense and anguish, with an increasingly oppressive atmosphere which gradually grips you and drags you into the nightmare that these three kids, normal people like you and me, suddenly find themselves in. You know as little as they do, and you don't need any more, because your imagination does the rest. And your perception of the film gets even better the more you think and reflect upon what you have seen. I was entirely satisfied. But this is undoubtedly an arthouse film, and it seems to me that many people had misguidedly gone to see it expecting a slick, popcorn-friendly, Kevin-Williamsonish scare-fest with lots of surprise shocks and a blood-drenched grand finale. Which it certainly is not. Therefore, I can understand why so many complain about it having disappointed them so much.
For me, only one thing could have made it better: having been able to see it without knowing it was fake, like the first people who saw it in the States did. When I came out of the cinema, a couple of ladies behind me, who had somehow managed to avoid all the hype and press coverage, were asking with worried faces "...but did they ever find the bodies?". And I envied them deeply.