DO NOT READ ANYTHING ABOUT THIS FILM OR IT WILL DISAPPOINT

Rating: Null/10 (24 July 1999)

That said, I have to say I was disappointed. On the day when the public finally got to see the year's most anticipated "serious" film from a dead director, I was anticipating the scariest film about the dead. In other words, this was a film I wanted to like, wanted to get sucked in to and wanted to have scare the bejeezus out of me. When the lights came up after finally seeing "The Blair Witch Project," I found I only liked the first half, was only sucked in occasionally and never once felt anything than some mild creepiness.
All those clamoring about the film on the internet may or no be real (there's talk in the entertainment industry that much the buzz was planted by the distributor), but the initial reaction at film festivals last winter was undoubtedly uncoached. Thinking that this 80 minute mixed media movie is real would probably make most viewer's skin crawl. But once that cat's out of the bag (and even the most cursory glance at articles about this film give that away), the big gimmick turns out to be the biggest thing going for it. Not the only thing, but it can't drive the film anymore once a viewer is no longer scammed into thinking the "In 1994 three student filmmakers went into..." is on the level.
All the shots used in promotional stories about "The Blair Witch Project" are not used in the actual film. It begins with the same preamble that adorns the poster and ad copy. This is a mistake, as it shows a lack of foresight on the filmmakers' part. They should have realized that only the first audience would benefit from complete ignorance, the rest of us might need a sequence that builds the idea that what we are seeing is real. The distributor is obviously trying to sustain the illusion: at my screening a booklet proclaiming itself as the Blair Witch Dossier was given to us in line. Inside are notes from fictitious private investigators and class statements written by the "missing filmmakers." If only this had been included in the movie.
The most impressive thing about the film (after the chutzpah of its filmmakers) is the improvisation of the actors. There are scenes that rang so true that I will not be surprised next winter if one of the endless series of awards given out goes to one of the three faux documentarians. One scene that starts with gallows humor and ends in near fisticuffs affirmed that those magical moments of theater or recorded acting can still pull us out of our seats. On the basis of it alone I can see why the uninformed would take the events at face value.
As with most, "Blair Witch's" undoing is its last act. As events unfold, the filmmakers repeatedly squander the tension that has gripped the audience. Perhaps a little too attuned to the aesthetics of the documentary-within-a-film they have created, they let its sensibilities guide how they shape the events of the last 20 minutes. Too much of the "found" footage is allowed to unreel, losing the dramatic build-up. And after all this overage, the ending is abrupt and confusing. There isn't a single back story to the legend of the Blair Witch but three, which undermines the payoff. We never see anything of the "presence" that is pursuing them through the woods, so it's hard to even begin to debate if it is supernatural or not. If not for a friend seeing it with me, I'm not sure how long it would have been before I "got" the ending.