Excrutiatingly Terrifying

Rating: Null/10 (31 October 1999)

Everyone you talk will say, oh, it wasn't scary, it was hokey. Oh, I wasn't frightened for a minute. This is the worst movie I've ever seen. And critics are saying this film was overhyped? I don't think so. Not since "Event Horizon" (a film that was much scarier than anyone said it was) have I ever been so frozen with terror. I just sat down in the theater and let the suspense build up to a point where I couldn't move any longer. This was an excellent film. It might not have been as scary as the billing suggested, but that doesn't mean it wasn't scary as hell. "The Blair Witch Project" chronicles the journey of three student filmmakers who venture into the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while trying to film a documentary about a witch supposedly living in the hills who would take children into her house to draw blood from them. Even though the filmmakers never have a direct encounter with the witch, what happens to them is just as bad. They begin to fight, lose their food, direction, and find themselves fighting for their lives while in the meantime they're being stalked by someone they don't even know is watching them. As I've said before, in my opinion anyway, "The Blair Witch Project" was an excrutiatingly terrifying film. Many people will have their own opinions, and I don't intend on challenging that, but if you ask me, it was excellent. The camerawork was crude but still had some incredible shots, the editing was masterful, the direction was also great, but what really takes the viewer are the performances of the three unknown actors, Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams. Slowly they take their characters from happy, to goofy, to normal, to anger, sadness, and then finally terror. They won't get nominated for any Oscars, but they were still great. I give "The Blair Witch Project" 5 stars on a five star scale.