AFFECTING AND INFECTIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR

Rating: Null/10 (12 October 2001)

I honestly don't know if I'm grateful or not to have been blessed with an active imagination. On the one hand I am because it allowed me to make the most of this truly horrifying movie. But on the other hand, it very nearly induced a cardiac arrest by the time the final reel rolled!! So many `horror' movies are a disappointment and leave me totally cold because they have the false belief that to have someone suddenly jump into frame from off-screen will shock you (the one exception that jumps to mind being The Shining, where Jack Nicholson's character emerges, completely unexpectedly, from behind a pillar to bury an axe in the chest of his victim). But the truth is that this, and other techniques generally employed by these films, have been done to death and are actually anticipated by the audience - hardly in keeping with a `surprise'. However, The Blair Witch Project is a welcome exception to this stultifyingly mundane genre as it relies entirely upon psychological horror. I had heard the hype and knew the supposed reality of the story to have been contrived, but unlike most people in this situation still managed to be totally drawn in once it got underway. The shaky hand-held camera, complete lack of a music and amateur level of production hitting just the right note to suggest it's authenticity. In what has to be one of the most ominous opening lines to any movie: `In October of 1994, three student film makers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary....' you're then hit (after a suitable delay) with the payoff line: `.... a year later their footage was found'. That impregnates all sorts of scenarios in you mind before we've even met the characters in question.
The horror at first is subtle (anonymous noises out of the dead of night - quickly written off as deer or owls) yet you feel relieved to see the screen flood with daylight. However, it's severity builds along with the tension and despair within the characters as we see their fear come full circle. It taps into most peoples base fear of the unknown and the dark, and as such invokes a far more primal fear than a psycho in a hockey mask or a razor-fingered figment of someone's imagination (!). There are no `shock moments' or blood & guts so anyone who needs to behold their horror up on the screen is in for a big disappointment. Nothing is shown and everything is suggested - the directors opting to credit the intelligence of their audience rather than patronising them. They give you a loose thread and let your mind pick away at it, meaning that anyone with an active imagination is ultimately responsible for the intensity of their own fear. The ambiguity of the film - particularly in it's end sequence - ensures this and means that it will stay with you for a considerable time after the movie has finished.
The acting of the main trio is quite superb and sincere to the point that you wonder if they are acting (indeed, the direction techniques employed literally left the cast lost in the woods, cold and with ever-decreasing supplies). The decay of the group morale is palpable - at first refusing to accept the situation and finally succumbing to it's inevitability. And the emotions on display - hysteria to paranoia - befit the evolution of their predicament perfectly. Yes, Heather's voice grates (as so many of you have pointed out elsewhere in this page) but all is forgiven for her genuine display of sheer terror. The scene in which she makes her peace with the camera, apologising to the parents of all three for her selfishness, is a testament to her acting talents. And the realisation of her party's fate (looking straight into the camera: `We're gonna die out her') is simultaneously heart-breaking and chilling in it's starkness. *SPOILER* The final scene, which switches between black-and-white (Heather) and colour (Mike) camera shots, is the most terrifying piece of cinema I have ever witnessed. It is a true crescendo horror and left my palms sweating and my heart jack-hammering in my chest. And the way that the sound of Heather's screams is recorded in the basement, yet we see her P.O.V. coming down from the first floor to the basement (so it sounds as though she's running upon herself) is a great inventive touch *END SPOILER* When I first saw it at the cinema, I left the auditorium with that feeling as though I had been the victim.
This is very much a film that you either love or hate, depending on your preference for horror movies. With the exception of The Shining, I can honestly say that every film of this genre I have ever sat through has left me totally unfulfilled and bored (which, incidentally, is something sceptics of BWP complain it induces). If you're of the same opinion and bored by the lack of inventiveness in modern horror movies, this could be the exception to the rule. If you have yet to see this movie, I ask that you drop any preconceptions that you may harbour. Simply sit back and allow your imagination to run riot. On the other hand, if you don't have an imagination..... stick to Evil Dead, Scream, Friday 13th etc, etc. Speaking of which, I'm starting to feel tired.... zzzzz.... zzzz....zzz....zz.... z.