Superb, one of the best horror movies of the 90's

Rating: Null/10 (16 June 2003)

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT wound up the unfortunate victim of self-canibalization. Artisan relentlessly marketed and merchandised what should have remained a creepy little curiosity destined for cult obscurity. While it made the company millions of dollars, the non-stop BLAIR WITCH hubbub destroyed the movie's staying power, at least with a wide audience.
But maybe this movie should never have been seen by a wide audience. Maybe the movie's advertising should have been word-of-mouth driven ONLY. Maybe this movie should have never been released theatrically, at least not on a large scale. Trying to appeal to a generation whose idea of horror is SCREAM, when the product you are selling is more along the lines of grittier horrors such as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST or THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, is destined to ultimately fail. Artisan may have made a killing, but they killed the movie in the process.
BLAIR WITCH is one of the few movies I can think of that works better on the small screen. When watching a grainy underground movie on TV, one feels they are seeing something subversive and taboo. Seeing the very same thing on the big screen comes off as overly stylized, cinema-verite gone wild. This is largely due to the overuse of hand-held photography in commercials and on MTV--the very audience of which is whom BLAIR WITCH was directed toward.
Now, mention THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and you'll hear, "It sucked," "It wasn't scary," "Heather Donohue is an annoying bitch," "The camera work was terrible," "It was boring," "I'm sick of it."
The last comment is the only one with any degree of validity.
Anyone who did not find this movie even the least bit intense or eerie went into it determined to not let it affect them. As far as the ridiculous criticism of Donohue's performance, her CHARACTER was indeed an annoying bitch. She was obnoxious, loud, pushy and irritating. In other words, her performance was perfect.
Perhaps the dumbest of all the backlash against this movie were complaints about the shaky camerawork. You see, it's really hard to sprint through the woods over uneven ground and retain a steady frame--especially when you may have forgotten you were even carrying a camera! Found documentary footage is rarely very steady or polished, especially when it comes from the cameras of people being pursued by ghosts in the woods.
In my personal opinion, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is a solid, creepy, intense, suspensful, entertaining thriller. It moves along at a swift pace and manages a sense of anxiety rarely captured in American cinema, even during the early humorous scenes. It's terror works much in the same way as David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS FIRE WALK WITH ME or Gasper Noe's IRREVERSIBLE--we know, to some extent, the protagonists fate at the beginning of the movie, so the entire story has a sense of dread and doom about it.
I loved this movie. Loved it. There's nothing to read into it, nothing to figure out, nothing to ponder over. It is what it is. A good, scary shriek show. They're a dying breed these days.