Genius at work here...

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 2001)

This is a wonderfully-crafted film, and it shows how much (or little) money matters in filmmaking.
One way to tell how good a script is, is how UNSCRIPTED the dialogue sounds. I'm still not sure "Blair Witch Project" operated on much of a script; I do know that regardless, the story moved along masterfully.
I had heard that in early screenings, audiences who didn't know better really believed the film to be true, and were genuinely horrified.
The true genius of this film is THAT I KNEW IT WAS FAKE, AND WAS STILL TRULY FRIGHTENED BY IT. (I'm a grown man not usually affected by such things.)

After first seeing this film, I used it as a yardstick when judging people I had just met. I asked them if they had seen it, and asked them what they thought of it.
Those that saw it and enjoyed it on some level, I decided, had some imagination and were people I wanted to know. Those that disliked (or hated) it, were not the type I wanted to hang around with.
Maybe it's TV, maybe its technology, maybe it's the lack of reading and education in our country, but there's a real dearth of imaginative people in the U.S.
It's a shame.