Not A Conventional Horror Film

Rating: Null/10 (16 August 1999)

This was one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in years and one of the most frightening I've ever seen. No it's not The Shining or The Exorcist but it's original in its execution. Although I can see why many left the theater disappointed (many in my theater were), having expected more to happen at the end of the movie, I do not blame the film. The Blair Witch Project is perfect and entertaining as is. The American movie going public is shamelessly trained to expect everything to be shown to them and handed to them on a plate. This film expects the audience to use their imaginations and own fears to complete the horror. There is no need to have a Scooby Doo-the-gardener-did-it-ending. That's what films like Scream are for. I was frightened by the isolation, the horror of the darkness, the unknown, and the anxiety that these amateur film makers were experiencing. The quality of the filming made it seem like we were peaking into someone's life where everything went terribly wrong. I loved the ending! I only hope that we haven't been so brainwashed by the formula based, high budget, blood and gore flicks that offer cheap scares and inventive weapons that we don't forget that what scares us the most when lights are off is what we do not see.