Pseudo-documentary that is truly frightening

Rating: 10/10 (25 August 1999)

Let me preface these comments by saying that I have never been scared by a movie in my 20 years of viewing. Sure, isolated moments in some of the more effective films of the horror genre have made me jump, but I have never experienced the growing dread and unease inspired by The Blair Witch Project.
By now, the media-hype surrounding the unprecedented box-office success of this shoestring budget indie film has begun to overshadow the power of the pure film experience. This is a shame. I wish everyone could come to this film as I did -- unaware of the hype, knowing just the barest plot details. Add to that mix a quiet, respectful audience (though very near the theatre's 500 seat capacity) in a Maryland cinema.... and you would have the ideal ambiance for enjoying (is that the right word?) this film. Too many people are going to see Blair Witch with their expectations artificially inflated and, inevitably, many of them will be disappointed because this film does NOT hold your hand in the typical Hollywood fashion, revealing all its secrets and tying the plot's threads into a neat package at film's end.
To those of you who have yet to see the film, these words of advice: do not immerse yourself in the media coverage before you go. Do not seek out the "answers" to the film's unresolved questions found on web pages and in the film's companion book. The power of this movie is its ability to make you empathise with the fairly mundane yet primal emotions expressed by the actors. As you follow the "filmmakers" on their journey into the woods, you feel the characters' frustration, confusion, disorientation, and, most importantly, fear of the unknown. The tangible "horrors" of standard "scary movies" -- the killer in the hockey mask, the monster stalking the summer camp -- are constrained the moment their image appears on film. Blair Witch proves (as do the perpetually disappointing adaptations of Stephen King's genuinely frightening novels) that hinted-at, suggested horrors fleshed out by the viewer's (or reader's) imagination are far more powerful than the best work of Hollywood's special effects teams.