It works because it's real

Rating: 9/10 (28 July 2006)

The horror film market is probably one of the most popular these days in cinema. The main reason is that today's moviegoers and people in general always want to get more and more thrills and experiences that makes adrenaline climbing. Well, you might say that it's not really new, but others things are changing in today's film industry.
I'd say that moviegoers aren't really sensitive to whether the movie is good or not, because they simply want the thrills. That's the reason why ridiculous horror/slasher films are created, such as "Final Destination" (and its sequels), "Child's Play" (and its sequels), and so on.
However, major exceptions still exist and "The Blair Witch Project" is one of them. "Blair Witch" is far from being an ordinary horror B-movie, or any parody of any genre. It's simply a pseudo-documentary about three film students who want to shoot their own documentary about the legend of the Blair Witch, but they inadvertently become the subject of a movie that they never wanted to shoot.
The main reason that "Blair Witch" succeeds is because of its terrifying reality. The 'actors' aren't from Hollywood and they always seem to be playing the game during the 70 minutes that we see them. Heather, Josh and Michael are fairly convincing and not only in their scares. Yeah, the scary moments are the main part of the film and it's always great, but the interesting parts don't begin there. Just before they leave to the woods, we clearly see that they're real human beings. They have their own pre-shooting rituals (Heather drinks scotch because she's the director) and they have their own jokes, which do we might admit, are typical of people of their age.
And when they notice that they 'lost' themselves, their reaction, their anger and their frustration don't leave any doubt about their sincerity. It's clearly evident when you see Josh fights Michael, because he let go the map and when Heather angers with Michael while she's taping, causing the image to muddle and shake.
The way that this movie is shot is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of it. It's not in 35mm like in most of today's movies. It's shot alternatively between Hi-8 video and 16mm, which make the scenes even more real. We never see any of the events entirely from an external point of view, because we either switch from one of the students to another. This shooting process makes the movie even scarier and there's no let-down 'till the abrupt final scenes (before it switches to today's footage).
Also a thumbs-up for the sound effects. Sometimes, we don't even see anything (because the camera light is off) and we're still scared, simply because of the sounds we hear. And that's maybe what's the scariest: the sounds. Just hearing the characters crying and shaking, the external cries of unknown people outside the tent and the sounds of the mysterious person who follow them in the night make the viewer shake as well.
Hollywood filmmakers should learn a lesson here. When independent filmmakers shoot a $35,000-budget project that becomes a $150-million hit, there's definitely something to learn. It's not the budget that counts, it's the substance. Just do something that works and the moviegoers will come. And that's what "Blair Witch" producers understood. And it's the reason why it became one of the best horror films of the late 20th century. Along with "The Shining", "Blair Witch" is one of my all-time favorites.