"You gonna write us a happy ending, Heather?"

Rating: 10/10 (2 March 2019)

I mentioned in my review of Mandy how some films transcend the boundaries of mere entertainment to become a true experience. The Blair Witch Project is one of those films. It never fails to re-capture the distant feeling of being a child growing up on the American East Coast during Halloween, when one could feel the aura of the supernatural in the air. When one had reason to be afraid to venture off into the woods. It's a film that grabs me by the head, looks me in the eye and says "Yes. There is still some black magic left in this world." No Horror movie has ever left me feeling more vulnerable or small than The Blair Witch Project has and it never fails to weave its frightening spell to this day. This is still the only film to ever give me nightmares.
The dark allure of The Blair Witch Project begins long before film students Heather, Josh and Mike begin shooting in the demonic Black Hills Woods. Even the casual interviews with friendly town folk have an ominous tone to them. There is an unspoken but widely acknowledged truth to the legend of the Blair Witch and the legacy of Rustin Parr that you can feel from their testimonies; something wicked is afoot in the Black Hills Woods, ("I don't go up there! I believe enough not to go up there!") but acknowledging that such an evil entity could live in their midst would mean facing their own insignificance and helplessness to its whims. The only one willing to fully accept the terrible truth is the village idiot, Mary Brown. The crew's misunderstanding of town resident's vague responses as being full on denial of the occult evil that haunts Burkittsville will ultimately spell their doom.
It says a lot about the performances of these actors that they deceived an entire country into believing they had watched a snuff film. Heather Donahue perfectly embodies the strength, confidence and absent minded genius of her on-screen counterpart. Her enthusiasm and passion for filmmaking are inspiring, even as we watch her ambition, the shadow of her arrogance, become her ultimate undoing. Her screams of horror and cries of hysteria are some of the most chilling and convincing in film history. Joshua Leonard very easily could have just been the annoying stoner type, but his subtle, heightened aggression and descent into madness over the course of the film really helps to benefit the tension that Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez are trying to build with this trio. Mike Williams is deeply sympathetic as perhaps the most emotionally vulnerable member of the team, retaining a sense of innocence and naivety compared to his crew members that constantly had me rooting for him. And Lilith almighty, what a convincing screamer.
For a found footage film, the visual direction in The Blair Witch Project is among the best I've ever witnessed. The woods are shot in a way that we never quite get a feel for just how far they span; they could go on from anywhere between 5 and 500 miles. All we have to shape our judgment are the sky and the endless expanse of dying, decaying trees. The 16mm camera and Hi8 camcorder give the film a disturbingly personal and nostalgic feel. The horrifying events that befall the trio of film students could easily be home video tapes of relatives or friends. Because of this, footage like countless stick figures being hung in the trees miles deep into the woods feels far more real, and the off-putting, unnatural and macabre tone of it hits a lot harder. Forget "putting yourself in the characters shoes", The Blair Witch Project is perhaps the most interactive Horror movie ever made in terms of generating empathy from its audience through use of visual aesthetic. Shattering of the fourth wall is standard for the found footage genre, but no film has ever done it quite so effectively as this one.
Perhaps the greatest aspect of the film is its sound design. Much has been made of the film's focus on what you can't see, so a higher quality of sound design was not just important, but critical, for making The Blair Witch Project work. The sound design in The Blair Witch Project is equal parts unforgettable and nightmarish. From the all-encompassing marching of the Witch around camp to Josh's distant screams. Of course, the "laughing children" scene is by far the film's most terrifying and memorable use of sound to create terror, the sheer unnatural and almost perverted nature of it leaving me in an absolute frozen, chilled-to-the bone sense of fear with my mouth agape in shock every time I watch it. The slow buildup from a vague, undefined noise to clear, undeniable laughing is done absolutely wonderful, my mind (And the mind of the characters) becoming less and less capable of chalking things up to merely one's imagination. It's a haunting reminder of all the children whom the Witch has claimed, a kick in the teeth to the film's characters (And the audience, to an extent) of the dark and twisted power of legends and the reality of pure, supernatural and deadly evil. A reminder to the film students that their fate is to be nothing more than another footnote in the Blair Witch's legacy, yet another story to be told around campfires to keep the memory of the Blair Witch alive.
The Blair Witch Project is a journey, a seductive nightmare that never fails to captivate, enthrall and horrify me. Not only is it possibly one of the scariest films of all time, it is a massive achievement in film-making in general. A Halloween must watch that never fails to bring in emotions and feelings inside me I thought long dead, The Blair Witch Project is a bone chilling fever dream that speaks directly to my inner child and mortifies him to his core.