Important but over-hyped

Rating: 5/10 (14 January 2014)

The Blair Witch Project is considered to be a landmark in horror history and terrified everyone back in 1999. Why exactly? This is the first found footage horror film (The first to exclusively use the format) and 3 annoying teenagers go into the woods to film a documentary, get lost and are hunted by the Blair Witch. That's all there is to it. I'm sick and tired of found footage as it's just a way to make money without actually scaring anyone. Troll Hunter, Cloverfield or the excellent Chronicle are all smart examples which use the format well, and this shows in other genres found footage can work. I still can't stand those stupid Paranormal Activity films though. However, at the time, this movie would have been very scary and boosted by a good marketing campaign. It's still scary today. For about 5 minutes. More an experiment than a movie, this is a very interesting film but it's became cool to hate for good reason. It's not a bad film like some say, but it's certainly not a great movie.
The film has many assets. The finale at the house is very suspenseful, the way the film never shows the witch is very good as well and what people often forget is the acting is actually good (Heather Whatshername didn't deserve that Razzie) and the film creates a sense of unease and fear. But that doesn't mean it's scary. It's unnerving, patient and unique but it's about as scary as a walk in the park most of the time. Overly minimalistic, underwhelming, full of stupid decisions and deeply, deeply boring, this is one film you should never watch more than once even if you liked it the first time. There are only so many times one can stare at trees, tents being shaken and listen to weird noises before they just start to get annoyed. It's not a bad movie, just a remarkably average one hyped to absurd levels. It had a big impact at the time, but having seen many other superior horror films TBWP feels woefully unscary.
5/10