Hype Kills....

Rating: 5/10 (28 November 1999)

Both GODZILLA and THE PHANTOM MENACE,I believe, were destroyed by hype. The former had a kicky trailer which the movie couldn't amount to and the latter was in need of script revisions and lots of them.
But what separates these two examples from THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is that they were big budget "event" movies, STAR WARS especially. PROJECT, was a sleeper horror cheapie with a cool, innovative gimmick. It's supposedly the missing pieces of documentary footage left by a missing trio of filmmakers researching the legendary Blair Witch. The movie is pretty much segments of color video or black and white 8mm film. This is an interesting concept and a cool idea, but it doesn't make the movie especially scary.
What attracted me to the movie in the first place was first the cool idea that attracted most film purists, and later on, the rumors I overheard. People running out of theaters and getting sick (due to, I later found out, the shaky camera movements).
But watching PROJECT, especially near the end, I kept thinking of the "directors", who didn't seem to do much but edit the movie, since the talent had to shoot the film. I imagined them laughing and rolling in a big pile of money as we were getting jipped from a promising horror movie. All this movie turns out to be is a gimmicky pseudo-documentary with noises in the woods and missing campers.
I realize that it's as hard to scare the bejesus out of an audience as much as it is to make them laugh out loud and hopefully break down to the floor. And due to that consideration, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is an average horror flick, which will probably be looked back as a classic like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, due to its clever style of using video and film and its dirt-cheap budget. The actors are good with their improvisations and the ending is a true chiller.
If you are curious about the film, I guess it would be worth seeing. It's better than your generic Hollywood slasher flick. But don't be prepared to be scared out of your wits. Don't expect this movie to be the scariest ever made. The scariest movie ever made is yet to BE made!