Funny, Innovative, and Damn Scary

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 1999)

[Editor's note: this comment contains a minor SPOILER]
What's scarier than Freddy, Jason, and Michael Meyers? What you can't see. The dark. The noises in the dark. The unexplained.
This is the concept behind the Blair Witch Project. I won't say much on the film, just a few notes, because it is the first film I've ever seen that one must experience for oneself before one can truly enjoy it.
You never see the monster. You never see death. All you see is dark. All you hear are things that go bump in the night. The scariest moment of the entire film, the moment that really sent a chill down my spine, is seeing Mikey standing in the corner of the basement, as you see the last few seconds of Heather's videotape. Before it drops.
But we don't see the monster.
Not only does this prove an excellent effect, but the way in which the entire film was made. All improv. The actors never told what was going to happen. Filming it themselves. This is the reason the film REALLY works. We can feel the insanity the lost students go through. We can relate to them when they scream at each other. And, it's funny because it's the same way we would react. The funniest moment of the film is when the brightest ray of light in the four days lost kids house is when they find a pack of cigarettes. And, as a member of the audience, you feel the little bit of joy they have.
That is all that can be said. Live it for yourself. Feel it's fear.