Pure psychological terror

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 1999)

I have never been so drained, physically and mentally, than when walking out of the cinema after seeing this, surely a modern classic, and quite possibly an Exorcist' for the MTV generation. We all know now of the legend of the Blair Witch and how three young and arrogant students got lost in the woods, their only legacy being their footage. It is this knowledge of the film that has perhaps partially ruined the experience of this film for me and many others. I can only imagine how terrified I might of been had I believed that what I was seeing was real, as those who saw it at Sundance did. Yet the film holds together brilliantly despite, or maybe even because of, the hype that has surrounded it's entrance to the UK.
What the film does best is to build up the tension, almost silently, and allow one thing to go wrong after the other before dropping the crew (and us) in a living hell, within reach of all of us. It is hard to define the point at which they realise that they really are going to die, because it all builds up on different layers. The genius is that we are seeing this arrogant bunch do everything wrong, yet we know that we would do exactly the same thing in their position. We are annoyed with them, but we don't want them to die, even though we know they will.
Because we never see exactly what it is which is stalking them, we are left to imagine something far worse than CGI or animatronics could conjure up. The sound effects paint everything for us. The gore is minimal, but devastating. The design of the film (the stick figures, the house, the hand prints) is extremely effective. But what the film gives us more than anything is indescribable fear which oozes out of the film at every moment. The pace never lets up, and we are left every bit as exposed to the terror on the screen as the characters are, thanks to the ultra realism provided by the vérité style of the film. Thank God Hollywood didn't pick up on this, for it would have no doubt tainted the film with effects, music, gore and A-List actors. There is nothing intellectual or clever' about the film, but that is not the point, because this reduces the audience to a primal state, turning us into the closest we have ever become to cavemen.
I don't think that it was a fluke that this film was a success, and I fail to see how anyone could be less than terrified by it. I have noticed that those friends of mine not scared by it are not the most imaginative people I know, and if there is one thing that could have been added to this film, I think it would be a glimpse of the witch, and JUST a glimpse, for anything more than that would render the film dead. I believe it would have worked every bit as well as the gore did, for as I walked out of the foyer, the dialogue that was ringing around my head to that final, truly disturbing image was not Heather's now infamous monologue in the tent but rather the early description of the witch by a local. The key to this films success is really the fact that you are not once spoon-fed a CGI ghoul or witch, but are treated like an intellectual, educated filmgoer, who can imagine the witch perfectly well (although it would still have been nice to see it).