Much better than its reputation

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2009)

It seems many people dislike this film because they think the entirety of its reputation lay in the confusion/publicity campaign generated at the time of its release as to whether it was a real film found in the woods of Maryland that documented the disappearance of three college students or whether it was just a movie. What made this film scary in 1999 and scary now is what you don't see and what you think you hear as well as the growing paranoia and fright of the college kids lost in the woods over a period of days that find - as they run out of food and supplies - that they are just wandering in circles.
The very last scene is particularly chilling, and if you already know how it ends it will kill some of the fright factor for you. However, this film just proved in 1999, as it still does, that you don't have to fill a horror film with wall-to-wall state-of-the-art CGI visual effects and shocking violence in order to be scary. I personally think the horror genre has been much worse off since Jason and his ilk first invaded the movies back in 1980 with graphic violence that is predictable and, quite frankly, boring. Although I like this movie, the sequel, "Book of Shadows", is just awful. Its makers Hollywoodized the original concept and thus made it completely incoherent and unwatchable. Avoid it at all costs.