War of the movie fans...

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2000)

I love and admire every single frame of The Blair Witch Project, and nothing anyone says will ever be able to shake me from that opinion. BWP is, for me at least, one of the scariest movies of all time.
You have to pay attention, you have to think, you have to imagine. The movie doesn't show us the witch for the same reason 2001 doesn't show us aliens and the original Jaws barely ever shows us the shark--your imagination is much more effective at creating those images than any special effects artist could ever be. We live in an age where every movie plot point is so thoroughly explained that even the dullest audience member can follow the action and where special effects take the place of characterization. It's incredibly refreshing when a rare movie like this one that actually respects its audience comes along.
Maybe the problem is that the film respects its audience too much. I guess people see the words "scary as hell" in the trailer and they go to the movie expecting to see blunt, frightening images. But that's not the way BWP works, and those viewers just sit there waiting for some more traditional movie scare that never comes. Or maybe they've never been out in the woods, and have no idea how incredibly creepy it can be out there at night. Maybe they were too busy ruining the movie for everyone else, yawning and making jokes and obnoxiously asking if the movie was over yet, to be able to hear any of the dialogue. Or maybe they just enjoy bashing successful, publicized movies because they want to feel different from everyone else. I don't know.
Too many people have the mistaken impression that a movie takes one form and that's it, that's all the movie is. The Blair Witch Project is different. It's like a horror movie Mad Lib. It can be as scary as you want it to be.