Effective

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2009)

Over the years, the horror genre has evolved into brainless, unimaginative movies revolving around the socially active lives of good-looking teenagers who drink, have sex and party all the time. Usually they consist of a female protagonist with a nice body who coincidentally loves to shower and walk around in nothing but their undergarments. The Blair Witch Project, however, is a breath of fresh air. The heroin, Heather, is a self-righteous smart ass who organizes to make a documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch. She and two guys, Josh and Mark, go hiking in the woods, and as expected, terrible things occur. The first while of the movie is easy-going and relaxing, watching them just being teenagers. Though once the terror really starts, it holds onto the audiences and introduced a sense of unease and desperation. Throughout the film, I felt like I was there with them. This has much to do with the effective documentary-style directing. Though not much is clear in view with the bouncy camera action, it leaves a great amount of mystery, and therefore more frightening to watch. The events and the character interaction is the real tension in the plot, not the blood and guts like a lot of horror movies. The emotion is very real, and through their distress you come to care about the characters and feel exactly what they're going through. And of course, it's freaking scary. When I get scared, I starting shedding tears. The night I watched this, tears were constantly running down my face. In all, I believe this is one of the better horror movies in the last decade.