This does to camping what JAWS did for swimming.

Rating: 8/10 (16 June 1999)

1999 is quite a remarkable year for the cinema. With the comedy genre coming back strong with the brilliant ANALYZE THIS, now the horror genre is back in it's most chilling form with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. It seemed like that the horror genre was going downhill with such recent horror films as "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER," "URBAN LEGEND," "BRIDE OF CHUCKY," "WISHMASTER," and the idiotic and trendy "SCREAM" movies. The only recent films that were considered good horror films were "EVENT HORIZON" and "JOHN CARPENTER'S VAMPIRES." Now, just like 1978 with John Carpenter's "HALLOWEEN" the terror in films is brought back to a new figure. And sad to say, years from now, everybody is going to be copying this film. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is about three young student film-makers who go to the small town in Maryland formerly called "Blair." In this town they wish to uncover the mystery about the Blair Witch legend. With interviews with the town locals, they tell stories that range from typical bedtime stories to urban legends. Then the students wish to go out a seek this mysterous "graveyard" where some of these burials occur. As they go out into the woods looking for this graveyard, they begin to get deeper and deeper into a horrible and scary world that they never knew that they would be getting into. This is what I call a SCARY movie. It makes SCREAM and SCREAM 2 look like a Disney movie. What makes it scary? We can all relate to what these filmmakers are going through. 1.) Being lost: we all get lost, and when we get lost, we get paranoid, confused, and scared. These people getting lost in the woods can only cause them to not concentrate as much as they should. 2.) The scary noises in the dark: when we go outside at night, and you hear scary noises that make you wonder what that was. This film has plenty of those, enough to have your heart racing. 3.) Being the outsiders: these people don't know their way around, they don't know the people or the forrest that well. With this, they are like fish out of water which can also cause confusion. 4.) The terror that lurks: these people know that there is terror that lurks in the dark with them, and from time to time there will be some very terrifying and scary surprises. This is a horror film with no music soundtrack! There's no suspense music, no gory make-up, no silly looking person wearing a hockey mask. This is the kind of terror that is among us. The kind we think about when we are alone. This is without a doubt one of the best movies of 1999! This is going to be placed among Independent Film Hall of Fame along with PULP FICTION, CITIZEN RUTH, BOUND, TRAINSPOTTING, and LOCK STOCK & TWO SMOKING BARRELS. This is a excellent movie, and like the last movie that did this (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) it makes you feel like that you are lost among these unfortunate souls. Writer/Directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez have a successful hit on their hands. They will more than likely be writing and directing some more movies for big studios in the future. And don't be surprised that the stars will be making television appearances just to alert the pubilc that this is a fictional movie. Or is it? A terrfying masterpiece! ***** (out of *****)