Absolute garbage but scary garbage.

Rating: 8/10 (2 September 2007)

Making a fictional tale look like a real journal left by someone, who died in a strange way and knew they will not live long enough to tell there story is tradition in literature (Edgar Allan Poe's "Found in the bottle" for example) but we hardly ever see films like that, I've heard about "The Cannibal Holocaust" but never had a chance to see it. "The Blair Witch Project" is a nice attempt to convince the audience that they are watching a document and for that I give the first point. The document is made by three students: Heather, Josh and Mike, who inspired by an urban legend about a mysterious baby killer known as the Blair Witch set off the woods of Maryland with cameras. There plan is simple: film some interviews with the locals, film the forest, get back home before the end of the weekend and remember the whole thing as a great adventure. They only manage to accomplish the first two points, for when they try to get back to the car they get lost in the woods, the map disappears and something - the Blair Witch? - is after them.
The film was promoted as an account of true events. I am sure that people who believed that this really happened, saw one of the most frightening things ever. But what is left for those who know this fiction? Not much really: the film's got the quality of home made movies, the plot reminds me of ghost stories, I wrote in my junior high days, the whole idea that one can get lost in a forest these days is ridicules- just follow a stream until you reach civilization-and the characters aren't particularly complex or interesting. Frankly this film is a peace of junk, which leaves anyone who has seen it with an impression that they can do something as good. I'd love to criticize it all the way but I can't. Why not? Maybe because I found this movie really scary, moving and memorable. The closer the characters were to their horrible end, the more I was dreading that moment. From the beginning we are focused on the three of them, we see everything from their point of view and can witness their change from a bunch of fun loving kids to desperate, angry, frighten people. We see them jumping to each others throats and comforting each other. The film really shows us what must be going on in the mind of someone, who heard some creepy stories, got lost in a strange place and feels that theirs life is endangered. I said the characters aren't complex but I don't have a problem with that, as I began to treat them as real people who don't deserve to die - interesting or not. That makes a huge difference between BWP and gore horrors like "Hills Have Eyes" where people are just peaces of meat with ought to be torn by the bad guys and I couldn't care less who dies. As for the amateur cinematography, it makes this film different and unique (although I am glad most movies aren't made like that) and I always believed that black and white are the best color's for horrors. I am not sure whatever this film is so good or modern horrors are so bad and I don't care. If you want to see something scary and don't mind the shaking camera, see this.