Would have been better if the haunted house motif was removed

Rating: Null/10 (25 September 2000)

Based on what I heard: okay, this film was an experimental
piece and it was categorized as 'horror.' I've been a long
time fan of horror films and I've seen a lot of things done in
this media to 'creep' or 'scare' people out. Blair Witch
works in the creep factor because no one, not even the
audience, is in on the joke; also this film was an experiment on psychological terror than anything else. At
its basic level, three filmmakers venture into a forest,
rumored to be haunted by the Blair Witch. What they find
starts their road towards the realm of fear. It is H.P.
Lovecraft who states, "The oldest and strongest emotion of
mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear
is the fear of the unknown. These facts few psychologists
will dispute, and their admitted truth must establish for all
time the genuineness an dignity of the weirdly horrible
tales as a literary form."
Sadly, the movie comes to a big crushing end when traditional cinematic motifs used in the horror genre are
used to bring the movie to its mysterious end. Voices in
the night, children off in the distance, unusual noises and
the haunted house are staples for this genre and the movie
fails when it has to use those methods to create terror. If it
wasn't for the 'haunted house' in the middle of nowhere (i.e.
the woods), I would have enjoyed this movie more. With it
there and the handprints in the house, I had to ask, 'what
the hell?' This movie deserves a wavering thumb because
it works in some levels and is terrible in others.