The SCARIEST movie ever made....and not a single drop of blood.

Rating: Null/10 (9 August 1999)

I've been reviewing movies for a long time. I'm the Entertainment Editor for a local newspaper, and I've been studying films for a while. I thought I had the whole movie thing pretty much figured out, and I went in to see "The Blair Witch Project" thinking, yeah....just another quickie filmed to cash in on the success of "Scream."
What I saw defied and challenged everything I have ever known about filmmaking, and quite frankly, it's sending me back to the books to try to figure out just how the heck they managed to pull it off.
This is indeed the scariest, creepiest movie that has ever come out of Hollywood....EVER. Scarier than "Night of the Living Dead." Scarier than "Scream." Scarier than anything. You name it, I've seen most of them. And they don't hold a candle to this one.
The reason is, there's no monster. No real emphasis of supernatural events. Just three college students trapped in the woods, in a battle with unseen supernatural forces and nature. This alone would have set the stages for a good movie, kind of an interesting play on paranioa. But it takes it a level higher....or maybe a level lower. It's filmed like a documentory, with a camcorder that shakes and moves the whole time. And that leaves it all absolutely nervewracking.
Here's the premise, and it's pretty simple: three college students are out to film a documentory about the Blair Witch, an Urban Legend from the woods of Maryland. But upon a closer examination, they get lost in the woods, and it's basically an account of their struggle, from fleeing from ghostly apparitions in the night to battling with each other. And it's all filmed on a camcorder, and presented like one would present a family vacation that they taped themselves. It's not even in widescreen format....just plain camcorder.
Therefore, it's all realistic, and you question whether or not it is false or ACTUAL footage, due to the authenticity. I was in a cold sweat fifteen minutes into it, and but the terrifying closing scene, I was losing my nerve and trembling violently. Only one other film has come close to having this affect on me....the original "Candyman"....but it doesn't come anywhere close to this. I knew that film was made up....But this....this challenged fiction and you are absolutely convinced it is real. Kevin Williamson, hate to say it, but you've suddenly been booted into second place by a handful of unprofessionals!
What also helps its realism is the fact that the actors are so great. Most horror movies nowadays have great looking leading teenage actors getting slashed, but this one features normal looking people in terrifying situations. How affective are they? Believe me when I say that Oscar nominations WILL arise.... The character of Heather (an actress playing herself, like her co-stars) has a scene in which she apologizes to the camera for getting her friends into this whole mess. She knows she will die soon, and she is trembling with fear....and it is the finest performance I have ever seen in a horror movie....ever.
Filmed with almost no budget (a budget would have taken away from it), it is choppy and a mess....just like a camcorder recording always is....and that just helps the situation. And this only enhanced the true affect of the film. No film has ever scared me as terribly as this movie.... Go see it only if you think you're strong enough to handle it. Not for the intense gore (there is none), but for the true suspence. This is indeed a horror film that challenges the idea that horror movies need gore, and I totally respect that. That challenge it also sent me screaming, and it will you, as well.
********** out of *****