A Landmark Horror Film,

Rating: Null/10 (8 August 1999)

"The Blair Witch Project" is a rare gem, a psychological horror film with no big budget, no big name actors, and no in-your-face special effects, and it is better than almost every summer movie possessing all of the above. The hype might be killing it for some viewers, but it certainly is every bit as scary as people are saying.
Three student film makers set out to make a documentary on a local myth, the so-called "Blair Witch". Their starting point is interviewing people about the myths and legends that surround the supposedly haunted woods near a small town in Maryland. They interview many people who tell stories about the troubled past, with a crazy person (or thing) stalking the woods, child murders, and the fact that the woods are haunted to this day. The film makers treat these tales like myths, nothing to be taken seriously. But as they get deeper into ther filming, they discover something is really out there. Soon, they find themselves lost and running out of food, and patients with each other.
Because the film is shot in a documentary style, every event is a suprise. You are discovering these horrors as the characters are discovering it. But in "The Blair Witch Project", there is no hockey masked killer staking them, no demon roaming around, the horror is all psychological. That is what makes this movie so scary, it feeds off of our own sense of fear. The scenario is our own worst nightmare, being lost in the vast woods with images of wicked witches and ghosts, or possible something worse going through out heads. And as the movie goes on, the sense of sheer hopelessness and fear rubs right off on the audience. By the end of the movie, I was totally unnerved. One thing that should also get special mention is the writing. The screenwriters did a great job of giving the characters a realistic touch. They talk like normal people rather than fabricated cartoon characters all too common in movies these days.
One warning, and this has been stated numerous times, if you are going to see this movie, avoid the first 5 rows. The camera shakes and shifts so much that is causes motion sickness. To add the the horror of the movie, there was a sick feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. Or is that supposed to be part of the experience.
Most people expect that "The Blair Witch Project" to spawn a whole score of cheap knockoffs, and will be used as a reference point for modern horror movies, much like "Halloween" spawned "Friday the 13th" and a never ending list of slasher films. I hope that is not true, because "Blair Witch" is proof that a great movie doesn't need the Hollywood treatment to be quality and successful at the same time. This is how horror movie should be.