The nightmare of Poe...

Rating: 10/10 (8 August 1999)

The Blair Witch Project is the most terrifying movie I have ever seen, if not the most horrifying movie ever made. To try to describe in words such as soul-mortifying, heart-stopping, mind-paralyzing, would not do it justice. It is something you must experience. Now, I'm not going to spoil this movie for anyone who hasn't already seen it, but I am going to give you a few tips so you can better enjoy the movie. First, it is essential that you listen to every bit of dialogue in the movie, especially the town interviews, otherwise you are not going to understand why the ending is so insanely frightening. Second, go to this movie expecting to be scared and wanting to become part of the movie. If you go trying to prove to everyone that you were not scared by the Blair Witch, then you'll do it, you won't be scared, and you'll have missed the opportunity of a lifetime to enjoy a truly awesome movie. The Blair Witch Project is sheer creative genius. And the way it is filmed, although possible borrowed from other films, just adds to the complete madness. It becomes all too real as we watch the decent into the malstorm of Heather, Josh, and Mike. And the ending...well folks let's just say that I nearly deficated on myself right there in theatre. My girlfriend thought I was going to rip her arm off, I thought she was going to crush my fingers, and my heart thought it was going to rupture. Intense is not the word. This movie is the nightmare of Edgar Allan freaking Poe or whoever else you want to compare it to. And what makes it work is that you never know quite what's going on. Stephen King once said in his book Danse Macbre that our imaginations are darker than any horror movie could envision. That although we might be scared by something in a movie, it could have always been worse in our imagination. Well, that's what makes this movie so flippin' freaky. You are lead through a series of horrifying events where you are just as confused as the victimes and the climax is so viscious because you have been drug to the darkest corner of your soul and then......you're left there, forced to peer into the inky blackness and left with your mind writhing with fear, branded with the last scene like a hot iron. "Scary as Hell," as one critic said, may just be the understatement of the year.