Look for the aftertaste

Rating: Null/10 (14 July 2000)

The Blair Witch Project is an original, quirky flick that is not all that it seems. Like most people, I had heard all the hoopla about its hype and Internet shenanigans before I saw it. Going into the theatre on a dreary day (and in a tired, down mood, to boot), I was ready to be put to the test.
A few minutes after the flick ended, I looked at my friend and we both said the same thing: "What a lame movie!" It was true, it seemed. This had been much ado about nothing. Sure, it was an interesting idea, but come on. A group of kids basically screaming and cursing (the latter much more so) about their fate in the dark woods, to the point of being annoying. So I left the theatre somewhat disappointed.
But then a strange thing happened. Several days later, some of the movie's more effective shots began coming back to me (and, much to my dismay, at night). The three cairns piled outside the tent in the morning. The human figurines hanging silently from the trees. The little surprise package, wrapped up in a piece of the missing Josh's shirt. In short, the movie was starting to work some odious magic on me. I began to feel, for one of the few times in my life, a sense of true horror and dread, or at least something close. And I began to consider the existence of all of those unseen powers and forces we know from Stephen King and other horror stories.
Do they exist? Could they exist? Who knows--that is probably part of the game. We will never know, until it is too late, as it was for the trio in Blair Witch Project.
The only thing I found unbelievable about this movie was at the end, when the filmmakers are in the house, and they know full well that something awful is about to happen, yet they are still shown with their cameras to their eyes, walking around filming everything. I'd be so scared I sure would not be worried about my camcorder at that point.
But that aside, The Blair Witch Project has both the capacity to bore as well as the capacity to frighten. But whatever you experience, be wary for the aftertaste. It might just get you.