A petrifying nightmare...

Rating: 7/10 (11 August 2006)

PLOT: In October of 1994, three film students travel to Maryland to make a film about a local urban legend coined as the Blair Witch, equipped with a camera, tents and very little communication with the outside world. After days in the Maryland woods, things begin to appear outside their tent (i.e. stones and sticks) and strange noises occur during the cold nights. Eventually, they disappear, and a year later their footage is found, pieced together it becomes....The Blair Witch Project.
During the scariest of The Blair Witch Project moments we see nothing at all; the screen is pitch black. What we hear are the panicked voices of the film crew while outside their tent things go bump in the night. The combination of the distant noises and the raw fear in the voices will throw a chill into anyone's blood. The success of the film is not of blood, gore, nor is it special effects, but of the suggestion that something evil and supernatural occupies the dark shadows in the Maryland woods, and we can easily be terrified of them without ever having to see them. By using hand-held cameras and invigorating impromptu, there is a feeling of real life that accompanies these people on their journey, something sinister.
The directors, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez are genuine and talented. And its even more perfect that they had a tight budget, because the poor camera work makes it all seem like a documentary, like its all real. (no wonder people are still asking questions like "is this real?") The cast does a credible job, more or less playing themselves. Heather Donahue is a strong and determine character, and gives the film's most powerful performance (particularly in the film's most intense scene towards the end, which will stick in your mind). However, there's little noticeable difference between Josh and Mike. Both actors manage to make their characters seem like real people...but they are real people we never know anything about.
Overall, the central question of any horror film is: Is the movie scary? With The Blair Witch Project, the answer is undoubtedly, yes! It's certainly a welcome departure from the modern horror film, which have all too often replaced terror with mere gore (not realizing that disgust makes a pitiful substitute for fear). The Blair Witch Project is atmospheric, creepy and very unsettling. It may start off slow (particularly for modern audiences who are use to non stop gore), but the movie becomes more unsettling the longer it goes on, and builds up to one terrifying, devastatingly effective climax.
9.3/10
See It If You Liked: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980)