A Brilliant, Original, Classic Horror Film

Rating: 9/10 (12 October 1999)

I just saw Blair Witch Project for the second time the other night and I was very surprised that the film had nearly the same effect on me as it did the first time I saw it. This is one of the most brilliant horror films I have ever seen!
For those of you this movie is BAD, I think your reasons are unjustified. I'm going to list the many reasons why people thought this movie was bad.
1. It was a home made movie-----The whole premise of this movie was to show the footage of three filmmakers who went into the woods and disappeared. The ads clearly said that this was "their" footage? What were you all expected. A glossy, high budget, special effects driven film, with lots of scary music and gore? Come on, these were film students!! The film remain true to that premise and did not deviate from it in any way. This was to look like a home video, and that made the film seem all the more real, therefore, much more effective.
2. Those kids were so stupid....Oh, as opposed to those brilliant teenagers we see in movies like Friday the 13th, I Know What You Did..., and countless other slasher films? Give me a break!!! Heather, Josh, and Mike were about as naiive as you and I, but they certainly were not stupid!! Many said they should have carried a cell phone with them. How many people in 1994 had cell phones compared to how common it is today for people to have one? Some said they should have been better prepared for camping. Hello! If any of you who said that had an ATTENTION SPAN would have learned that Heather is the type of person who goes camping and is familiar with navigating her way through the woods. Most importantly, these kids would have found their way out of the woods if they were not scared out their minds!! They were researching a legend, that they apparently believed was not true. Nothing these kinds ever did made me want to shout "STUPID! STUPID!" at them. I however have wanted to do that to many of the characters in several films. Plus, the characters in most slasher films have a choice to what danger they put themselves in. They know a killer is on the loose. In Blair Witch, the kids were lost in the woods before they realized something unexpected was hunting them down.
3. The acting was TERRIBLE!...There were many people who saw this film and thought it was real. Oh, but how could that happen if the acting was so bad? They should have known by that it was all fake, right? I think many of you have confused bad acting with "raw acting". The acting in this film wasn't meant to be dramatic, otherwise the film wouldn't have worked. The fact that the acting was so raw, made the film all the more realistic.
4. Nothing ever happens in the movie, it's so boring....Apparently you who say this do not know how to use your imagination. Plenty happens in this film. Imagine how you would react if you heard strange noises in the form of laughing in the woods, or if someone was attacking your tent, or if you then found and area of the woods with all these occultic symbols, or if you heard your friend screaming in the woods and you were unable to help him, and then find parts of his body wrapped in his clothing...Many of these things gave me the chills becuase I was able to put myself in their shoes.
5. They should run for their lives....What in the world do you think they were doing the whole movie?? They were walking, and running, and running, and going in circles and losing their mind. If you knew what it feels like to be lost, you'd understand that panic ensues and thinking your way out of a situation becomes harder and harder. And when they heard Josh's voice in the house I wasn't surprised they went in after him because that is something I would do in such a desperate situation.
I guess many of you still need to the graphic violence and gore for a movie to entertain you and simply can't use your imaginations. Go on and continue to be entertained by the brainless horror films like Friday the 13th. I guess the Blair Witch Project is just way out of your league.
This was one of the most original films of the decade and was so worthy of the hype. Many films used hype like TBWP. "Psycho" comes to mind as Hitchcock stated that NO ONE would be admitted after the beginning of the film. This sparked everyone's curioisity thinking that something happens at the beginning. There's nothing wrong with this as long as the film lives up to that hype. Psycho and Blair Witch both did that.
Face it, Blair Witch Project will go down in movie history as one of the greatest horror films ever made along with Psycho, Halloween, The Exorcist, Jaws, Silence of the Lambs, Seven, and Scream. All of these films redefined the horror genre and expounded the limits of what horror films could do at that time.