Horror at its finest

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 1999)

[Editor's note: this comment contains a minor SPOILER]
How many times have you heard a noise in the middle of the night and shivered in your bed? The fear of the unknown source of the noise chills your blood. That fear of the unknown is what makes The Blair Witch Project one of the greatest horror films.
Only using a camcorder and a black and white 16mm held by the actors themselves, the film's subjective cinemtography heightens the atmosphere of fear. Many scenes at night nothing is visible but darkness. The soundtrack is filled with noises but the camera keeps jerking around; you can not find its source.The scene inside the house ( I won't say what happens there ) was filmed ingeniusly (if done on purpose). One character holds the camcorder, the only piece of equipment capable of recording sound, while the other has the 16mm which has no sound recording device. As the one with the camcorder runs down the stairs, the audience can only see what the 16mm sees as it is trying to follow the other person. The screams of the person with the 16mm can only be heard as distant screams through the camcorder's microphone. So the descent down the stairs has an eiry detachment that works extremely well.
The Blair Witch Project shows that multi-million dollar budgets are not neccesary to make high quality films...