That's It?!!!

Rating: 1/10 (18 August 1999)

I don't watch horror movies; haven't for years since being terrified by Alien and turning off the TV halfway through it. But I decided to see The Blair Witch Project with my husband (who likes good horror movies) because of all the amazing hype surrounding the movie, and because I was curious what a couple of barely-out-of-college filmmakers had done that everyone was saying was so creative. I told my husband I'd probably have to leave mid-way through the movie, since I was prepared to be scared out of my wits. Wrong. There was not one scary moment in this entire movie. We both sat there, waiting for the scary stuff to begin, and it never happened. This was one of the worst, most boring movies I've ever seen. Yeah, the premise was fairly creative and a good way to make a movie on a $30,000 budget, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a bad movie. I got really tired of seeing jerky camera footage and the three actors saying the same things over and over (f**k, we're lost!!). Not to mention the fact that the three characters had a wilderness survival guide and managed not to know that if you're lost in the woods and find a stream of water, you can often follow it to civilization! Also, they kept filming themselves as they got more and more terrified, and how real is that? You're awakened in the middle of the night by strange noises (which we couldn't hear well at all in the theater; bad sound effects) in a supposedly haunted woods, and you stop to grab the camera to film everything? The piles of rocks and stick figures that were supposed to terrify the audience left me yawning. The people sitting next to us in the theater had the same reaction we did.
This is an example of what Hollywood hype can do for a bad movie and of how critics will grab onto anything remotely different without stopping to really examine whether it's a good film. Honestly, this movie is like the Emperor with no clothes -- when are critics going to start telling the truth about The Blair Witch Project? I can't believe the supposed experts, the critics, who are saying that this is one of the scariest movies ever made. What a joke! At least we saw a matinee and only wasted $8.50. Don't waste your money. I give this one star.