Less is not always more

Rating: Null/10 (13 November 1999)

Being a life-long avid movie fan, I look forward to any movie which offers a new concept or approach to movie making. And, since many of the best recent movies are from the independent film makers, I always anticipate eagerly a new film which does not rely on the presence of a highly-paid superstar for its appeal. Having said that, I must say that, in my opinion, the money that I wasted to rent The Blair Witch Project did not anger me half as much as the precious time that I spent waiting for the moment that never came-the moment when I could say "Aha, THIS is what scared all of those movie-goers I saw interviewed on television!" That moment never came. Oh, I paid attention to the plot. I had seen the Sci Fi special previously, so I knew what was supposed to be happening. And I certainly do not subscribe to the theory that a movie must have explicitly visual gore in order to be frightening- in fact, when it comes to horror, the less is actually shown, the more frightening the effect. One's imagination holds more horrors than any movie scene can ever visually present. But this movie failed miserably in its attempt to frighten, for several reasons.
The primary reason for the failure of this movie is its inability to make the audience care for the victims. I was so glad that they got what they deserved that I never for an instant felt any empathy with their situation. I am not a prude, by any means, but the language in this movie was unnecessarily foul, and its only effect was to make the characters totally unloveable. By comparison, the repetitive use of the "F" word by Joe Pesci's character in Good Fellas contributed to the plot and character definition- not so with Blair Witch.
I did not think that the poor quality of the filming itself was a detraction-rather, it contributed to the premise of the movie. But the lack of character development, the poorly explained "threat" of the witch, the jerky, uneven plot- all combined to create one of the biggest wastes of my time in recent history. If it is not too late- do not waste your time and money.