Genuinely Creepy

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2005)

Three young film students - Josh, Mike and Heather - pack up their filming equipment and head out to Burkittsville, Maryland on an autumn weekend to make a documentary about the Blair Witch, a local legend which continues to haunt the surrounding woods of the small town. The three strike out into the forest with their camping gear and are never seen again.
One year later, their film footage is recovered.
It's a great basis for a horror movie. What could be worse than actually finding a roll of film or two only to discover that, upon development, it contains the dark and horrible story of a missing persons last moments on earth? The hype surrounding this film was so well done that people still believe to this day that what they are seeing is real. And while the hype may have gone a tad overboard (I don't think, for instance, that this is the scariest movie EVER made) The Blair Witch Project is still a very good, well made pseudo-documentary/ horror movie.
Made with hand-held cameras and boasting no special effects whatsoever, Blair Witch takes us out into the middle of the dark and spooky woods and leaves us there with the three unfortunate college kids. It's kind of like being dropped into a particularly vicious retelling of Hansel and Gretel. Strange noises echo through the woods at night, the disturbing laughter of children can be heard and many odd and primitive symbols, made of sticks and resembling crude, miniature scarecrows, are left dangling in the trees for us to find. They are all keys to a mystery which only gets larger and more sinister as the film progresses. The threesome are soon lost and find themselves wandering around in circles, unable to escape from the cursed woods, and this, for me, is where the real horror of the film lies. It can happen and, witch or no, your imagination can conjure up any number of monsters out there in the darkness, heard but never seen, but all of them waiting to eat you. Josh, Heather and Mike begin to fall apart, turning on each other and just as quickly holding on to one another as the woods loom up and consume them.
Nothing is ever seen, no answers are given and the mystery surrounding the Blair Witch and the exact fate of the threesome is never solved. We are left to decide for ourselves if the stories are true and the evil rumored to be within the woods is real. The premise here is simple and the film itself very realistic. It's easy to see why it frightened so many people upon its release - at times, it's like watching a snuff film without the sex.
Gritty, well-acted and genuinely disturbing. People who suffer from motion sickness should probably avoid it, since the constantly jouncing camera IS rather nauseating. People tired of car chases, obligatory sex scenes and CGI monsters should check this out - it's a very cool throwback to the ghost stories told around campfires. Very well done.