An Atmospheric Horror Driven by Great Acting and Subtle Terror

Rating: 8/10 (9 February 2017)

The Blair Witch Project follows a group of students who embark on a trip through the woods to make a documentary about the legend of the Blair Witch, and the horrors which ensue when they decide to do this.
For starters, the acting is all pretty fantastic. All three main actors are great, and in a role like this where they spend most of it beaten down and losing themselves, it really is impressive. Each one of surprisingly genuine, and it's clear that each actor was passionate about this project.
The characters they play are fleshed out and realistic. They talk like real people right from the get-go, and it makes it so much easier to relate to and get behind these characters as real students. Throughout the movie the characters are pushed, and they react in ways you'd expect most of the time. There is one scene where the movie creates unnecessary conflict for itself, where a certain fact would've been better left untold. Otherwise, the writing and characters are very well done.
There are several scenes where the camera is pointed right at the ground and we as the audience can do nothing but sit and listen to the characters. Being a found-footage film, this works very well. First of all, the characters aren't always going to be pointing their camera at whatever they are looking at. It just doesn't make sense, especially in this situation. It also adds a lot to the atmosphere, where we as the audience often live in silent, unknowing terror. We can't see anything, but we can hear the characters talking. While they don't really see much either, it still leaves a lot to the imagination with the limitation of the camera lens. In fact, the movie shows very little even when the characters are pointing the camera where they're looking, and again it creates great atmosphere. You never know what's going to happen next, and in the end you just kind of have to figure it out yourself. It becomes more terrifying without the full knowledge of what exactly is going on, and that is where this movie particularly excels.
Supposedly there was a scene where the camera was supposed to turn and see the Blair Witch standing on a hill, but whoever had the camera at the time didn't do that and it was kept in the final cut, which is in a way more terrifying. We don't know what they saw, and in that way it also leaves more up to the imagination and more to interpret.
Overall The Blair Witch Project is pretty terrifying, and yet it's well-acted, well-written, and just overall well made. I can count about one part where I really didn't like it, but it still makes some sense at least. In the end I would definitely recommend this movie.