An Extremely Innovative Horror Flick but a bit of a Let Down

Rating: Null/10 (24 October 2000)

The Blair Witch project is the 3rd film i'll be reviewing for my october/halloween special. This movie took the horror genre to a whole new level. I remember when this first came out the internet turned a small movie into a world wide sensation. A lot of people thought these events actually took place and who could blame them. They made news specials about the missing teens and even T.V. specials that made us believe that sometihng actually happened to these kids, Of course it turned out to be a brillant stunt by the filmmakers to make the movie seem more real. The film was shot entirely with a hand held camera and the acting was almost 100% improvised. When i first saw this movie i was impressed by its creativity but the final product kinda disappointed me.
As you know the plot of the movie is about 3 people who venture into the woods to do a documentary on the blair witch and strange events occur and they a re never heard from again. one year later their footage is found and we get to see what led up to their mysterious disappearance. Pretty good plot that works really well. so far so good.
The atmosphere really works. to me the woods is one of the scariest places to be and it really works for this film. Also being shot entirely on a hand held camera we get to experience first hand what the characters or doing or feeling. Blackouts and shaky camera movements add to the already great suspenseful tension.
The acting is superb. Frist we get 3 funny and carefree young people who are very full of life but as the film progresses we see how fear is tearing them apart and we get to witness this first hand. Since the actors were newcomers at the time i was very impressed with their acting talent.
Another good thing was the last 15 or 20 minutes which are the films highlight and its most scariest moments. i was really hooked by this point at what was happening.
That was the good. Here is the bad.
The film is too short. at 87 minutes it isn't nearly long enough. I felt there should've been so much more included. it's such a quick finish that i couldn't really take it all in.
now, even though the film is pretty short it also tends to be pretty slow. like i said the last 15 or 20 minutes are its best but before this it seems like it takes forever to get started and sometimes it tends to drag and be a little boring
I liked the acting but listening to 3 people yell and curse through almost the entire movie got a little annoying and at some moments that seemed to be the films only conflict. i liked how they showed that fear was consuming them but i wish they would've concentrated more on the legend.
Now this is kinda my own personal gripe about the film. i lied the last 15 minutes but the actual ending itself was such a letdown. for that 20 minutes it created such a good intense build-up and all of a sudden it's over and you go "that's it". i know they were trying to be creative and make us wonder what happened to them without actually telling us but it just ends up being a letdown.
another thing that hurt this film but also helped it was the hype that surrounded it. the hype made this film gross 140 million dollars but since there was such a demand that this film be the scariest thing we've ever seen and to some it simply wasn't and i think over-hyping a film can really hurt it sometimes and this is the case with this film.
All and all it's creativity saves it from being a total disappointed and i do give it credit making a uge impact on the horror genre but i just wish it could've been better. 7/10