Definitely worth seeing---but.....

Rating: 8/10 (25 July 1999)

While I really enjoyed watching The Blair Witch Project, the experience would have been far better in an empty theatre. To become completely absorbed in the events on screen, there really needs to be utter silence in the theatre. Unfortunately, crowds in Baltimore haven't totally mastered the art of staying quiet during a film. That said, Blair Witch works much better if you take the events onscreen as factual. Actually, even knowing that it is fictional does not detract from the experience too much, but it's certainly far more frightening if taken as reality.
In some sense, the movie reminded me of Michael Powell's masterpiece Peeping Tom, made in the early sixties. Both films were far more frightening in a psychologically realistic way than in a gore/shock way. Blair Witch seemed as much a consideration of how we view films as an out and out horror film. It's quite short, and upon the fairly abrupt ending (which was perfectly fine by me), many people in the theatre said quite loudly, "That's IT?!?" Granted, it's impossible to escape idiots in society, but I would still highly recommend the film, only in a far more empty (or mature) theatre than the one in which I saw it.