Scaring you from outside the box

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 1999)

What makes The Blair Witch Project such a uniquely terrifying movie has more to do with the concept than the execution. The mainstream horror films rely on surprise to maintain suspense. In fact, moviegoers are usually conditioned to sit on the edge of their seats, waiting for whatever may burst onto the screen. I spent sixty non-stop seat-gripping minutes of this film waiting for just such a shock -- non-stop precisely because the moment never came, leaving me with the much more suspenseful feeling that it was still to come.