Flawed but clever, and provokes amusing criticism

Rating: 6/10 (30 May 2000)

TBWP has many flaws - the implausibility of some of the characters' behaviour, the irritation factor of watching people bicker for an hour, and so on. That said, it is an interesting little film with some clever touches (the interviewee's child covering her mother's mouth; the handprints in the house etc.). Scary? Not really, but then that couldn't be more subjective could it? THE EXORCIST had some people vomiting in the aisles yet it doesn't scare me at all (but the reverse could be true of another film). Anyway I personally I give TBWP six out of ten. What I find hilarious is the nature of the criticism this film has received since its release, which is almost as OTT as the hype that preceded it.
Most of those people who insist that is the worst film ever made are as one-eyed as those who said a year ago that it was the best. I notice that the early comments on the IMDb were nearly all hysterically complimentary, and now they're nearly all hysterically savage. There's nothing like a good bandwagon to jump on is there? (Or did the film suddenly metamorphosize from a classic to a turkey sometime last autumn?) This isn't the worst film ever made; there are countless worse (see the IMDb's own "100 worst" list for some prime examples). Harbouring unfettered resentment at the film-makers because you've seen an over-hyped movie is hardly a platform for objective criticism. If anyone had seen a film of this standard on late night TV and not cared for it they'd have turned it off and forgotten about it, and certainly not worked themselves into a frenzy about how awful it was. I particularly enjoyed reading the comments of those BWP-haters on here who remarked upon the "suckers" and "idiots" who actually watched it (can you spot something of an own goal here?).
The oft-repeated refrain that this film is "cheap" and "amateurish" beggars belief. Since it was made cheaply by then-amateurs, was hyped as a cheap film made by amateurs, and purports to be a cheap documentary made by amateurs, I would have thought its cheapness and amateurishness was rather to be expected. Given that the protagonists are supposed to be making little more than a home movie, the complaint about the jerky camera movements in this context is especially absurd - or would you have Heather & Co. set up dollies, cranes, and so on as they flee through the woods? If you've automatically got it in for this style of film-making (and you'd have to have been on Mars not to have known how TBWP was shot) why go and see it?
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT has actually gone up in my estimation because it's reminded me of the power of movies to provoke the audience, and the public reaction to this film has been priceless. My absolute favourite comment I keep reading is "I could have made this!" Well since it cost next to nothing and those who made it are now multi-millionaires, why the f*** didn't you?