If You Go Down To The Woods Today...

Rating: 10/10 (14 September 2006)

Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez's 'The Blair Witch Project' caused a sensation when released in 1999. It was the first movie to become a hit as the result of the internet, and deservedly so. The low budget horror movie is the perfect antidote to those formulaic Hollywood shockers in which nubile co-eds get chased by some knife-wielding idiot in a mask.
A group of students - Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C.Williams - venture into woods in Maryland to make a documentary about the notorious 'Blair Witch', a sorceress believed to have actually existed and been responsible for many deaths. At first, the assignment is fun, but then things go wrong; the map goes missing, they argue amongst themselves as to whose fault it was, and they cannot find their way back to Burdittville. Strange noises can be heard at night. Worst of all, peculiar stick figures are found. Something is out in the forest with them, watching their every move, but what?
As noted earlier, 'Project' was made on a very small budget. But for once this was an asset rather than a liability. So convincingly realistic did it turn out that cinema-goers thought they were watching a real video diary. The principal cast members give natural performances, particularly Donahue. For me, it brought back uncomfortable memories of camping with friends in the woods and being kept awake all night by owls and other nocturnal beasts! It owes a great debt to those eerie 'Ghost Stories For Christmas' made by the B.B.C. in the '70's, such as 'The Signalman'. It works as much on the imagination as on the senses. The film starts slowly, then ratchets up the tension so fast that by the end you're absolutely terrified. The ending is deliberately ambiguous. All we know is that the students were never found, and the film footage provides the only clue to their fate.
For a short time, it looked as though there was to be a major shift towards a more natural style of horror movie, but it does not seem to have happened. Many movies have copied the look of 'Project' - the quick-fire editing, the shaky camera-work - but alas not the feel.
There was a sequel - 'Blair Witch 2: Book Of Shadows' - made the following year, which was everything the first was not - uninspired and silly. If you're planning on going camping in woods, whatever you do, don't watch 'Project' the night before.