Not Based On A True Story !

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2001)

It was George Romero who set the standard for the stark realism in horror films, and this movie has also set more standards for creating a movie that has caused more tourists to settle upon the same sleepy little Maryland town than when Confederate troops stalked the same hills a hundred years ago. With a legend based loosely on Tennessee's Bell Witch and Rhode Island's Mercy Brown, this movie has a very simple if not slightly illogical premise: three college kids look for a ghost in the wilderness. I might have been the only one in my school to have taken such a feat and I'd bet even money that no one else would have joined me for the simple matter of having something better to do. While much of the movie's production baffles me, it does have more of a coming of age style that a horror flick; compare this with Rob Reiner's "Stand By Me" and you know what I mean. The movie doesn't really explain what happens to the three would-be film-makers, but such a point isn't important as long as the film hits it's mark and it sure did with me. when I saw the Sci-Fi's channel's documentary-style promo for the movie, I was already interested enough in the paranormal and freaked out enough to think this movie was true, but a lot of logical thinking and lateral research to look into the case set me straight. I don't understand the people condemning this movie who criticize it for not being scary. They just prove to me just how conditioned we are as a society to violence. Everyone I talk to just about agree what in the world does a chain-wielding serial killer in a hockey mask have to do with a haunted house! A true ghost story will always tap into the primal fears of terror in the human mind while the sensationalism of gore and violence always turns into little more than a pass the time schlock. To me, The Blair Witch Project starts out as a neat little ghost story that turns scary as you worry about the sanctity of these three campers who get lost while filming a documentary in the middle of no where. Yes, a pile of rocks is not very scary if you happen to be the one who put it there, but if you and two others are the only ones for miles and you keep coming across evidence that an unseen fourth person is leaving tell tale signs of their presence, then you may be a little unnerved. Again, it's the presence of what you don't know that scares you; not the presence of what you do know. What heightens the fear factory is the suggestion the movie originally intended by filming it as if it was a true story; the aspect that this movie was based on true incidents sure had me curious, but of course we all know now that that was the filmmaker's intent. The only things I find wrong with this movie are the slip-shod editing, the shaking cameras, the swearing and the endless droning on of some of the duologue, but in its execution, The Blair Witch Project really is one of the scariest films out there for serious horror fans and it will certainly go down as a milestone in true horror entertainment in the same way as Psycho and Night of The Living Dead !