Spmewhat scary as the tension builds

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2002)

In a forest near the village once called Blair there lived a witch, or so it was rumoured by the old folk. A young girl Heather decides to do a project on the subject and investigate the myth at close hand. Two guys Mike and Josh agree to join her and they set off in a car with backpacks and camping equipment, map, compass and all the necessary gear. It's going to be a load of fun out there in the forest...or so they thought.
According to the prologue the film we see has been put together from film footage found in their discarded cameras.
Admittedly the end product is a documentary with an original approach, but it does not prove or disprove anything. The jerky camera work does provide clues that something is going on...voices in the night...little heaps of stones appearing outside the tent which were not there the night before (or were they?)... rocks in a strange nest of twigs perched in a tree...strange mobiles fashioned out of tree branches swinging in the breeze...and is somebody watching them as they wander further in to the forest? A witch....maybe?
The scary atmosphere builds up after they lose their map and they decide to go south using only the compass. Cold, hungry...they seem to be going in circles...then Josh disappears into the blackness of the night!
The film is more about human relationships as in their desperation they squabble amongst themselves. Tension builds. They are all at screaming point. They are truly lost!
The whole film plays on the imagination of the viewer. If you are nervous and imaginative you are ready to accept the various perils that beset them. But all the dangers are suggested. We don't see any witch. There are no visible intruders. It's all in the mind.
When the writers ran out of ideas, they have Mike and Heather finding and exploring a broken down cottage. In a fit of hysteria their cameras are dropped and continue running until the batteries cut out. This brings the film to a sudden and abrupt ending.
But was there really a witch out there? That, dear viewer, is for you to decide!