I feel for this film...

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2019)

Celebrated like no other when released, well, before released actually thanks to a then groundbreaking internet and media campaign, it has since become the whipping boy for the entire "found footage" genre that followed.
Films, usually awful, cashed in on the success of "Blair Witch". Some gems emerged, like "Utopia Report", "Grave Encounters", and "The Last Exorcism"; but most were, as stated, awful. Predictable, boring, pointless. And most fan-boy reviewers blame "The Blair Witch Project" for these dreadful knock-offs.
None of that applies. Thirty years after it's debut the film is still unnerving. It it plays on your primal fears of the dark, being lost, and being followed by something unknown. That makes the film truly frightening. Not a jump scare to be seen.
My only issue, and one that has been an issue from the first time I saw it, is Mike tossing the map. It would have played better if the map simply vanished. Making Mike the idiot for thinking it pointless and thus tossing it in the creek really wasn't needed to amp up the discord between the three. In fact, he soon was back in good graces as Josh and Heather continued to fight each other. Had the map simply vanished, it could have been attributed to the witch.
While not the very first found footage film it is the best.