Not so much, not so little

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2000)

When I was in high school I had a classmate whose boyfriend made amateur horror movies. I never got to see them, but those who did said they were awful. When I first heard of The Blair Witch Project and the way it had been made, I expected something like that; so, since I did not expect much, the fact that I liked it probably doesn't mean much anyway. I didn't think it was brilliant, but I did like it. I found it well done: the pseudo-documentary feel does not slip up in any glaring way, and I can see why some of the people who saw it first could not believe it was fake. The off-kilter camera and the unpolished look only adds to its plausibility. Also, the dialogue probably will not enter any intelligence contest, but you have to agree that if people in that situation started reciting sage lines, that would not be very believable. Anyway it is no worse than some lines I've heard in movies supposed to be "high art." And, although I cannot say I felt very scared (except by the ending, maybe), the movie does have an eerie atmosphere that is very unsettling.
The format of the movie itself does have a problem: it does seem odd that they should keep on shooting images, even after things are beginning to unravel. Heather's explanation about this being the only thing left to them sounds silly, simply because we know the real explanation, that is, that if they did not keep the camera going, there would not be any movie anyway. The explanation about how the map gets lost is completely ridiculous: if they had said that the Blair Witch had grabbed it in person it would have been more believable. But taking it as a whole my opinion is positive. I think that the best thing to do about this movie is forget the hype, remember that this is NOT a Hollywood megabudget production and that there are NO special effects, and try to judge the movie on its merits. It is neither a complete disaster nor the best thing invented after pizza. It is just a clever little movie.