Though tedious at times, a chilling finale makes this film a keeper.

Rating: 9/10 (17 August 1999)

I have read a lot of the previously posted reviews. Most people seem to have felt let down by the movie. They said it didn't hold up to the hype. I don't feel the same way.
Now I'll have to admit that there were times during the movie when I wanted to personally do in one or more of the characters, particularly when they get into the same or similar arguments over and over again. (I wish I had a dollar for every time Josh or Mike told Heather to turn the camera off!)
In spite of all of this, however -- just THINK! How would you feel in the same situation? A situation in which fatigue leads to anger, which becomes paranoia, which becomes terror! I truly believe that an intelligent audience will be able to feel the terror of the three (and in particular -- Heather & Mike).
I found it totally creepy when they found the house. Josh's voice screaming for Heather. Random handprints along the wall leading up the stairs. Another room. A dirt floor. A thud. A camera falls to the ground, recording only s chunk of dirt and the distant screams of Heather. And then that final image of Mike (?) standing in the corner. What happened? We don't really know. I mean, we all knew from the trailers that the three of them never return. We are supposed to assume they die. I don't think anyone goes into the movie with the theory that the three were lifted off the planet by some benevolent alien force. That's not where the terror comes from anyway.

Let's face it. We're all afraid of the dark at some level. the Blair Witch Project re-conjures everyone's childhood fears of "what's out there in the dark, anyway?" I'll admit I was a bit ill at ease going to sleep the night I saw the movie. But I'd see it again, if for nothing more than to watch the last fifteen minutes over.