Much Ado About Nothing

Rating: 4/10 (13 August 1999)

I'm not sure this movie is worthy of all the hype being heaped upon it. I wanted the hype to be valid, I REALLY did.....I'm a big fan of independent films, so I wanted all the rave reviews to be true....most of all, however, I wanted to be SCARED!!! Hmmmmmmmm.....well, I liked the way the filmmakers set up their story in the early scenes, giving background in to the whole Blair Witch legend, and there was the promise of a few mild chills.....but I found most of everything from the mid-section on to be rather tedious. There were a couple of things that really kind of negated the whole thing for me. The characters behaved increasingly more stupidly and illogically as the movie ran on (not TOO different from any other horror/slasher film, eh?). And I know it's supposed to me a mock documentary but let me ask you this: If you're awakened in the dead of the night out in the forest and scared totally witless, would you REALLY take the time and bother to pick up a video camera and film yourself as you're running away??? NO!! You're terrified!! Forget the camera!! You'd just take off running like your very life depended on it!! I'm not normally one to sit and actively poke holes into a story like this, but that fact just bugged me. Maybe it's because of all the hype and people (even big-time critics) falling all over themselves and calling this a new classic...well, I don't buy it! It's a nice try, but the entire group of people I went to see this with also gave it an "is that all there is?" shrug. It just isn't all it's cracked up to be.