Intelligently Done Movie That Gives You Decent Goosebumps!

Rating: 8/10 (10 October 2008)

The movie "Blair Witch Project" is a remarkably well done movie. Now, I am slightly confused with my own statement here. Because, there is not much done in this movie. I shall elaborate on what I mean a bit later on. But let me briefly summarize that this movie is indeed a scary movie that does give you the scares and the goosebumps that one expects from a scary movie. But the beautiful part of this movie is that it does not give you typical ghosts, ghouls and monsters as found in this movie. It taps on the fact that you are more afraid of the unknown rather the known. And this is the greatest strength of the movie.
The movie is about a collection of tapes. The movie starts out by stating that three kids had gone into a certain forest searching for what is simply known as the Blair Witch. They have never seen her but almost everybody has heard about her. The movie says that the kids were never found but their tapes were found and all we are shown in the movie is the tape recording of the adventure the kids went on. The movie does not have a cameraman. It is all recorded by the three kids who are the only major cast in this movie. Other people appear for only 2 or 3 minutes at the very beginning of the movie.
There is a certain rumor surrounding this movie that it is real. Many people believe that the tapes are authentic. I recommend you read the detailed and elaborate article on www.wikipedia.org which clearly explains the methods adopted by the producers of this movie to advertise this movie. The producers actually placed advertisements reporting the three lead actors as missing. This has led many people to believe and also spread the rumor that Blair Witch project is real. Well, it is not.
The movie's strength is that it shows you fear. The lead characters are scared of their experiences and fear shines on them. But if you have read about the movie in detail, you very well know that the fear on the characters' faces is genuine. They did go to the forest and instead of making them act, the director actually decided to scare them and thus the fear you see on their faces is genuine. So, for the genuine emotions of fear, frustration and tension you see on the characters, I'd prefer giving credit to the director. After all, he made the decision of making half of their experiences seem real to them. I don't know if it is a cruel way of making a movie but it works. The audience is scared and the movie is meant to do that.
The most scary thing about the movie to me was the stick figures they find in the forest. This really heightens the overall tension in the movie. The characters have lost their way in the forest and are doing the balancing act between consoling each other and also taking out their anger on each other. Each blames the other for their state of misery. We get to see genuine anger, frustration, fear and eventual terror in this movie.
A very "well done" movie indeed. Highly recommended for watching especially in the dark and preferably alone!