My final comment about Blair Witch

Rating: 10/10 (12 August 1999)

Warning may be some spoilers
Okay, by now I think many have seen the film and there seems to be quite the split about how great it is. I for one loved this film. I love that it was original ( and I say that knowing there are films out there like Cannibal Hollocaust and the Last Broadcast ), I love that it was documentary style, I love that it made you use your imagination and I loved the three actors in it. But I do have a few comments to make regarding the criticism.
First off, the Blair Witch Project was a small film that like El Mariachi and Clerks was just hoping to get a video deal or perhaps a cable deal to recoup there budget. So to say that this was film was over-hyped is a bit of a fallacy. To me over hype is when a studio comes out and says a film that has been out for a few days ( take any Disney animated film ) is already a classic. That is hype. But when a film that no one really thought much of takes the film world by storm and it is us, the paying audience that gives it the kudos that it deserves, that is not hype, that is word of mouth. So to say that this is a bad film because it was over hyped is just rubbish. These two guys ( Sanchez and Myrick ) at the very least had an innovative idea and took what they remember as being scary from the classic horror films, and they combined it all into one scary-as-hell-play-with-your-mind-psychologically-tormenting-movie. So it is not over hyped.
Secondly) I can understand why some people don't like this film. I know it is not for every taste. But please stop and listen to yourselves when you do criticize it. The majority of the people that don't like it say the same thing. "Where's the witch?" "The only thing scary about this is that I spent 10 bucks on it." " Borrrrring." Well if that is how you feel, then that is how you feel, but the least you could do is try to elaborate why it is that you feel the way you do about this film. And also try to realize that perhaps the reason you are not scared or at least tense in the film is not because it isn't well made, it is just probably that you don't fear the same things that some of the rest of us do. This film relies solely on playing with people's minds, and it did a hell of a job with mine.
Finally, I love this film. I love everything about it. I think it is the best film that I have seen this summer and I admire the two directors for doing what they did. To make a film that concentrates on atmosphere and mind games instead of blood and gore is a true testament to how much they must love the genre. Think of classic Carpenter and Hitchcock. They did much of the same thing. There was hardly any blood in the shower scene in Psycho and very little in Halloween. Blair Witch also has but one scene with blood in it, and yet it is one of the most effective scenes in the film because you are shocked by it.
To people that don't enjoy this film, I honestly have pity for you, and I do not mean that in a pretentious "I'm better than you" kind of way. I know we all have different tastes in horror films and that is okay, but if you could just feel the raw fear and experience that strange sensation when your heart races at the end of the film, or to actually go camping and stare into the darkness and wonder what that snapping twig is about ten feet away from you, you would really thank the guys for making this. I love that this film could do that to me. I love that it could get inside me like that. And it's too bad that those of you that didn't feel that way, could, just for one moment. That to me, is the power of film making. To manipulate somone's emotions the way this film does is a treasure unto itself.
Psycho had people in their generation always looking out of the shower. Jaws kept us out of the water. Halloween kept us afraid of the night. Nightmare on Elm Street kept some of us from falling asleep. Blair Witch will give you a paranoia about camping, for those of you that like the film that is. My humble opinion, this is a 10/10. When people ask me what the scariest horror films I've ever seen are, I will respond with Halloween, Jaws, Nightmare On Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Aliens, Angel Heart, Last House On The Left, Evil Dead, Amittyville Horror and the newest entry, The Blair Witch Project. To me, and to many others, it is the epitome of fear. And I love to be scared.