Interesting if disappointing study in human behavior.

Rating: Null/10 (10 November 2000)

SPOILER WARNING! CAUTION... DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS! Very much so. Aim away from face. ********
I rented this and, halfway through, DID have to turn on the light and make sure the doors were locked. I imagine it was very creepy and scary in the theater, but is less so when you view it at home. I have a real problem with motion sickness, and only had to glance away once from the rickety camera handling. I did find it a very interesting film, frightening in its realism and well worth seeing. I think anyone and everyone will question the methods...Bringing just ONE compass and ONE map, no survival gear, no means of defense, no means of signaling for help or contacting anyone, and no competent notice of direction on the way into the woods. ***What affected me the most was the depressing behavior of the two male lead characters as the thing wore on. They go from typical, dumb teenagers to violent primates who can't think straight. You get to watch them get lost, and "resolve" it by screaming eff words at eachother (very productive) and actually attacking eachother physically because they are so incapable of dealing with crisis. I felt so sorry for Heather, who is stuck with these two Simian idiots through most of the film and has to put up with their complete lack of humanity by any definition. She's the only one with sense, and there's no question that this "Project" was about the challenge of working with "assigned" partners rather than people Heather might have selected herself....Watch them blame each other and spend their vocal cords on pointless, endless profanity, then turn on Heather in violent assault. Their immaturity and barbarism cost the group its unity, the one thing that could have saved them all. After that it's just Divide and Conquer, the unknown forces taking advantage of the group's fear, chaos and instability, and picking them off one by one. It's no surprise that the dumbest, most violent one (Josh) gets his due first. He gives clear signs of separating himself from the other two, both mentally and physically, long before his abduction occurs. He's followed by the next idiotic (Mike), who is stupid enough to run ahead and lose contact with Heather, despite her pleading screams that they stay together. Then she gets hers, and the end comes quickly. The whole thing runs like predator/prey drama, with 'The Blair Witch' profiting off of the herd's confusion and separation. ***It's half 'Lord of the Flies' and half Apocalypse, with The Monster/Horror being anger, ignorance, impatience and lack of self-discipline on the parts of Josh and Mike. They are reminiscent of preschoolers, their only concerns being "Your Fault!" "No, YOUR fault!" and blindly allowing this to supersede any attempt at cooperative problem solving. Heather doesn't have a chance, saddled with these two lice-picking cavedwellers.*** She may have gotten everyone lost to begin with, but Josh and Mike doomed everyone irreparably. I don't know if it's a horror film or an exercise in gender comparison and typical, stereotypical male behavior, but "The Blair Witch Project" is certainly a creative and disappointing look at American youth gone wrong. Interwoven with this is a macabre fable about The "Blair Witch" herself, who does a number on these three would-be documentary filmmakers. It has moments of humor, fright and strangeness (I am still not 100% clear on the ending), and is worth seeing for its shockingly real presentation of a one-of-a-kind story. Even if they won't like it, I think everybody should see it.
And the take-home message...? If there were any ambiguity left on the subject, this film definitely proves that the most dangerous demons are the ones we take into the woods with us.