A great found footage horror flick

Rating: 8/10 (2 August 2016)

Now that we are getting a second sequel this year I finally decided to watch the OG 'Blair Witch Project'. Now that I've gotten around to it I'm glad I did. What's interesting about this film is that, even now, it remains one the most renowned horror movies ever. Yet, it's also the same movie that accrued a Razzie nomination for worst picture of the year. So which is it? Is it one of the greatest exercises in horror or one of the worst? In my humble opinion it's one the best. Although I wouldn't necessarily call it a horror. For my taste it's more of a thriller than anything. If you aren't aware, the film follows three young adults who venture into the woods in search of a story.
A story for their documentary. Which explains the reason for the found footage style. Before this movie there really wasn't anything like this. And with the viral marketing suggesting that it was a legit thing, people were genuinely frightened for the cast. Apparently sending letters to the cast families expressing their condolences for their losses.
Even with the excess of found footage films these days this one some how still feels fresh. This mainly has to do with the lack of gimmicks and clichés despite it revolutionizing a genre. There isn't any slow pan left and slow pan right followed by a jump scare. Nor is there the constant wonder as to why the characters have a camera at all times.
The reason it defined a genre is because it did it so well. And now all we have is overused troupes that intend on jumping their audience to death. The thing that genuinely shocked me while watching was how the film understood that less is more. There isn't a single jump scare that I remember and there isn't a single time that you actually see the antagonist.
The film understands that if it where to show the witch and sets rules for it that it would become vastly more difficult to scare you. By not having these rules set it can basically do what ever it wants without any one saying, "That doesn't make sense.". It helps you as the audience feel and experience whats happening through the characters perspective. As more things start to happen and they start to question what is going to happen next, so do you.
This intentional lack of a monster or rules makes this incredibly unsettling to watch. It feels authentically supernatural. The performances by these three unknown actors really helped sell this even more. They aren't all that good honestly, but the writing and editing for the film made everything come across convincing and natural. Not everything here works though.
As I said, the performances can be quite shaky. They clearly aren't trained actors and some of their interactions can be rather cringy. But the biggest issue I have comes from some of the characters behavior. There are many times when they act so irrational that it's near impossible to not get frustrated at the film. Like when a character tosses a valuable object into a river just because he personally deemed it "useless".
However this film honestly shocked me. It blows me away how diversified its audience is when it comes to whether they liked it or not. It may not be that scary but it's incredibly unsettling. The film is unpredictable, natural, and uncommonly convincing. It isn't exactly a perfect horror experience due to some poor performances and questionable behavior, but it's such an interesting dive into human physique. Watching these people go completely bonkers was way more enjoyable, and unsettling than it should have been.