Stark Terror Unleashed on unsuspecting populace!

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 1999)

Go see this movie and oh, by the way, bring your cross, Bible or whatever your representation of what keeps you safe in this crazy world happens to be.
This is a great movie in spite of (because of?) the budget. It is simple and I think that's the reason it makes for a great story. Horror, true horror is simple. Nothing to distract you from what's happening and in this case, the filmmakers have excelled.
I'm sure by now you all have heard, read or seen the basic premise of the movie which is (bear with me :) the story of three film college students wandering off into the Black Hills of Maryland in search of the mythical Blair Witch named after the town which bears the heavy burden of being the witch's primary target. These three disappear, never to be seen again in spite of 33000 man-hours of searching and then a year later, their footage is recovered.
The movie opens up with the kids in happier times, excited at the prospect of making a "kick-ass" movie. In high spirits, they take off into the dense forest armed with their video cameras and the usual accoutrements of camping: a book entitled "How to Survive in the Woods", compasses and a map. Things take a turn for the worse when their sole map suddenly goes missing and things begin to go bump in the night. One can sense terror beginning to creep into our character's lives insidiously and almost imperceptibly as they try to gather their wits about them.
"It's impossible to get lost in America!" one of the characters, Amanda, is heard to affirm with a little trepidation as day rapidly approaches night. Little does she know! Go find out what happens next. I guarantee you won't sleep so easy after seeing this movie.
What I have a problem with is this: The common-sense tactics anyone lost in the woods employs to get un-lost is nowhere to be found in the movie. There's a scene where our doomed travelers decide, after the loss of their only map, to travel south and end up going around in a huge circle. They made this decision while standing next to a stream! Everyone, or at least, I hope everyone knows that one way to get un-lost in the woods is to follow a stream which won't turn on itself and usually ends up leading out of the woods. Another is the insane insistence that they have of taking their cameras and shooting film everywhere they went. "Normal" people don't do that but I guess that without this, there'd be no movie and what fun would that be?