Groundbreaking horror film that was done-in by overhyping

Rating: 9/10 (31 October 2000)

The Blair Witch Project is an inventive, often genuinely terrifying, and overall very effective documentary-like horror film about a group of student filmmakers who venture into the woods to explore the legend of the Blair Witch, which tells the story of a witch who lured children into her home and killed them.
So, how does Blair Witch, a film with a very meager budget and a cast of three unknowns succeed in delivering a scarefest? It very skillfully uses the documentary feel, its amateur camerawork, and its sense of reality to plunge the viewer into its deep, dank woods. The audience doesn't feel as if they're watching another contrived slasher flick that's been churned out by some Hollywood gore factory to bring in profits: instead, what we feel is genuineness, reality, and uncertainty as the three students' sanity unravels in the depths of the unknown.
Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Mike Williams all do exceptional jobs of showing their terror onscreen, especially during the nightly ritualistic assaults around their campground. Donahue, however, is the best of the group, and her final apology certainly makes chills run up and down your spine when she breathes, "I'm scared to close my eyes. I'm scared to open them." Blair Witch accomplishes a feat that has become almost extinct in horror films: it makes us care about its characters and also offers some truly terrifying moments.
When first released, there was so much hype regarding the fact that it was extremely unnerving and very scary - appetites whetted, audiences were expecting to see something totally mind-blowing, utterly terrifying, and completely overwhelming, but ultimately familiar horror film. They weren't prepared to never see any onscreen presence of evil, and when the film came to a close, many complained about its abruptness and what they viewed as an ultimately eventless, "boring" movie.
Blair Witch, however, is a thoroughly original, effective psychological mind trip that plays on the greatest fear we all have: the fear of the unknown. With little gore and no onscreen presence of the 'monster', we feel more of The Blair Witch Project than we watch it.
9 out of 10