Innovative yet retro-horror film is the scariest film in years

Rating: 10/10 (30 April 1999)

There was something about those horror films of the seventies and early eighties set in the clandestine corridors of backwoods country. Maybe it was the eerie rustling of the wind or the lifeless autumn leaves that provided the feeling of death and isolation. This is the setting of The Blair Witch Project - a film that is based on the premise that it is the discovered footage shot by a team of amateur film makers investigating a piece of Maryland folklore. The team entered the woods and never came out.
The most refreshing aspect of this horror masterpiece is that it understands the strength of subtlety. This film more than any other in recent memory, exploits the power of suggestion and invokes the hidden fears that could only crawl from the darkest corners of our imagination. It seems that the horror genre has been inundated with movies driven by special effects of late. These films have forgotten that horror movies by nature are supposed to be, above all else, scary. They should make our hearts jump and our skin crawl. The Blair Witch Project does this. It scares with its simplicity - using children's voices in the night, wooden figures hanging from twisted tree branches, and prolonged periods of darkness.
Among truly scary films of the recent past (Black Christmas and the Exorcist are two), The Blair Witch Project is at the top. Hopefully this film will remind horror filmmakers that the unknown is, more often than not, more terrifying than anything that can be captured by a camera.