Responses to criticism

Rating: Null/10 (21 February 2000)

The Blair Witch Project may not be the scariest ever made, but it happens to be the scariest movie I myself have ever seen. It is a truly original work that awakens frightening memories most of us have about being lost and disoriented, while at the same time resurrecting our childhood fears that supernatural forces out there in the wilderness can destroy us if we are not more careful.
Though the film's many strengths lend themselves well to praise and discussion, I would prefer instead to address some criticisms of "The Blair Witch Project" that have appeared in these very pages.
Dialogue:
The film has "bad" dialogue because the dialogue here is a representation of the way people actually talk, which is not always clever or made up of well-formed sentences. Indeed, since there was no script as such, the dialogue in "The Blair Witch Project" *was* the way people actually talked. The exchanges among the players were almost always exactly what you would hear from people of their age group and background.
Sense of reality:
Even in a film like The Blair Witch Project, which tried for as much realism as possible, some compromises must still be made. Those who think it is silly that the characters keep filming each other even in desperate situations, or during heated arguments, are probably missing some fundamental characteristics of the world of film, namely, that during each scene someone must be around to hold the camera. If this had not happened in The Blair Witch Project, that is, if no one had filmed any of the dramatic parts, we probably would not have witnessed the various scenes which make up the movie. As it stands, the air of "naturalness" of the actors while in front of the camera is impressive indeed.
Critics on this point, incidentally, are advised to view the Monty Python sketch in which a small group of explorers is fated to die in the jungle. They note pathetically how, at the end of their lives, they have only each other and a bit of film that will record the last minutes of their existence. They then suddenly realize that if they are on film, there must be a crew filming them, and that they are therefore not alone. The crew, which has been a few feet away the whole time, is then shown onscreen, and the explorers rejoice at seeing friendly faces in such a remote location. But then it occurs to them: if this is the crew that was filming them before, who's filming them now?
Kicking the map into the river:
This disturbed me too, at first, but you can easily take a map, get angry at it, crumple it up into a ball, and kick it into the river.
The things the filmmakers find:
As frustrating as it is to accidentally return to a place from which you started out, the element of fear quickly enters into it when you have no suggestions at all on how to proceed and it is also becoming dark. In such a situation, where one is already disoriented and feels the power of nature closing in, the finding of strange objects hanging from trees or of piles of rocks which seem to have appeared out of nowhere (indicating that someone is tracking you!) would be utterly terrifying. I would wager that most people have in their lives been scared by far less.
Hype:
It's true, this film was hyped practically to death. On the other hand, since it was made for about $30,000, hype was what was needed to sell the movie. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to avoid most of the hype, but even for those who were exposed to so much of it, I think it must have been gratifying to know that the film delivered.

And I thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen.