The Blair Witch ProjectIt's human nature to be afraid of the unexplained, what we do not--or cannot--understand. At the most primal level, that includes a fear of the dark, of being isolated and removed from civilization, of the elements...left cold, hungry, and tired in the woods. But more than that, there is the fear of being harried by forces beyond comprehension, by some malevolence, a predator which lurks in the night. The Blair Witch Project is a horror film which explores all of these fears, experienced by a trio of unprepared amateur filmmakers and their final accord of their unfortunate, tragic fate.
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Before The Blair Witch Project, the style of film now referred to as "found footage" was reserved almost exclusively for home movies, dirty movies, or snuff movies--sometimes a combination of all three. Filmed on a comparably thin budget of sixty thousand dollars, The Blair Witch Project was an impossible success on paper, turning into a multi-million dollar experience, spoken of in pop culture, becoming a phenomenon still imitated today. The film is often cited as the first successful film capitalizing on "viral marketing", the mystique of the story stoked by ancillary material reinforcing the conceit that the film was the literal found footage of three young filmmakers who went missing in 1994, with the film being their record of their efforts to document the legend of the "Blair Witch", their only testament of what happened to them. Leading the film project was Heather Donahue, aided by her cameramen and lackeys, Joshua 'Josh' Leonard and Michael 'Mike' Williams; the actors play characters bearing the same names. The earlier parts of The Blair Witch Project are almost innocuous, simple moments as they document their preparation for the camping excursion into the woods around Burkittsville, Maryland, and including interviews Heather conducts with assorted townsfolk, probing for their versions of the legend of the Blair Witch. These quiet moments are a facade to be knocked down later as the film slides toward terror, peppered with subtle allusions to the creepy events that transpire in the woods later on. The opening title card all but confirms that the three young adults are doomed; asides and seemingly innocent comments take on a darker tone courtesy of dramatic irony, such as, "think of how cool the cemetery will be when we get there", and so on. Of course, the real meat of The Blair Witch Project comes after the three become lost in the woods, unable to return to the sanctuary of civilization, running in circles, kept up at night by the sounds of unidentified footsteps at three in the morning, of piles of stones left by their tents--like those marking graves in the woods--and of the crude totems of people dangling in the trees, formed by some unseen force. Tensions boil over, and the three struggle to retain their sanity--and ultimately, their safety-- when faced with an unknown spirit they cannot reconcile.
What makes The Blair Witch Project such an effective scare-fest is the primal terror it evokes, which comes from the ability of the audience to project themselves into the scenario of the strange, supernatural, and unexplained events, where the camera lens serves as our window into this world. As Josh observes to Heather while they are strained and haggard, the appeal of the camera is that it filters reality. Our understanding of the forces operating against the three people comes from the unsteady cinematography, and the eerie sounds, alternating between unnerving whispers in the background of unidentified voices and the panic-stricken shrieks of the stranded filmmakers; everything else is left to the imagination. With rare exceptions, the film consciously avoids jumping out at you to scare you, preferring to let your own imagination do the heavy lifting and run rampant. Most of the scariest moments in The Blair Witch Project occur in nigh-darkness, save for the flashlight rapidly flailing about in the night, shedding the only illumination. Although much of what takes place over the course of the story would not sound like much on paper--and might even sound cliche--the effectiveness of it comes from the subversion of elements like getting stuck travelling in a circle, getting separated in a deserted ruin of a house, or discovering piles of stones left outside the tent; these become terrifying because they are virtually expected in traditional horror movie fare, but not in a documentary. The Blair Witch Project presents itself as a realistic account, so that when confronted with the scary elements from a horror movie in real life, it appears as far more unnerving. The Blair Witch Project adheres to a simple, but effective philosophy, that when people are confronted with inexplicable terror, they lose rationality and fall prey to fear, making foolish mistakes. The Blair Witch Project is the kind of movie that you have to occasionally remind yourself isn't actually real, that it didn't happen, because there are moments where you will be drawn into the unnerving realism of this pseudo-archived tale of horror. And, of course, there is that chilling ending, which leaves you struck by hinting at some of those mysterious elements of the legend of the Blair Witch having some basis in reality, monsters lurking off-screen.
Recommended for: Fans of an unsettling and petrifying account of terror and woodland witchcraft, posing as a documentary. Almost single-handedly responsible for the surge of found footage films, The Blair Witch Project proves that horror can come not solely from outlandish special effects, but more effectively from what goes unseen and merely hinted at.
What makes The Blair Witch Project such an effective scare-fest is the primal terror it evokes, which comes from the ability of the audience to project themselves into the scenario of the strange, supernatural, and unexplained events, where the camera lens serves as our window into this world. As Josh observes to Heather while they are strained and haggard, the appeal of the camera is that it filters reality. Our understanding of the forces operating against the three people comes from the unsteady cinematography, and the eerie sounds, alternating between unnerving whispers in the background of unidentified voices and the panic-stricken shrieks of the stranded filmmakers; everything else is left to the imagination. With rare exceptions, the film consciously avoids jumping out at you to scare you, preferring to let your own imagination do the heavy lifting and run rampant. Most of the scariest moments in The Blair Witch Project occur in nigh-darkness, save for the flashlight rapidly flailing about in the night, shedding the only illumination. Although much of what takes place over the course of the story would not sound like much on paper--and might even sound cliche--the effectiveness of it comes from the subversion of elements like getting stuck travelling in a circle, getting separated in a deserted ruin of a house, or discovering piles of stones left outside the tent; these become terrifying because they are virtually expected in traditional horror movie fare, but not in a documentary. The Blair Witch Project presents itself as a realistic account, so that when confronted with the scary elements from a horror movie in real life, it appears as far more unnerving. The Blair Witch Project adheres to a simple, but effective philosophy, that when people are confronted with inexplicable terror, they lose rationality and fall prey to fear, making foolish mistakes. The Blair Witch Project is the kind of movie that you have to occasionally remind yourself isn't actually real, that it didn't happen, because there are moments where you will be drawn into the unnerving realism of this pseudo-archived tale of horror. And, of course, there is that chilling ending, which leaves you struck by hinting at some of those mysterious elements of the legend of the Blair Witch having some basis in reality, monsters lurking off-screen.
Recommended for: Fans of an unsettling and petrifying account of terror and woodland witchcraft, posing as a documentary. Almost single-handedly responsible for the surge of found footage films, The Blair Witch Project proves that horror can come not solely from outlandish special effects, but more effectively from what goes unseen and merely hinted at.