The Blair Witch Project - 6/10

Written and directed by: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez

The Blair Witch Project is a found-footage psychological horror film made in 1999. The movie follows three film students who travel to Burkittsville, Maryland (America) to film a documentary about a mythical witch known as the Blair witch. The group starts off by interviewing a few residents of the town to hunt down any potential truth to the myth. They are told some stories about the dark history of the town, including: a story about a hermit who murdered 7 children in his house that was situated deep in the forest, and one about a child that went missing in the forest in 1888 and returned after three days with stories of an old woman in the forest whose "feet never touched the ground". The group then hike into the forest with confidence that the story is no more than myth. The film starts to escalate from that point as this confidence starts to come into question.

I am a fan of found-footage films due to their immersive nature, of which this film is a great example with shaky first person perspectives and unscripted and improvised reactions resulting in a sense of genuine fear that the characters experience. The cuts between the footage also assist in making the film seem like real found footage. However, I found it difficult to feel anything other than slight suspense in select scenes. This is mainly due to the predictable nature of the film.

The characters are well portrayed as they tend to show reasonable suspicion and hesitation as their situation becomes more perilous. The improvisation of their script results in conversations and relationships that seem genuine and believable. These genuine reactions and relations result in the dissolution of their psychological states feeling relatable and reasonable. This was an example of good direction as the actors were encouraged to improvise and were placed into the woods with cameras and had to experience the fear for themselves.

When looked at subjectively, the film is disappointing. There was so much potential in the concept, but in the end it comes across as a film about the psychological torment of three friends lost in the woods. I can appreciate the fact that the existence of the Blair Witch remains a mystery throughout the film, making the viewer create the fear for themselves. But, with that considered, it was not scary. The film has more objective value for me since it revived found-footage films by inspiring movies such as Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield, and showed that fear can be present with an implication of danger without having to reveal it.

To conclude, my review is based mostly on the fact that I would have liked to be afraid of the Blair witch but, instead, the movie implies that the source of fear comes from being lost in the woods. This made the concept seem rushed. Although the aspect of making the viewer create the fear is appealing, it seems as if that has been used as a conduit for lazy writing instead.