The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Movie Review

On Sunday night, before The Walking Dead premiered a new episode, my father pointed out that the original The Blair Witch Project just started playing on HBO. As an amazing nostalgia movie I knew I had to review it, instantly running about the house to find my notebook before the beginning was over. I am Glad I was able to find it quickly because I highly enjoyed this movie and now have a much stronger understand of its legacy and the power of found footage films.

As the original “Found Footage Horror Film” I knew I was in for a trip. The uses of just basic camera viewing, combined with the low quality footage we had at that time, made the film feel simple and definitely like what a student could make. This removed the veil of CGI and digital and practical effects that covers the eyes of many movie viewers and made me feel I was right beside the these young adults as they documented their film. Just that was enough to make me feel that what was happening to the team was happening to. While the camera never turns off, which is annoying at times, the scenes where there is nothing but black on the screen were chilling. Those dark scenes especially put me on my guard since often such scenes in movies, where the screen is totally dark, but you can still hear people talking, is when something is about to jump up and nab the viewer or a character. None of that happens in this film, but just being put into the unknown made me feel nervous.

This unease was built up well in this film, slowly increasing the danger to the characters are more spooky things began to appear and happen around them as they stayed in the woods more. The pacing just felt right with The Blair Witch Project, with the stakes getting higher with every day. It was subtle in its scaring, not using jump scares to frighten people because sometimes not knowing something is out there is better than having it jump at you. We first had the possibility of getting lose, then objects appearing around the camp, then a crew member disappearing, it gets the characters on edge and it’s no wonder a lot of them get violent towards each other. Hell, the three main actors agreed to less food during shooting days in order to get their roles right and all agreed that they all have to feel in place or else there would not be a shooting day. No wonder they acted so well.

I will say that while I did feel on edge throughout the film, the two male characters, Josh and Mike, had some really stupid and unnerving moments. While in the beginning they were pretty friendly with one another, just two days in the woods and Mike starts being really harsh towards their female companion, Heather. Just two days and suddenly you’re just bitching at your team? That is really stupid. But what’s even stupider is that during the night he kicks the map of the forest into a river. What kind of insanity is that?! He says it’s useless, but that’s their own way of knowing the land around them. Morale continues to fall apart after this and the fighting almost breaks the group apart. That hopelessness, with the tears and the breakdowns, started to affect me as well, feeling almost like they were never going to get out alive. And in the end it seems none of them do as whatever is haunting them gets all three in the end.

Here’s twist though: While the premise of the film is three people going out into the woods to create a documentary on a mysterious being called the Blair Witch, it might really be about two guys luring a woman into the woods to murder her. Through looking through the Heather’s journal online (which you can view here: http://www.blairwitch.com/project/journal.html ) I find out that Josh, who Heather has known for a while, isn’t as nice to her as she was hoping. With both men are also working on this project for free, along with the way both men act in the woods, I definitely knew something was off about them. Mike is also the sound guy in this team and bad things seem to only happen when the Heather falls asleep, so it points more to the idea that both men are intentionally causing trouble to put Heather out of it. And lastly, in the final scene at the house, we see Mike refusing to notice Heather when she’s right behind him and calling out his name before she gets hit in the back of the head and the film ends.

It’s an interesting twist to the story and explains some of the erratic behavior of the men. Even with that though these men are just ridiculous at times in how they act, almost making it obvious to current viewers that they are planning something sinister. Constantly leading the team more into the woods while blaming Heather, the things happening only when Heather is asleep, and of course kicking the map into the river. If somebody actually does this in your group if you go camping or into the woods, it’s time to leave and get back to civilization immediately, followed by a telling off to them on why they’re an idiot for doing so.

Overall Analysis

The Blair Witch Project is definitely a film for fans of horror and nostalgia, especially with its huge impact on the horror genre. It looks old and feels old, but it has that special trait to it that just makes it one of a kind. The 2000 sequel and the 2016 sequel have hardly any of that trait in them, making them both unenjoyable, hardly memorable, and a waste of time to watch. I should know, I watched the sequel from 2000 and have viewed enough reviews of the 2016 movie to that know both just don’t have the magic of the original had. While the characters, especially the male characters, make some really stupid decisions that fit a bad horror movie (or considering the theory proposed it might be clever), the buildup is good, the scares fit, and the found footage style pulls the viewer into the story. I’m giving the original Blair Witch Project a 7.5 out of 10.