The Blair Witch Project

One of the smartest and most excellently shot horror movies where what we don't see is what really makes us afraid. I was too young to be able to see this movie when it first hit theaters, but I saw it a few days ago at home, although it's obviously not the same thing. Even so, I was really pleased with what I found. It's not an absolutely perfect film, there are some things there that I would change, if I were the director, but they are issues of such little importance that I feel that they do not detract from any merit or quality from the finished work. The film was a quasi-experimental production, with a very low budget, with young and unknown actors. However, the quality is evident and is intelligently associated with the advertising campaign that was put together to sell it and make it profitable. In fact, this film is perhaps one of the best examples to show the importance and weight of publicity for the receptivity and commercial success of a film: even today there are people who believe that the story told in the film is real, that the Witch really existed, that those young people really disappeared… The actors' work is impeccable. After reading a bit, I discovered the importance of the way the film was shot for the final result, with the actors alone, isolated in the woods, firmly believing in what they were doing and permanently in the characters. They lived the experience, and they believed in it. They weren't acting for us, they were acting for themselves and believing in their acting, giving the characters a real personality, worthy of our compassion and sympathy. This turns out to be something that holds and seduces us to a certain extent, leading us to wish that everything is true, although we do not wish any harm to any of the actors, of course. They are also responsible for all the shooting work, and their poor ability to shoot in 16mm explains why the film has such shaky and amateurish cinematography, even though this is intentional and something that makes it more genuine in our eyes. . Stripped of expensive effects, great technical apparatus or other resources, the film bets everything on extremely basic but functional resources, and on an almost military discipline that prevailed throughout the eight days of shooting, in which the actors maintained minimal contact with a production that acted like a “big brother”, attentive and watchful but invisible. Children's voices over loudspeakers, the strategic waving of the tent at the right moment, sticks that break without anyone seeing... simple but scary resources when you're alone, in the middle of a dark place, where anything can happen and no one will know. What is frightening about this film is not what we see, but the anticipation, the skillfully constructed tension, the almost certain prospect of a disaster that we don't know when it will happen. It is our imagination and our mind that frightens us, suggested by the film. And I don't see how terror can work more subtly and intelligently.

Ah, The Blair Witch Project, what a masterpiece of shaky camera work and incoherent mumbling! Who wouldn't want to spend 81 minutes watching a group of 'actors' stumble through the woods, pretending to be scared of stick figures and piles of rocks? The innovative decision to never show the witch was a stroke of genius, leaving audiences with the thrill of using their imagination to conjure something scarier than the film itself. And let's not forget the nausea-inducing cinematography, perfect for those who enjoy feeling seasick in a cinema. Indeed, it is a groundbreaking piece of cinema that redefined the limits of patience.

Feels like kind of a 'had to be there' moment for horror and the found footage genre having seen dozens of these style of films now. Its well grounded and spooky but contains too much of the spotty group dynamics.

Points for being original for its time (and kickstarting the "found footage" genre), but this movie is a waste of time in my book. Nothing happens! I get that your imagination is what can make this film a terrifying watch, but my imagination didn't buy this film for a second, therefore, I found this film utterly pointless.

The Blair Witch Project is a case study that focuses in on the riveting question: Does a fantastic ending save an otherwise terrible film? The researchers in this study ultimately concluded that the answer is no. While the ending may be terrifying and completely effective, the hour and ten minutes prior, which amounts to nothing but terrible camera work (purposeful, but terrible all the same), terrible acting, aimless walking, yelling, and things that are supposed to be scary but are not, ultimately serve as the film's downfall. Coming in, I expected something very scary and, as somebody who does not watch many horror films, I figured I would be entirely freaked out. Yet, I came away thinking that the entire thing had to have been done as some terrible parody of an equally horrible horror film. They attempted to make it seem real because of the documentary style, but very little (hint: none) of it was believable, which was a bummer. I was all willing to buy in, but the film failed to convince me. All that freaked me out was the ending, but even then, it was painfully predictable once I saw where they wound up and could have been done better, certainly. But, the way it tied the story together was nice and entirely spooky, which worked out well in the film's favor and saved it from being rated later by me.