Accompanying Heather are camera man Joshua Leonard and sound operator Michael Williams. Aspiring director Heather Donahue, a film student at Montgomery College, has decided to chronicle the legend of the supposed "Blair Witch" - a mythical figure that has supposedly haunted Maryland's Black Hills Forest since the late 18th century and is credited for numerous, heinous murders. The Blair Witch Project is presented as a documentary within a documentary. In one corner of my mind, I knew this was all fictional, but the verisimilitude is impressive, and results in an experience that is as fascinating as it is involving and creepy. (Some will argue that something this experimental and unusual would not have come from an established director, and there's ample evidence to back up such a statement.) Watching this film is a harrowing experience because we accept the characters as completely real and become engaged in their ordeal. The Blair Witch Project is, in a word, brilliant - and is even more impressive considering that it's the debut effort from filmmakers Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick. It's a horror movie that lives up to its name, and does so with only one brief scene of mild gore. And, while The Blair Witch Project belongs in the same loosely defined category, it's another kind of film altogether. Titles like Dadetown, Unmade Beds, Forgotten Silver, and 20 Dates have toyed with the line between fiction and reality in often interesting ways. Recent years have seen a dramatic upturn in the number of so-called "meta-documentaries" (or "mockumentaries"): real-seeming fakes in the mold of Orson Welles' infamous "War of the Worlds" radio play. Word-of-mouth was so strong that a special screening had to be scheduled in the 1300-seat Eccles theater, and it was packed. The Blair Witch Project caused a major stir with Sundance, and for good reason - it was perhaps the most offbeat, energetic, and eye-opening motion picture to screen there. It's an effective and startling hook to open a film, and the product that follows delivers on the promise of this unusual premise. A year later their footage was found." With this ominous pronouncement on a title card, The Blair Witch Project begins. In a day and age where we can see anything, it's refreshing to watch a movie like this that shows us absolutely nothing yet works on every level."In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. Over the years this film has found many critics to hate on it but this is something that happens with countless popular horror films, which is a real shame. I won't spoil anything but the final shot before the hit still send chills down my spine no matter how many times I've seen the film. The direction and use of two cameras is also very effective but the most chilling aspect of the film is without a doubt its ending. The performances are all very raw but that makes them effective in terms of everything going on. The set up wasn't original as the "lost video footage" was used in CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST nearly twenty years earlier but the effectiveness of this film is that it takes that lost footage and uses it again the viewer to assault their fears. We hear from locals, various myths and then we slowly get put into the action. The movie does a marvelous job at various things but one is the start of the thing when we learn the history of the curse through the documentary set up. If you can imagine yourself lost in the woods then you should be able to know the fears going on with the filmmakers here. I think the greatness of the film, and something very important, is that the viewer is put into the action to where you can feel everything that the three filmmakers are going through. ![]() These are three elements that make this film so effective because there isn't any blood, no monster, no killer and whatever is out there is something we never see. I think these basic fears can be the dark, being lost or hearing something when you shouldn't be hearing anything. ![]() ![]() After viewing the film I think it still holds up remarkably well and even though the hype has died down and much hates has been thrown upon the film, it still remains a rather chilling and all too realistic venture into basic fears. It's been about six years or more since I last watched the film so I was very curious going in as to how the film would hold up. I remember the hype surrounding this film quite well and I remember my two viewings in the theater when the film originally opened. Blair Witch Project, The (1999) **** (out of 4) The story is known by everyone as three filmmakers go into the wood to tell the story of the Blair Witch and soon they find themselves lost with something apparently coming for them.
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