The Blair Witch Project (1999 Movie)

Category: Found footage horror/drama

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While you could blame The Blair Witch Project (and it's astronomical return-on-investment) for the litany of found-footage horror movies that have proliferated screens since, you can't deny that this movie actually still holds up as a masterstroke of cinema that we talk about with reverence, even some 20-something years later.

What makes this movie gripping is that it really does come across as legitimate found-footage - the camera work is shaky, amateur and sometimes misses things, the arguments between the cast members come across as authentic (and apparently sometimes were), and the ending is so ambiguous that you don't know what really happened, especially when we never ever see who (or what) is out to hurt the crew.

Far from hurting the film, the low-budget actually helps the film to stand out - there are no special effects, no CGI, no background music, and you don't need to do make-up and give credits for an enemy that never appears on screen.

To summarise the movie - Heather recruits Josh and Mike to assist with her amateur documentary about The Blair Witch, a local fable about a murderous supernatural being in the woods around Burkitsville, Maryland. After some interviews with the locals, the three hike through aforementioned woods with their equipment to find a couple of landmarks to shoot some footage over the course of a couple of days in order to do some to-camera segments. After getting some shots in, they all start the hike back through the woods to get back - however, Heather unwittingly gets the team lost which in turn causes them all to be tired and hungry which in turn leads to discord among the three - and just to add to the drama, weird noises are heard and weird things are left outside the tent for the team to discover each morning.

The frights really ramp up when one night, something shakes the tent causing the three to disperse to which they return, only find their belongings rifled through and later on, Josh goes missing. In the end, Mike and Heather come across a house where they think they hear Josh's voice, only to be attacked off-camera and the movie ends.

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That iconic scene of Heather holding the camera to her face, crying and apologising, on its own and devoid of greater contect is dramatic, but to truly appreciate it you have to see it in context after all that has happened - it is brilliant acting and storytelling.

I loved this movie enough to give it 4.5 stars. It is a brilliantly-made film and definitely worth watching. So given the glowing review of the film, what is stopping me from giving it a full 5 stars? The simplicity which makes the film brilliant is also its drawback - what exactly was terrorising the trio? We never find out, we don't get any hints, and the hard fact is that without any answers, the pay-off just isn't there, thus causing it to fall agonisingly short of a Best In Class rating.

STAR RATING: 4.5/5