Review of The Blair Witch Project (1999) by Wesley U — 04 Nov 2012
Not necessarily a bad film of it's time (though Paranormal Activity has over-saturated the horror genre with this style too much now for me to review this film without thinking about this style negatively).
It revolutionized the Horror genre and gave birth to the idea of using vague visual elements and realistic emotional tensions in comparison to the typical slasher, overly-innocent nature of most horror films still found today.
All of which copy off the other. The one thing that really killed this film for me was the choice to make it a one hour and thirty minute film. I understand that visual elements played a role throughout the film and gave it reason to be lengthen out, but I truly feel that it could have been a 40min film.
There's only so much a person can take of a home video styled, shaky camera before it becomes annoying/dry in emotion. Had it been a 40 minute short film I feel it could have gotten past being more of an anger management course video and been more successful at getting to the scary horror elements.
To me, 3/4 of the film dragged on and on with little to keep it interesting (except for some added visual symbols and repetitive arguments as the experience for the three characters turns for the worst).
The last 1/4 of it actually got to the good stuff, but only for like 10-15 minutes. Had the entire middle section of the film been shortened up it would have fit a whole lot better, at least in my opinion that is.
This review of The Blair Witch Project (1999) was written by Wesley U on 04 Nov 2012.
The Blair Witch Project has generally received positive reviews.
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