Review of The Blair Witch Project (1999) by Mitchell B — 29 Aug 2014

The Blair Witch Project is the first found-footage film to get a considerable amount of hype behind it, and is also the film that kick-started the found-footage genre we have today. Did the film live up to all the hype behind it? To many people it didn't live up to it. This film is one of the more polarizing films I've ever seen. In my opinion, the film did not live up to the hype, but I still thought it was a decent film. I thought it was great that they could do so much with a little budget and no special effects. I liked the characters save one and I felt their plight.

The story is as follows. Three college students, Heather, Michael, and Josh, are making a documentary on the Blair Witch Legend. They interview a few people who know the legend and some even claim to have seen the witch. Then they go into the woods to look for more evidence but end up getting lost. They soon learn that there is someone following them. Is it the Blair Witch or is it just a crazy person? Whoever it is it starts hunting them down one at a time.

This film does do a lot right. It has a very interesting legend behind it. The start of the film is the main characters interviewing people about the Blair Witch phenomenon, and the legend surrounding her is quite interesting. The film also has great atmosphere. There is a sense of mystery with throughout the film. Are the stories really real? Who is hunting the main characters in the woods? Was it the Blair Witch or just a crazy person? I like that they did not actually show who is behind this. Whether they had shown a crazy person or a witch it would have been disappointing and would have ruined the sense of mystery.

The lack of special effects really adds to the realism the film is going for. Too many found-footage films use CGI or some sort of effects and it really does not work. Found-footage films are meant to give a sense of realism and give the idea that this really happened. In my opinion this film is the only one to really pull that notion off.

I did like most of the characters. To be more exact I like two out of the three characters that are in the film. Michael and Josh I thought were liable and funny, and I felt for them when things went wrong.

The girl, Heather, I do not like at all. She was too pushy, she complains a lot, and she treats Mick and Josh like crap a lot. Everything always has to go her way or she freaks out. She brought the movie down quite a bit for me.

Also, the shaky-cam bothered me. I know it's found-footage, but I thought there was too much shaky-cam. Plus there were many scenes shot too dark. The scenes at night were so dark I couldn't understand a thing that was happening.

Overall, I thought The Blair Witch Project is a decent experiment. It was not an amazing film as it was hyped up to be but I think it is still good. Whether you love it or hate it the film did have a huge impact on the movie industry. It did kick-start the found-footage genre for better or worse. I would say it is definitely worth at least one viewing.