Movie Review: The Blair Witch Project
“The Blair Witch Project” (1999) was written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez.
This movie broke the mold of traditional storytelling due to the entire film being shot as found footage. This is done by having multiple cameras held by the actors throughout the entirety of the film. The bad camera quality and constant shakiness allow for the viewers to buy into the idea of the entire movie being “found footage.”
When the film was released, a large part of the promotion was stating that the actors of the film were “missing.” This plus the found footage aspect led many viewers to believe this was a true story.
“The Blair Witch Project” follows three characters; Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard.
These characters have been hearing rumors of a witch that lives in the woods in the town of Burkittsville, MD.
The three characters embark on a backpacking trip through the woods in hopes of finding answers to the town myth. As the film progresses, they find themselves lost and stranded in the woods. The deeper they get into the woods, the more weird things start happening. Due to the found footage style of the movie, there is never a reveal of the scary creatures that the characters are seeing. The camera is dark for large periods of time, and only sounds and conversations can be heard.
By the end of the film, a bunch of crazy stuff starts occurring. The movie ends very abruptly with no explanation of what was occurring.
Although “The Blair Witch Project” is a groundbreaking film for its time and was extremely profitable, I personally am not a fan of this movie.
The overall plot is pretty terrifying, but the viewers never get to see anything except for the reactions of the characters. This makes the film slightly boring and overall, not very scary.
I would give “The Blair Witch Project” a 6/10. This is due to the creativity of the film as well as the phenomenal acting throughout. This film will always be a large part of the horror scene due to the bizarre filming style and the original hype around the release of this movie.
