No, I had somehow not managed to see The Blair Witch Project until now. I remember when it came out, how much the hype around it made people question whether or not it was real (it wasn’t) through one of the first examples of found footage and a successful viral marketing campaign that presented the fictional scenario as fact. I heard plenty about it, even read up on how it was made. My brother did go see it. He hated it. I’ve seen the parodies, and much of the movie has somehow leaked into the public consciousness from that time that it was hard not to recognize moments from it like that close up final confession from actress Heather Donahue or just a guy standing in a corner. Heck, Cartoon Network pretty much mashed the whole movie up into a series of clips featuring the Scooby Doo gang running through a forest looking for the Blair Witch (sort of).
So, with all that in my head, can I give a movie like this a fair shake? I mean, I knew a lot about it without having seen it until recently…
Film students Heather (Donahue), Mike (Michael Williams), and Josh (Joshua Leonard) are all headed into the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland in order to make a documentary about the local legend the Blair Witch. After interviewing some locals, they head off to do some camping for the weekend; however, that weekend tends to stretch out a bit longer as the threesome gets lost in the woods. Strange sights and noises greet them from time to time, and it isn’t long before the three are emotionally frazzled and mentally on-edge. Could the Blair Witch be real?
That is, more or less, the plot. There isn’t a lot to this movie. What makes it work is the fact it is presented as truth. Directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez cast three unknown actors to play characters with their own names and even had them running the camera. It adds a level of realism, and since the budget wasn’t all that high, the scares tend to amount to things that probably could have been done by a couple kids looking to scare their friends at a Halloween party.
Of course, that does make me wonder how much of what I saw was acting and how much was abuse. From what I remember, Myrick and Sanchez didn’t really let on much of what was happening to their cast, just doing stuff at night to keep them on-edge. The cast maybe got some general plot notes, but that was about it. So, how much of the trio’s arguments are actual arguments? How much was the three of them getting really stressed out and frustrated and reacting the way people in a situation like that would? It’s not like there was a big film crew following them around as they filmed their scenes.
Which is not to say that there isn’t something to admire here. There actually is a story and a plot that plays out. Just because there were, literally, no surprises for me in this movie didn’t mean I couldn’t somehow enjoy it for what it was. Granted, about all I could muster is a general appreciation for putting the movie together in the first place and making a pop culture landmark of sorts out of it. I mean, I pretty much knew what was going to happen even without really looking anything up. It just entered the culture that well when it came out. To that end, while it launched a ton of bad found footage horror movies, and even a couple inferior sequels, the movie itself is a nice example of what low budget filmmaking could be. However, that is about all I can say about it.
Grade: B-
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