# Blair Witch Project, The (1999)

### reviewed by
Steve Legge

{Please be advised that during the course of this review, I may speak of things that could spoil the film for those who haven't seen it.}

    THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT  (1999)

A low budget fright fest, The Blair Witch Project plays upon our now-programmed ideology, brought about by News footage and Real Video programs, that video footage is "truth", bringing a realism to the story that probably wouldn't exist if it were made entirely on film.

TBWP has had a great turn of excellent hype and word of mouth, but it didn't do it for me. The story elements of the Blair Witch during the beginning of the film went by too fast, and some key elements that were to be foreshadowed later on, zipped by almost imperceptibly. The BWP website gives much detailed information about the background of the Blair Witch, more than is presented in the film. This, in my mind, is good and bad. Good that we get the fascinating background information, bad that most of it isn't in the film.

The characters were all realistic and well acted, considering that the entirety of their performances was more or less improvised on the spot. Their camerawork has an honest amateurism to it, but the constant shakiness wore me down, and inability to turn off the auto focus would have been something any filmmaker worth their salt would have done. (Unless, of course they were told to turn off the auto-focus.) Also the rationale of constantly taping every day's events was thin at best, other than that if they didn't there wouldn't have been much of a film. And on that note, while the characters are lost and hungry in the woods, why doesn't Heather take out her book "How to Stay Alive in the Woods" which we clearly see at the beginning of the film? I guess she only had it out of a sense of irony.

The characters also seem to dump the human instinct of self preservation and "flight or fight", that say, that characters in "The Edge" displayed so well. In that film, it was a Bear, Not a "Ghost" or a "Witch", or a "Witch's Ghost". A large bonfire was built in that film to light up the darkness, and weapons were fashioned for self protection from a very real, menacing Grizzly Bear. But what do our intrepid filmmakers do? They hide themselves in a cramped tent and complain that they're out of smokes. And for that, they deserve thier fate.

After they team leaves the town and finishes their interviews of the townsfolk ,the film breaks down into simple formula:

Walk around. Tape stuff. Get lost. "Colorfully" complain about how lost they are. Gradual group dynamic and individual breakdown. Sleep in tent. Get scared late at night. Repeat.

The days were longest parts of the film, and while the conflicts between the characters were fine, and shouldn't have been made any shorter, the night scenes should have been made longer, considering they were the best parts of the film, although they never became more than fleetingly frightful. In contrast, the climax, taking place in the old house in the woods had what all the other night scenes didn't have. A sense of dread. The characters became separated (which is a genre no-no) and the character Mike frantically rushes around the house looking for Josh, the member of the team who went missing, whose voice can be heard yelling, from no discernible direction. Meanwhile, Heather tries to follow him, screaming all the way. It was the best edited, best shot scene, and the most effective.

Had the other night scenes been this effective, the film would have lived up to the hype. Although I would have liked to have seen the Blair Witch at least once. Not seen dead on, but seen for less than a split second, moving just out of frame, enough so that we can see it, but not enough to make out what it is, or even so that we debate that we saw it at all.

Although I didn't really like the film, it later played with my imagination like a good spook story, making every little noise a threat, and I caught myself occasionally looking over my shoulder. But I wanted more satisfaction in the theatre, not a creepy afterglow. If I wanted creepy afterglow, I'd go to the secondhand bookstore and pick up a spooky ghost story book for less than 2 bucks. Instead I blew 9 bucks on a shaky 80 minute home video.

    ** out of 4

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