The Blair Witch Project (1999) starring Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams, Bob Griffin, Jim King, Sandra Sánchez directed by Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez Movie Review

The Blair Witch Project (1999)   2/52/52/52/52/5


The Blair Witch Project (1999) starring Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams

In Tents Nonsense

A small group of students head to Burkittsville, formally Blair, where they are filming a student documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch which might have caused the many deaths of children during the 1940s. They shoot footage at the cemetery and interview people who live in the town about the Blair Witch before heading in to the woods to never be heard of again. A year later their footage is discovered and is turned into this movie "The Blair Witch Project".

Life's little mysteries, why in heck did "The Blair Witch Project" win so much praise from so many people when it came out? I am sorry but having watched this movie on my own in the dead of night, watched with friends again in the dead at night and watched a few times more and no matter when this movie makes me laugh rather than sucks me in to what we are supposedly meant to be watching.

But let me tell you the one thing about "The Blair Witch Project" which almost impressed me and that is it gets that our own imagination is more powerful and scary than anything which can be shown us. As such if we are feeling uneasy about something we will be on edge, scared by things which go bump in the night and that little element of fear which sticks out when we try to rationalize things. It is purely that "The Blair Witch Project" understands this fear that I won't rip this movie to shreds.

But I am sorry this whole hokum of being found footage was not new even back in 1999 when this came out and suddenly audiences were screaming how original it was. Back in 1980 there had been supposed found footage movies and ones which do a much better job of drawing the audience in. Then there is the forcing of the found footage stuff as we see are trio of students drinking in their hotel room the night before, scenes which have no purpose what so ever like getting into their tents. This leads me to an inconsistency as if this found footage was edited after being found then scenes like that wouldn't be in the cut as they nave no purpose but if it was as found then the edits with continual narrative would not exist. It makes it unbelievable right from the word go.

I could go on but I really don't want to waste my time on a movie which I will never get what is so great about it, come on would these film students really be recording an argument between themselves over being lost, wasting battery and film in the process. As I said the understanding of the power of the mind to generate fear is the only thing which is good about it and the rest just didn't do it for me.


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