My review for the film:The Blair Witch Project
I guess there's always that chance of getting lost. The woods can be all-encompassing, as The Blair Witch Project attests. Particularly, if there is something in the woods. You have not anticipated the horror that awaits, and why would you? Witches or ghosts out in the wilderness...nonsense, right? I think by introducing us to the project through a few interviews with locals who have heard of the legend of Coffin Rock and by letting us get to know these three college kids prior to their eventual arrival and descent into the woods, it is understandable why witches and ghosts would be considered worthy of pessimism or incredulity. We roll our eyes and our logic/intellect disregard the idea of the supernatural living and breathing deep in the woods where the possible history of disemboweling and missing children have been passed down through the generations, a campfire story of a witch that possibly exists. That danger exists of that form; I mean, why wouldn't the three missing students, before becoming so, not treat all of this with a kind of condescension?
So when the three film students get lost, and we follow their increasing terror and emotional meltdown, with one of the party "kidnapped" by *something* and suffering an agony so far in the distance, his screams of torture doesn't need to be visualized...it can be felt. This was just supposed to be an easy A and an educational credit. These three got so much more than they bargained for. When you read they got so much more than they bargained for in a synopsis, any number of horrors follow suit.
Found footage has advanced to the point now where the audience (us) sees *everything*. Nothing is left to the imagination. Horror is visualized for the most part. When a found footage film does emerge where a lot is still left outside our sight and we aren't allowed to see everything, you bet your bottom dollar bellyaching and bitching will follow. It did for The Blair Witch Project (1999).
Clever irony, right? Intentional. This is what is great about this found footage film. This isn't just some "student project" ad-libbed and made up on the spot by a bunch of amateurs. There's a thought process that went into all of this. Designed and developed with a back story intact, and three people who leave the "comforts of home" for the wilderness, as this project they didn't take seriously soon becomes a little too real.
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