Don't Go Into the Woods

 

When it all goes to pot

So throughout the work day I was sort of mulling what my "starter" film for October would be and it occurred to me that I hadn't watched The Blair Witch Project (1999) in a few years. If I ever compiled a Top 90s Horror Favorites List, "The Blair Witch Project" is nearly (if not at) the top. A lot of folks feel right the opposite of this [fake] documentary *found footage* film, an iconic, extremely influential release that set off quite a movement that pronounced to a lot of low budget filmmaker hopefuls that you could very well produce a hit without spending millions. Granted, later on a whole subgenre took this so much further, such as the obvious "Paranormal Activity" (I plan to watch the first three again this year) series. 

For me, what makes this powerful and imprinted itself on me from the very first viewing until this day is how all this "cobbled together footage found in the woods a year after three college students went missing while on a school project" is assembled and presented as a development of what started out as just a fun document of townspeople and a trip in the woods to shoot some footage. But when they get lost, and Heather, the lead documentarian on the project, seems unable to lead them out of the woods, loss of patience, enveloping/encroaching entrapment of the surroundings that seem to have no exit, tempers and mistrust start to increase tensions, and eventually infighting and bickering tear them apart until Josh, the camera operator, comes up missing (his agonizing screams heard from a distance), "The Blair Witch Project" feels very real. I think that moment where Mikey, the equipment manager, admits to losing the map it certainly feels as if these three are royally fucked. But the noises, the rock and stick formations, and eventually the tent has "activity" on the outside while the three are inside, not to mention, a "special delivery" from Josh's person; this all accumulates until we're left to wonder what happens to Mike (in a corner much like Pharr made one child stand while killing another) and Heather (seemingly hit from behind while the two were moving through an old building in the woods). That lack of information, kept from us, truly left many frustrated, others profoundly affected. This is indeed not liked at all by some who will either give "The Blair Witch Project" a 1/10 saying it is "overrated" (a term I loathe, because it's such a lazy word to toss out there when you don't like a film loved by others), but many others like me consider this a horror film that moved the needle. It had a magnificent ad campaign, and I recall in 1999 the serious buzz it generated. While there was definite disappointment, I was not of that number. I think Heather's weepy, shaken terror, that classic closeup to the camera, when all hope seems gone and the intense dark and uncertain manifestations and evil appear to be just out of her frame; this is that moment that I could relate to. Who wants to be in a position of not knowing what is out there? You can't see what is in the dark, and, all of a sudden, the history of the Blair Witch, her supposed victims, and mythos surrounding her  aren't just a cool college project to get an easy grade. The shot of the car as the three begin their trip into the woods is almost as powerful as what happens to them once they're lost. Rating: 5/5