The Blair Witch Project (1999) **** out of *****
Cast: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard Written and Directed by: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez Running Time: 87 minutes Date Reviewed: July 30, 1999
In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary. One year later, their footage was found. Thus begins The Blair Witch Project, one of the best (yet extremely frustrating) thriller/horror movies to be released in a long, long time.
As this ultra low budget movie begins we follow the doomed film crew consisting of Heather the director (Heather Donahue), Josh the cameraman (Joshua Leonard), and Mike the sound guy (Michael C. Williams) getting ready to begin their documentary. They set out to the town of Burkittsville, Maryland and begin to interview the locals about an urban legend of sorts... the story of the Blair Witch. Various soundbites are gathered, and then on day two the crew sets off into the woods. They are never seen again. The audience however, vaguely gets to see what happened to them over the next few days, thanks to Heather's inexplicable urge to film every terrifying moment of their ordeal.
All of the critical praise this film is getting might just work against it with the casual moviegoer. In countless ads and reviews the word "scary" is used over and over again. "It's scary as hell." "The scariest movie ever." Saying the film is scary is only going to frustrate the casual moviegoer who is expecting Poltergeist or The Haunting. There are no special effects, no scary music, and no monsters. Don't get me wrong though, it is CREEPY as hell (especially the film's final 30 seconds or so).
However slight, there is actually a difference between scary and creepy. A scary movie would be something that makes you jump or even scream out loud, either by genuine terror or through those cheesy music cues when a cat jumps out of nowhere. A creepy movie like The Blair Witch Project sets the stage for something scary to happen... but ultimately never delivers. Nothing ever makes you jump and nothing ever makes you scream, even though the stage is fully set for that to happen at any given moment.
Now let me give credit where credit it due. When The Blair Witch Project tries to be creepy it succeeds masterfully. As the crew settles down each night to sleep, that's when things start to get creepy. Basically, whenever the sun goes down, get ready to almost be scared. That's mainly what kept frustrating me though. Sometimes the night would go by too quickly. If Heather is going to insist on continuing to film these now nightmarish conditions they are being exposed to, you would think that there would be more of these night scenes. Instead, there's more of the "human drama" which takes place during the daytime.
The three principle cast members are all new to the film world, and all are very good here. I'm sure the casting was based simply on budgetary constraints, but the film just wouldn't have been as effective with any familiar faces. As a result of the casting, you feel like you're watching a real documentary.
In today's day and age of whiz bang CGI effects and no-brainer Kevin Williamson crud, I'm all for the "less is more" approach for the horror genre. The Blair Witch Project takes that a step further, opting for the "nothing is even less than less is more, so we'll give you nothing" approach. The filmmakers lull you into a false sense of security with the first half of the film, which is basically just a humorous story about low budget documentarians. Then the creepiness sets in which is very effective, but as I said it ultimately never pays off. We know just as much about what happens to these people when the movie begins as we do when the final credits roll. In a way that bothers me, but the movie is entertaining and original enough to make me overlook it's non-payoff.
Artisan Entertainment (the distributor of the film) has set up an EXTENSIVE and very cool web site for The Blair Witch Project. Check it out. Also, there's a special hour long documentary airing on The Sci-Fi Channel called Curse of the Blair Witch that actually manages to blur the lines between reality and the fantasy of this movie even further. [R]
Chuck Dowling -- chuckd21@leading.net The Jacksonville Film Journal URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/
© 1999 of The Jacksonville Film Journal. No reviews may be reprinted without permission.
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