The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Very few films that I've seen have been able to tap into that primal fear of venturing out a little too far from shelter and hurriedly walking back, thinking you may be close but not really sure if you're heading the right way. The fear that behind every tree, rock, bush could be…something. You have no idea what. Directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez don't know either, and they're not here to provide answers. All they're doing is handing you a tape they found in the woods of three filmmakers that disappeared under mysterious circumstances. You make the connections. Of course the film is fake, but it makes smart decisions to feel authentic. The guerrilla style cinematography, the calculated yet seemingly sporadic cutting, the unbalanced audio levels of each clip. Myrick and Sanchez know that less is more, too much effort put into controlling the film means less imagining the audience feels like they need to do.

One of the best tricks the film pulls is it gives the viewer options. Sure it's called The Blair Witch Project but the various town interviews and lead characters themselves provide multiple perspectives as to what could really be out in the woods. A child killer, a devilish witch, pranksters, nothing at all. So many people go into this film expecting to challenge it. "Will the witch be scary? Will I actually see something that will freak me out?" But the baseline horror is right there in plain sight. These people are lost, unprepared to tackle the woods, and slowly going mad. And that feeling is especially embodied by the lead performances; particularly Heather Donahue who was able to be so convincingly on edge and terrified that it caused her to get harassed in real life and win a Razzie (grade A misogyny right there). Her performance is what sucked me in and led me to buy into the idea that these people have no idea how to even comprehend what is happening to them; and as the film goes on they grasp even tighter to what little straws they have.

If anything, The Blair Witch Project's biggest failing comes from outside of the actual movie. Profitwise, the film notoriously made 200 MILLION off its 60 thousand dollar budget. But with Myrick and Sanchez going to extremes to maintain the mystique of the film, they sacrificed the careers of the lead actors that practically handed (and even shot) a successful film right to their doorstep. Contract clauses that only granted pennies, that didn't allow the actors to engage in other projects successfully. It seems Haxan Productions treated their cast as if they really did disappear deep in the woods. It's a shame for everyone involved and it's not that anyone could have predicted the massive phenomenon it would become; but if the production team was responsible they would have ensured their actors weren't still living in poverty even as their faces were plastered all over the media.

As it stands The Blair Witch Project is an unrepeatable convergence of talent and timing. A puzzle painstakingly built from 20 hours of footage and packaged in a way that would affect how entertainment would interact with the internet and the public at large to this very day. An experiment bound to have its downsides, but when all is said and done the film is still a genuinely well made story; complete with character arcs, rising tension, and a satisfyingly unsatisfying payoff. So many imitators fail to fly higher because they see it as a formula, not as a spark for their own creativity. As if they lack the imagination that makes so many people dismiss the film in the first place.