The Blair Witch Project Review
by John Carroll (flyers130 AT aol DOT com)August 27th, 1999
The Blair Witch Project
Starring: Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard
82 Minutes Long, Rated R for strong language
A great film that has you captivated the whole way through for one of the most haunting endings in the horror film genre.
The horror film genre has always been depleted. Since Hitchcock, we have never seen a steady stream of truly scary films. However, the horror film genre has been resurrected in the 90s, but to no avail. Scream gave viewers a spook or two, I Know What You Did Las Summer was just a teen vehicle, and the latest, The Haunting, is a special effects masterpiece that forgets that its purpose is to scare us, not have us in awe of the beauty of the house. But, we have a true horror film in our midst right now. The Blair Witch Project. It is not a scarefest from start to finish, but as you shall see in this review, it gets us to believe and then pulls out the horror.
This film was made for forty thousand dollars. You probably could have only filmed two minutes of The Haunting with that budget. But, after seeing this film, we need to be constantly reminded that money cannot buy depth in a motion picture. Does this film look like it was made with forty thousand dollars? No, it looks like it used even less. But, this is the bait. And once you believe that they are stranded in the woods, and once you believe that there might be something out there with them, they pull you in. Hook, line and sinker.
The cast is wonderful in this film. The only way a horror film can scare you is if they make you believe what is going on. Alfred Hitchcock did that, and that is why he is the king of horror. I am not comparing Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick to Hitchcock, but they did do a great job with their cast. Heather Donahue plays, well, Heather Donahue. Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams also play themselves. I guess forty thousand dollars cannot buy you different names. Or maybe it just added to the realism.
Heather Donahue is great. In a present day where leading ladies are hard to come by, Donahue takes the cake. The problem with most women taking leading roles is that they cannot be believable, something this whole film is based on. But, Donahue plays the role in stride. Her character is the one making the documentary, getting help from Williams and Leonard. She is demanding, hard nosed and the leader and I believed it.
Michael Williams plays his role terrifically as well. When the film starts, you think he will be the minor character. All he is there for is the sound. Well, think again. He lets his role flourish. As the group of three meshes, his role standouts, which becomes much more important as the film roles on.
Joshua Leonard plays the sort of, peace hippie who tries to keep everything under control. Surprisingly, he is the first one to disappear. His role complements the others as well. None of the cast stands out because they all give great performances and they all mesh. Whatever egos they may have had were checked at the door because this cast is about getting the film done, not giving the best performance. This makes their performances even better. The plot is the best part of this film. Despite the great acting and realism, all horror films still need a scary plot. This one is based on three filmmakers who want to make a documentary on the local legend of The Blair Witch. I will not spoil too much, but lets just say that The Blair Witch is a person/creature who supposedly killed children years ago. Then, after interviewing a few locals, they head out into the woods.
They start filming in the woods, finding places that are spoken of in the legend. They are disappointed, but still film, looking for more answers. However, they soon find a portion of the woods littered with The Blair Witch "symbol." This is where things start to go wrong. They start hearing noises in their sleep; first everyone believes it could be an animal or some sort of prankster. But, as they start to believe it could be The Blair Witch, we start to believe as well. And as things progress, they lose such things as the map and Joshua. That is about as far as I should go, but let me just say that when you see the ending, prepare for a haunting experience. Is there anything wrong with The Blair Witch Project? Yes, but nothing major that holds it back from being a four star film. The only flaws I saw in this film were with two things. Mike kicks their map into the river, claiming it was not getting them anywhere. At this point in the film, they are nowhere near crazy, which is why I do not believe this part. The other flaw is nothing major and actually enhanced the experience for me. But, for those of you who cannot stand shoddy camerawork (i.e. your home movies) then do not see this film. The camera goes everywhere and even has times when the screen is completely black and all you hear are voices. This added to the realism for myself, but might make other people just suffer motion sickness.
Overall, this is the best film that I have seen this summer. It has humor in the beginning and then progresses to have you believe the scenario. Then it blows your mind with an innovative and haunting ending. And, ironically, it is a sharp contrast to the effects laden blockbusters that plague us every summer. Fortunately, The Blair Witch Project was made with forty thousand dollars, plus a lot of heart, hard work and creativity. This makes it one of the best films of the summer and of the year. Rating: Four Stars Out of Four Stars
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