What I Thought:
I saw this movie in '99 in the theaters not knowing shit about it, but the fact that it was real, that this was the actual
footage the lost students shot. I saw it with this friend and I was extremely freaked out. This movie is not good technically
(it is shot with the equipment you see on screen) so there was no characters, no directorial moves, no narrative and no soundtrack.
So I had to rewatch this flick and write this review knowing it wasn't real.
When I first saw it, I must admit that I was scared out of my pants, there are tons of scenes where the spook factor is in
the heavens, it is shot in a way you feel there, when the characters run, you feel like running, when they scream, you feel
as if they were screaming at your ear. And I must say that the movie reached me emotionally; now, I am not sure how this was
done, Ive heard millions of stories. A lot of people say that the directors just tossed Mike, Josh and Heather to the woods
to film and scared the living fuck out of them (which is probably why the acting is so good)...so...were they even acting?
The acting...it's either amazingly great or no acting at all, which is a very good thing, since you fucking believe every
scream, every tear and every fight. Heather's final confession to the camera really reached my heart, I felt for her. So anyways...The
acting is amazing, too bad you can't say the same for the characters which annoyed the living fuck out of me (except in the
night scenes, where they got scared out of their wits), they yell a lot with low pitched annoying voices and they fight a
lot. The characters annoyed me but I think that's how anyone would act, right?
Of course, there are no directorial moves whatsoever and the violence/gore is nonexistant. This was for the good and the bad.
It gave the movie credibility and that's what this flick is all about. But it doesn't get under your skin. I gotta add props
to whoever was doing the spook outs in the night, shit that even scared me...the second time I watched it.
In the end, The Blair Witch Project is a movie that works as a scary, engaging, trippy and sad ride that shows how humans
react through the scariest situations. Too bad the pace is slow, the characters annoying and at times bored me.
Gore:
Nope, nothing except a bag of something that looks like bloody teeth.
Overall Rating:
"8/10", satisfying, original and downright scary. A movie that succeeds and fails in forgivable levels.
review by Leon Sakau
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