Film Review: The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Being the first to do something can get you the important place in history of cinema, but it will also inevitably make that work look less important when compared with those done later with more talents, creative resources or hype machine. This is situation Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez might find themselves in quarter of century after their 1999 feature debut The Blair Witch Project, immensely successful horror film that inspired two numerous found footage films in next two decades.

The film tells a tale about three film school students that disappeared in October 1994 while shooting a documentary in remote wooded areas of Maryland. A year later their recordings were found and they serve as a content of the film. The plot begins when aspiring director Heather Donohue (played by Heather Donohue) gathers camera operator Josh Leonard (played by Joshua Leonard) and sound man Mike Williams (played by Michael C. Williams) to join her over the weekend while she is working on her project – a documentary about mythical Blair Witch that allegedly lives around Burkitsville, Maryland and snatches children careless enough to wander into neighbouring woods. After interviewing the townsfolk that give various answers, ranging from scepticism to macabre murder stories from town’s past, trio goes into the woods to visit the actual sites of the crimes. What at first looked like a short field trip turns into something much longer. Before night falls, Heather is forced to admit that the group got lost. At first it looks it doesn’t look like a problem, but map and compass prove to be useless and the group, while trying to get back to civilisation, apparently travels in circles. Trio, which is now hungry, cold and nervous has to deal with another problem – each night they hear strange sounds and in the morning they discover strange objects and signs that someone or something is stalking them. What began as shooting of a film turns into struggle for survival, and trio is becoming convinced that they will not leave woods alive.

After the premiere some of the more enthusiastic critics claimed that The Blair Witch Project was the scariest film ever made. Those claims might be a little far-fetched, but it is beyond the doubt that Myrick and Sanchez actually managed to create a lot of anxiety and fear among the audience, and they did it with quite limited resources. Lacking the budget for showing anything too explicit, they took example of classic horror films by relying on audience’s imagination as the best tool for creating fear. The Blair Witch Project works perfectly as a horror film despite lacking any explicit violence and audience never learning who or what actually threatens the protagonists. Couple hints of local legends and dark history matched with seemingly ordinary but menacing surrounding of remote woods is enough for viewers, just like the protagonists, create all kinds of disturbing visions in their heads.

What makes The Blair Witch Project even better is that the nightmare scenario protagonists find themselves in looks like something that could happen to anyone. Faux documentary – narrative technique which wasn’t that original and was actually used mostly in comedies, including legendary This Is Spinal Tap, is here used in horror genre. Most of such films have problem in the fact that experienced viewers might notice various scenes being acted. Myrick and Sanchez try to solve it through various ingenious ways. Three roles are played by relatively unknown actors (of which only Joshua Leonard would later have prominent career) and those actors employed all kinds of Method acting techniques to remain in characters. They shared the same name with characters, they learned how to operate cameras and record themselves just like the protagonist would. Finally, the directors allowed them to wander around the woods all by themselves, record their own footage and improvise their lines. They also played various pranks on actors in order to get as authentic reactions as possible. The result is truly impressive – Donohue, Leonard and Wiliams really look like people that have spent days in the woods without food, heating and being scared to death. Their gradual descent into fear-induced madness is shown very effectively. Many who watched the film were actually convinced that they were watching true documentary instead of work of fiction. Even the seemingly random interviews with townsfolk in the beginning of the film serve good purpose as catalyst for the atmosphere of utter dread.

The Blair Witch Project was made with ridiculously low amounts of money. As such it proved one of commercially most successful films in previous decades due to immense box office and marketing campaign, one of the first to rely in large part on the new medium of Internet. Despite some detractors who called it unoriginal (comparing its gimmick to decades old Cannibal Holocaust), it is now considered one of the most important films of its time. Yet, its success was bound to be copied by many other film makers and studios which saw found footage as an excellent way to provide low budget horror films. Its success also led to inevitable sequels, like predictably less successful Book of Shadows: Black Witch 2 in 2002 and Blair Witch in 2016.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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