The Blair Witch Project

Disclaimer:

The film I’m reviewing this week is rated: R

There will be copious amounts of swearing, mature themes, and scary imagery.

So we go from one complicated movie choice to another complicated movie choice. Sorry, I just really felt like talking about this film. It’s crazy to think it came out a whole 25 years ago, huh. Well, I’m here to take a look at whether it’s stood the test of time or if it deserves to be tossed in the same pile of found-footage films that tried to copy it.

The Blair Witch Project: a movie about three film students shooting a documentary about the titular witch until they get lost in the woods and presumably die. That’s pretty much all there is to this movie. Some may say the simplistic premise makes it more interesting and suspenseful whereas others may say it makes it more boring and slow.

It’s found-footage, so we all know what that means: shaky cam and disorienting visuals galore. Some may say that makes it more gritty and realistic whereas others may say it makes it more vomit-inducing. I’m going back and forth on this pretty frequently so you might be thinking: where do you stand on all this?

Honestly, I’m about as torn as anyone else is. Part of me wants to appreciate the patience, dedication to realism, and legacy this film has created, but at the same time another part of me views those same pros as cons. Especially nowadays, people either seem to love or hate this movie and I can understand either of them. At the same time, are those people who hate this movie letting the unsuccessful and unoriginal copies of this film color their opinion of the original? Well, there’s only one way to find out.

Let’s take a trip back to Burkittsville, Maryland with the film that popularized the found-footage subgenre: The Blair Witch Project.

Yeah, this movie's totally pulling your leg.

This isn’t the first horror film ever made to pretend to be a true story, but it’s the first of its kind to go to such great lengths to make people believe it’s real. Since this movie is 25 years old now, a lot of you reading this may not know (heck, even I wasn’t around to see it) just how much the filmmakers wanted to get across that this was genuine found-footage.

The original trailers for the film ended with a phone number for viewers to call if they had any information on the whereabouts of the students. The filmmakers put up missing person flyers. They set up a website dedicated to the facts of the students’ case and solving the mystery of their “disappearance.” They even went so far as to use the actors’ real names.

Yes, none of the main actors are playing characters in this movie. They’re playing exaggerated versions of themselves and using their real names: Heather Donahue (now Rei Hance), Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams. Since the internet wasn’t as widely available back then as it is today, thousands of people believed it was real. Rei even mentioned in an interview at one point that her parents received sympathy cards from viewers after the film came out.

In case you’re worried that it might still be real:

[From left to right]: Rei Hance, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams (2024)
Notice how they're alive and well.

There is a dark side to this movie’s realism though. Not only did the filmmakers go above and beyond to convince people, but Artisan Entertainment made the actors sign contracts essentially forcing the actors to “play dead” for the rest of their lives. It’s a long and complicated story that only officially came to light relatively recently, so I won’t go into detail. Not only is it too in-depth, but that’s not what this blog is for. It is worth looking into if you’re interested, so I recommend checking out this “Variety” article for more info on this.

However, what I’m here to do today is determine if this movie holds up or if it doesn’t, so let’s get into the meat of it now.

Sorry, that shot was so blurry I thought it was a monster. So…yep, this is the whole movie, y’all. Don’t expect many of the images I use here to be especially well composed, because in the film’s dedication to realism they had the actors shoot almost everything on their own. No camera crews, no photography directors, no lighting experts, no production assistants, no nothing. Just the actors and their equipment. Thus creates our first divisive element: the camerawork.

Several people I’ve talked to about this movie in recent times have all had something to complain about regarding the cinematography. On the one hand I can see where they’re coming from. In fact, one person that’s discussed this film with me brought up the point that they suffer from very acute motion sickness which the camera angles and jerky style ended up triggering on several occasions. That is a good point, because if you have a similar struggle with motion sickness yourself, shots like this:

and this:

and this:

are probably not going to help with that, so it's best to sit this one out.

Do I blame the movie for this though? No. Why? Because that’s what they were trying to do. They didn’t want professional-grade camera work because they wanted this to be realistic. If they were going to get across the idea that these were actual student filmmakers in the woods working on a project until they get lost, then it wouldn’t have made sense to bring in the wide-angle lenses and Panavision cameras. What college student could afford that kind of equipment, let alone use it correctly?

So yes, if you have a preexisting condition that makes it difficult for you to watch stuff like this, I totally understand why you wouldn’t like it. However, if you don’t like it because you prefer cinematic shots, then that would’ve fundamentally gone against what the movie was going for. Don’t blame the movie for that choice, because if you refuse to enjoy films like that then just don’t watch it. It’s not the movie’s fault and it’s unfair to the filmmakers and the actors holding the cameras for you to criticize that.

Besides that there’s supposedly a story to this, so how’s that? Well we start off with some footage of Heather (played by Rei Hance), the director of the project, in her house setting everything up to go out hiking the next day. That’s pretty much what these first 15-ish minutes of the movie is. Again it’s a pretty simplistic setup which can lead to some snore-inducing moments down the line, but we’ll get to those later.

[HEATHER] *Some essential reading: "How To Stay Alive in the Woods." 'Cause you never know what's gonna happen.*
You have no idea...

For right now though, Heather assembles her team. The first one to show up is Josh (played by himself), the key cam-op, and they both go and pick up Mike (played by himself), who’s in charge of sound. They grab essential supplies from the grocery store and go to interview the people of Burkittsville about the Blair Witch.

What I like about these interviews isn’t just that it helps build suspense for later, but some of what’s said will eventually come back into play.

*As I remember, Mr. Parr was an old hermit, and he lived up on the mountain...the police finally went up on the mountain, and, uh, they searched his house and found the bodies of 7 kids from the area*.

What he did is he took, uh, the kids down into the basement by twos and made one face into the corner and then he would kill the other one. Then when he was done with that he'd grab the other one out of the corner and kill that one too.

Also, there are some funny moments here and there.

[HEATHER] *Do you believe in witchcraft?*
*No, no sir.*
[HEATHER] *Are you a religious man?*
*Yep*.
[HEATHER] *Alrighty*.

Outside of these tidbits of tone building, there’s also character moments with Heather, Josh, and Mike. It’s nice to see them hanging out together, buying snacks for the trip, being quirky college students, and generally having fun with each other before shit goes down. This is also needed if the audience is going to be endeared to these people by the end and for the audience to be worried about their well-being.

After a successful first shooting day they crash at a motel that night and pick up the documentary business the next day. They manage to get one more interview in before hiking out into the woods for real, and they commemorate the occasion with this final shot of their car.

Take a good look.
You know what irritates me the most about this shot?
They leave that water bottle on the car.
That's a vital resource for survival, y'all, take it with you.

Thus begins what the movie is known for: three kids in the woods. They don’t immediately get lost, mind you. During these first few moments of them in the woods they actually seem to be jovial with each other which will be a rare occurrence as the film progresses.

[HEATHER] *I'm not usually travelling with* ***two*** *men, if you know what I'm sayin'.*

*I never gave Mike any "fart allowance."*

What follows this up is some more tone building with a spooky occurrence.

*It was like, there were two separate noises coming from two layers of space over here, and one of 'em was kinda like - one of 'em coulda possibly been an owl, but the other one was like a cackling.*

At the end of the day, that pretty much describes the whole movie though. Heather, Mike, and Josh are only ever doing one of three things: trying to get shots for their movie (mostly at the beginning of their hike), arguing over where they should go, or getting creeped out by the stuff around them (sounds, totems, rock piles, etc.).

I will give credit that for what you see on-screen it is well done. The progression of their panic is relatively realistic and the acting is what helps sell the whole thing. I’ll get into the details of their progression a bit later since I have some notes on it, but for now I’ll leave it at that. When the film needs to be creepy it’s also typically subtle in its scares which I really appreciate.

Since there’s no music, just the sounds of the kids and the forest around them, the best scares often come out of some sound they hear in the distant forest or a creepy item they come across. More often than not it’ll be accompanied by a long drawn out silence or an exasperated reaction from either Heather, Mike, or Josh. However, I can completely understand why someone would consider moments like this to be boring.

[HEATHER] *Think of the joy of being in a really good film.*
*Okay, shut the fuck up.*

So, I’m now forced to ask myself: is any of this especially interesting? Yes…to a point. This is where our second divisive element I mentioned before, the general lack of plot, needs to be brought back up. With a lack of structure to the film, it relies solely on the star power of the leads to guide us through, and like I mentioned, they only do three things throughout the rest of the movie.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing so long as the movie doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s pretty good at this by limiting the runtime to 1 hour and 20 minutes, but I feel like even that is a bit too long. Honestly, just 1 hour of runtime should be plenty for a movie like this. Part of me wonders if the studio needed to drag it out a bit more in order to get the movie to feature length.

After all, there’s only so much of three college students wandering around in the woods, arguing about maps, and getting scared by sticks an audience can take. Something the movie could’ve added to make it more interesting would be to make itself more about survival and tribalism and how that affects the group. They touch on it briefly when Mike admits he kicked the map into the creek 39 minutes in.

*It was useless! I kicked that fucker into the creek.*

Like most other viewers, you likely see this as the stupidest thing he could’ve done. Because it is. However, I like it because it helps establish that having been in the woods for as long as they have, the students are starting to rely less on logic and more on instinct. We already saw earlier that Mike didn’t trust the map or the people who could read it.

Now that he’s been in the forest for as long as he has, it makes sense that he’d do what he thinks is right regardless of what anyone else thinks. Although, I feel like this could’ve been touched on more. This incident does create a schism in the group, as you’d expect, but I’d honestly like it to be dragged out further.

What if, as a result of this action, the three of them get so mad at each other that they split up and we see the rest of the movie through their own individual POV cameras. Maybe they also start to neglect their cameras as time goes on as they start to embrace the survival mentality. To me that would’ve made things a bit more interesting.

Instead, the three of them end up walking around in circles, getting more lost, and running into more scary stuff.

I have to admit, randomly coming across something like this in the woods is pretty creepy.

Also, I can’t help but be interested when the characters are at their wit’s end. That’s also when it feels the most genuine to me.

Not too long after this moment, the crew gets harassed by something in the middle of the night which causes them to run out of their tent in a panic. The next morning they go back to their campsite to find Josh’s things all strewn about and covered in slime. Probably my favorite thing about this movie is how the smallest details end up building on each other over time.

Earlier in the movie we saw Josh accidentally knock over one of the rock piles the group came across.

It’s possible that, if there is a Blair Witch, this action made her angry with Josh causing her to try and seek him out specifically to teach him a lesson. By murdering him.

[JOSH] *Why the fuck was this blue jelly shit all over* my *shit?*

Also, we hear what sounds like children’s voices and laughter right before everyone runs out of the tent which could be a reference to the children the Blair Witch supposedly hunts and eats. There are several other subtle details like this in the movie too, but I can’t properly convey them in this format. Since it’s already debatable if it’s truly interesting in the movie itself, it definitely won’t be interesting if you just read about it here.

Much like I said earlier though, Heather, Mike, and Josh just wander around in circles for the majority of the movie. Instead of exploring a deeper side of humanity that could offer some pretty decent commentary, they have Josh go missing in the middle of the night. So now the most frequently mentioned word in the movie goes from “map” to -

Like I mentioned not long ago, it’s possible that Josh could’ve been targeted by whatever’s hunting them out here which is why he was the one who went missing. At the same time, the movie is pretty ambiguous about everything. There could be a few explanations to what’s happening out here: the group is just lost in the woods and going crazy, there’s actually a Blair Witch, or there’s someone else out here hunting the group. I actually like this about the film.

If there are multiple interpretations for what’s actually happening I feel like the movie is doing something right. You could even say that’s why they keep getting turned around, either because they’re panicking and not thinking clearly or because the Blair Witch is messing with their heads. Maybe something completely different as well.

But wait, where were we?

(distant moaning)
[HEATHER] *...Josh?*
Right.

All joking aside, hearing Josh’s distant cries of pain is one of the creepiest things in the movie for me. It gets especially real when, the next morning, Heather wakes up to find a bundle of sticks outside their tent.

[HEATHER] (hyperventilating)
Yeah, I would too.

We end this bit of excitement with -

Since Heather can’t take any more of this, she ends up breaking down on camera and taking responsibility for everything. She admits that, as her project, it’s her fault that the three of them are now lost in the woods and will likely never see their families again. It’s a very powerful moment and I can totally understand why it became as iconic as it is.

This scene is likely why Rei’s family received sympathy cards in particular. Out of everyone in the group, Heather is the easiest to sympathize with and this scene fully supports that.

Later that night, Heather and Mike hear some shouting deep in the woods.

[(what sounds like) JOSH] *Somebody*! *Please*!

Mike and Heather follow these screams to the end of this movie which happens to be here.

This is where everything starts to explode as the creepiness is now coming hard and fast. Mike heads into the house first with Heather not too far behind where they capture a bunch of spooky dilapidated house stuff on camera.

Mike thinks he hears Josh on the second floor prompting him to run up after him, only to hear Josh in the basement immediately after and go running down the stairs where he presumably gets attacked by something.

Things also start to get disorienting here with Heather’s constant screams, because it’s hard to tell if she’s the one who’s screaming here or if it’s the Blair Witch. Heather follows Mike into the basement to see the next most iconic image from this movie.

You might think I’m not a fan of the abruptness of that ending, but I actually am. Since it happens so suddenly, it practically forces you to watch the credits while ruminating on what you just watched. To me, that also makes the whole thing a bit creepier. Is it enough for me to say that the movie holds up? Let’s go into a bit more detail.

I’ll start by saying that I stand by all my criticisms I gave in the review. My biggest problem with the film still remains the slow repetitiveness of everything. I’m sure you noticed how short this review is compared to my previous ones. Not only is that because of the shorter runtime than most other movies I’ve covered, but also because what happens in that time is pretty much the same thing over and over again.

What helps push it over the top is really the acting for me. The star attractions of the movie are the main characters and how they deal with their situation. Watching their panic and hysteria set in is one of the most interesting parts of the movie. To that same end, I also wish that it was explored in more interesting ways.

Like before, I still think it would’ve been cool to see something like society and humanity deteriorate the longer they stay in the woods similar to a story like Lord of the Flies. That would’ve helped justify the feature-length runtime to me, although I have to admit that what we got is still pretty interesting.

Ultimately I still stand by what I said in the intro. I can easily see how someone could both love this movie and how someone could hate this movie (taking the camerawork out of the picture). Do I like it? For what it is, I liked it. The combination of gritty, realistic, and gripping performances with subtle scares is really good to me and what keeps me coming back to this movie.

Is it a modern horror classic? I’d say so. Granted people’s definition of ‘classic’ is different, but if you’re not sold, why not take a look? Multiple times I mentioned that I can’t properly get across the tone of the film in a review format, so, as always, the best way to experience it is to watch it for yourself. So if you’ve got some time this weekend movie night, pop in the creepy home-movie that started it all and relive the nightmares of The Blair Witch Project.

Ratings, ratings. I’d say this film is a 3.5/5 shaky cameras. Honestly, the only reason I can’t rate it higher is because of the repetition. To me, I feel like everything else is pretty well done from the style to the scares. I just feel like this movie has no place being 1 hour and 20 minutes long. It definitely should’ve been closer to 1 hour, because it feels much longer than it is which isn’t a good thing.

(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images used in this post)

(Each of them are owned entirely by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)

(I’m just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them)

(Yet)

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