The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Sadly Over-hyped

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

5.6/10 This obviously caught the world by storm when it came out due to its fantastic marketing or trolling however you look at it. People thought this was all real footage and these people actually died at the hands of the Blair Witch. As a kid when this came out, this was truly an innovative film that captivated me with its creepy ominous wood setting and the fact i thought it might have been real. I was constantly searching the woods in hopes of finding things similar to in this film and it gave me great imagination in my exploring. However I had always held an almost angry feeling towards it for not actually ever showing the witch in the film. It led us all in this tense frenzy of psychological terror without ever giving us something to see. If they had just shown something in the final house seen or anything throughout it could've easily been a better film. Ive had a love hate relationship with this for a long time and i do appreciate its forboding and ominous setting and use of the documentary style camera work, but i still feel tricked ultimately by the gimmick and tease of the film. But for what it is it works on some levels, and the folklore and backstory of the blair witch is phenomenally well imagined. The new film as Ive said is superior because we finally get to see a visual portrayal of the witch and it was made with a higher budget allowing them to expand vastly on the plotting and effects. I will say the makers of this film are geniuses with the idea and they grossed a ton from it. Book of shadows was an absolute travesty though that shouldn't be viewed by anyone.

This is just boring and a waste of time to watch. Nothing scary happens, it is just about three people in the woods screaming and walking everywhere. That's it. Terrible movie with nothing happening.

I don't really like this movie, but I gotta hand it to the creators for the unique style and idea. At a point where horror movies and thirllers were just cliche after cliche, this just came outta nowhere. if you're looking for the movie that pretty well started the found footage genre, this is it.

I just cannot understand why anyone likes this film. The whole premise of 'found footage' genre is flawed, for example, would you still be holding a camera and filming if you were running away from someone or something? One other film that uses this genre is Cloverfield and I cannot get over the fact that you would be fleeing from a so called monster (that you never really see properly by the way) and still filming! Think about it - would you really be doing this? Also, surely the whole point of cinema is photography, how things look, putting images on screen, with The Blair Witch Project most of the film is in darkness, you can hardly see anything most of the time, what is the point of film in this case? If the screaming and whining is scary (I just think it is highly annoying) to you, it might as well have been broadcast on the radio. One of the other reviewers stated that without BWP there would not be other found footage films, this is probably true, but that is nothing to be celebrated! The only one of the found footage genre that I find remotely scary is Paranormal Activity and I think that in this case it works, because the scary in this film is supposed to be a ghost, something we can't necessarily see, and there are static cameras around the house, which you may have in your home for security reasons, this makes the premise all the more acceptable and believable. The cameras just happen to 'catch' or 'capture' unusual events or happenings as they occur. I must admit I was scared by these movies and the addition of times and dates made the films seem more real like it had actually happened. I am not knocking BWP for being low budget, there have been plenty of excellent low budget movies over the years, eg I don't think Jaws or Halloween had very big budgets, BUT I would like something to see for my money! Personally I think people fell for the hype, it was a very clever marketing ploy by the makers of this film to pretend that the Blair Witch legend was real and even that the found footage was 'real' and not a movie at all, more of a documentary! Please do not remake this film in 10 or 20 years time, once was enough!