31 Days of Horror: The Blair Witch Project

October 7, 2008: The Blair Witch Project
Here is a movie that takes a lacking budget and cast of unknowns and makes into a all too effective horror movie.
The movie was made for a mere $30,000 by two filmmakers from Florida and was praised at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.
What made this movie so effective was its marketing of the footage being “found” that was shot by three missing college students who made their way to the woods of Western Maryland in 1994 with the idea of making a documentary about the Blair Witch.
The Blair Witch is local legend who is really linked to murders and mysterious occurrences spanning about 200 years. So the Blair Witch is a real thing and the filmmaker took something everyone knew and made an original film out of it.
When the movie starts we are at the house of Heather and the three students are preparing for their trip into the woods.
So … after interviewing some of the locals we find ourselves in the woods and lost. Soon, strange things start to happen, with the voices of screaming children piercing through the night and from there the three students, Heather, Josh and Michael are in for a fight for their lives.
The whole movie experience is frightening and sometimes leaves you wondering what the hell we are looking at, since the film is being shot by the actors. One bad thing about the film is after its first screening it does loose some of its momentum and becomes less and less scary the more you watch it.
With that said the positive point about this movies is its decision to play with your imagination. The movie does not show you the horror or graphic images, but it lets you hear them, which in my opinion makes a horror movie scarier.
If you’re looking for a fun time that won’t take up a lot of your time, then I suggest you watch The Blair Witch Project, but if you have seen it then you already had the fun and you should move onto other horror films.