The Blair Witch Project:
Three film students: Heather, Josh, and Mike, head out into the woods to film an indie documentary on the "Blair Witch", the evil spirit of an old woman who has haunted the Black Hills forest in Blair, Maryland since colonial times. They are non-believers, and, ignoring the warnings of the townsfolk, spend a few days filming in the woods. But, when disturbing and eerie things begin happening, they realize that the Blair Witch may be more than just a legend. This film is praised for it's interesting approach: due to extreme constrictions of the budget, the filmmakers literally show nothing. You only hear subtle noises, and see creepy little wicker statues in the forest, but that's it. Is it the townsfolk trying to drive the young people out of town? Is it the filmmaker's paranoia? Is it the real witch? No one knows until the end, and the ending truly is a shocking and disturbing one. I first watched this late at night, camping with my family and a friend. Me and my friend just sat there as it ended, and looked around, noticing the cold, barren, dark woods around us, and looked at each other. I said "Well, guess we'll have to watch Gremlins to calm ourselves, cause I can't just fall asleep after that." We did. That's how scared we were after watching it. And the rest of our friends and family had gone to another trailer on the camping site for a card game, no one was there with us. Little light was around the campsite. Truly shit-your-pants-scary stuff here. Part of what makes it more real is that the trailer just shows the infamous scene where Heather weeps into the camera, apologizing to their family and friends. She says "it was a mistake", and "we're gonna die out here". She then title-drops: "This was my project, the Blair Witch project." The marketing campaign consisted of posters including Heather's disturbed face, and of "missing" posters. TV channels aired fake documentaries about the history of Blair Witch, and the search for the filmmakers. The official movie website, to this day, still treats the material like it is historical fact. It was the first movie to convince the whole world they were watching an actual documentary, and that unsettles you. Sure, Paranormal Activity was scary, but did anyone by 2009 buy the "it really happened" thing? This was the first film to pull it off, and no movie has reached that level of phenomenon and that level of fear, because it was the only found footage movie that actually pulled the "true story" angle off. Even horror movies that actually are based on fact don't do that, usually. Also, the three main actors used their real names for the characters, making it even more realistic. The only thing that lets you know it's fake is the directing credits at the end, but some people didn't make it to the credits when it was first released in 1999 (ten years before Activity). This makes The Blair Witch Project one of my favorite horror films, and one of the creepiest and most shocking in recent memory. 4/5 stars.
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