The Blair Witch Project: A Hair-Raising Dance With Perceived Reality

The woods can be nothing short of terrifying at night.

I used to camp all the time, and I distinctly remember conjuring up images in my mind of what exactly was making that mysterious crackling noise somewhere to the left of my tent, out there in the dark. What we cannot see is always far more frightening than what we can, and just as my mind sometimes fooled me into fleetingly believing that perhaps monsters were real after all, the marketing tactics of The Blair Witch Project fooled some into believing that it was some sort of snuff film. Of course, it wasn't anything of the sort, but I truthfully am hard-pressed to think of a movie that has more effectively blurred the lines between my perception of fiction and my perception of reality.

The found-footage style of this film, while well-documented and oft-imitated, is nonetheless jarring. I can easily see why some thought this movie to be factual back when it was released, despite a disclaimer in the end credits stating the direct opposite. It distinctly reminds me of actual private and smaller-scale documentaries from around the turn of the century, behaving like a Popular Mechanics For Kids monster feature gone horribly wrong. Down to the realistic and often-funny banter-like dialogue that you won't find in just about any other movie, The Blair Witch Project feels entirely natural in every way, and this includes the terror it brings to bear. Granted, it's narrative is looser than a regular feature film by design, but what the movie might lose in storytelling familiarity and momentum, it gains in perceived legitimacy while allowing you to sit in the weight of the ominous legend of the Blair Witch. The Blair Witch Project is an endlessly patient film and builds intrigue and suspense in a way I've not yet seen imitated, utilizing its perceived documentary medium to the absolutely greatest effect possible.

What's more, this movie isn't merely suspenseful. It's entirely terrifying as well. Much of the fear factor in it is heard rather than seen, which creates an incredibly complete and utterly horrifying experience not because of what's included but because of what's omitted. In fact, having watched through the whole affair, I can confidently say that The Blair Witch Project is easily the scariest movie I have ever watched, and this is in large part due to its slow and intentional corrosion of the nerves through not just what you can see, but also and in many ways mostly through what you hear. The never-ending sense of how utterly lost in the woods Heather, Josh, and Michael are doesn't do anything to dissolve the feeling, either. As I said at the beginning of this article, I used to camp a lot, and so this movie was at the same time familiar and yet entirely alien. I'll probably camp less in the future.

I loved how each turn of events in Blair Witch just made everything worse for our characters. Even better, these progressively worsening turns of fate largely flowed entirely naturally, with a handful of arguably necessary exceptions that I chalked up to regular horror pulp. I've rarely seen a movie that feels as utterly hopeless as The Blair Witch Project, and it always feels hopeless in large part because it never feels unnatural. Being lost in the woods is terrifying because there's no feasible, positive point of reference to fix the problem, and this film takes this truth and weaponizes it to craft a sense of desperation that is entirely overwhelming.

You don't watch The Blair Witch Project so much as you feel it in your bones. As I said, it's definitely the most frightening film I've ever seen, and I don't really think it's close. Found footage isn't a terribly unusual approach to filmmaking today. Back in 1999, it was revolutionary. And today, this movie still lands with an utterly terrifying wallop I haven't seen matched elsewhere, not because of what you see in this movie, but rather because of what you don't. You don't see the death. You don't see the witchcraft. You don't see whatever is stalking these poor people through the woods. But you feel it and imagine it, and that's far more valuable. This movie plays with your senses in creative and ominous ways, unlocking what were likely new possibilities for the genre of horror. It felt like an evil omen was hanging over the whole affair, and its blurring of the lines between fiction and reality seemed to threaten to let that evil into our world at times, even if this malevolent entity isn't ever even seen at all.

After all, it's the one you don't see that gets you.

The Blair Witch Project - 9/10

Leviticus 19:31