"The Blair Witch Project" (1999)

It's hard to appreciate how fresh and unaffected The Blair Witch Project was upon its release. The film and its ideas have been so heavily parodied, re-purposed and remade that it can be difficult to recognize how not only influential the film was but also how good it continues to be. The film didn't invent the found footage genre but it certainly popularized it with an unexpectedly hugely successful turn at the box office catalyzed by a viral Internet marketing campaign that was one of the first of its kind. While recent found footage concepts such as the Paranormal Activity series have aped its ideas, few of the films since feel as inspired or as legitimately scary as Blair Witch. Its not just its shoddy, shaky cam VHS-look that Blair Witch gets right but utilizing that stylistic choice not for gimmick but for verisimilitude. The film is psychologically nuanced. The scares aren't from being startled but from watching the three Gen-X, would-be film students (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams) slowly unravel. Blair Witch also has an initial concept that nicely determines how the film plays out. The three characters are investigating a local legend, one they don't actually buy into. It's a simple framing device but its highly effective; the characters start out as skeptics but as they get lost in the woods and strange things happen they realize that they've tempted fate by failing to tread lightly. The film is also exemplary for how to stretch a shoestring budget. Blair Witch is convincing because it focuses on its characters and their fraying relationship, and it does this because it has so little else to rely on. The film goes for big scares once, in its final moments, and that painfully demonstrates the limitations of the budget to the point where it can feel disappointing. The most frightening moments are when the frailty of human nature is on full display -- perhaps seen best in the film's most remarkable moment where Donahue makes a chilling confession straight to the camera. For a long time there's simply the possibility that there's nothing supernatural afoot just madness sinking in as they get more deeply, irrevocably lost in the woods.

Grade: 3.5/4 ★★★