I remember a time when horror filmes didn’t use found footage to describe they’re movies, and how Paranormal Activity brought it back and it was everywhere, forever making horror fãs motion sick. Okay, I don’t hate found footage films. I amor Cloverfield, and it was a found footage movie. However, found footage movies, at least to me, tend to be pretty bland. It’s why I wasn’t really a fã of Paranormal Activity. But I think the movie that started it all would have to be Blair Witch Project.



Okay, so maybe Blair Witch Project wasn’t the first to do the whole found footage horror movies. Cannibal Holocaust did come out almost twenty years prior. However, I think it is seguro to say that Blair Witch Project did start the found footage genre. And what is my opinion on the Blair Witch Project? Well, let’s find out. So the movie follows a group of three film students who head to Maryland to see if the myth about the Blair Witch in the local town of Burkittsville is true or fiction. They go into the woods, where things start to go creepy, and continue to head deeper and deeper into the woods, before not being able to find their way back out again, as they are hunted por what they believe to be the Blair Witch. So, I gotta admit, for a found footage movie that shakes back and forth way too much, I think that it has a pretty interesting concept. Sure, it’s not like we haven’t heard of a monster that curses a town story before, but I really do think that this is a mais modernized version of those stories (You know modernized in 1999).



One of the things that I am fond of in this movie is the atmosphere. At the beginning of the movie, the film crew talk around the town, asking them about the Blair Witch. You get many different perspectives of these characters, as they all give their opinions on the Blair Witch. Some say that she is real, some say that she is fake, some say aleatório things she can do while others either agree or contradict what others have said, and some even claim of seeing her. It’s like what you’d expect in real life when a fictional creature appears on the internet. The forest even looks creepy at times, with all of the events that happen during the movie and how the Blair Witch screws with the camera crew in an attempt to get them to come to her. The problem that I have though is that whenever characters mover around or run, the camera moves way too much. The ending, where the remaining camera member, is running through the forest, moved the camera all around the place. Audiences even claim of vomiting when seeing this due to motion sickness. Me personally, I never got THAT sick, but seeing that did make me feel a little ill. Kinda hard to enjoy the atmosphere when the camera is shaking like it’s having a seizure.



While the camera is vomit inducing, there is one thing about this movie that I love. One major reason that I always want to come back to this movie. The Blair Witch itself. The Blair Witch was a very creative creature in this movie. Being scene as a sort of cryptid-like creature at the beginning, soon became a very psychologically threatening being that hunted the camera crew down through the forest and did what it could to bring them to her. It would create sounds that weren’t really there, try to lure the remaining members por torturing the captured member of their group, and would use sticks to create these small human like dolls, which is a very iconic part of the movie. But I think the best thing about the Blair Witch is that you never actually see her. Not even a small little glimpse. The Blair Witch is always kept in the dark, never showing itself physically. You know what the Blair Witch does, but you don’t know what it looks like. And I think that, if a monster can be scary without having a physical form of any kind, leaving it to the imagination of the viewer, than I think you’ve created a great monster. Though, I can’t tell if this was due to good writing, or because the budget was only sixty thousand dollars, and not enough to have a monster that looked good… probably both. It was probably better than the survivors, since they were kinda……. Shit at acting



So, I gotta say, as much as the camera work for The Blair Witch Project is probably the worst and how I am not a real fã of these found footage films and the three actors weren’t that great, I can safely say that I have a soft spot for the Blair Witch Project. It’s not the greatest horror movie ever, and definitely not the best of 1999, but it’s a decent movie to check out if you want a good scare. It was well received enough to get a few awards, including from events like Golden framboesa Award, which is a well known ceremony awarding bad movies, which this movie won for worst actress and biggest disappointment…… It also won best film por Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Awards. The Blair Witch Project even got a sequel… It was awful. Yeah, The Blair Witch Project wasn’t the greatest horror movie, or even the most loved movie, but on a budget that small, I think it managed to live up to what it had. Take care.

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