The Blair Witch Project

Rating:
Summary: The best and original horror movie since "Halloween!"
Review: Why does everybody hate this movie? You would feel pretty scared if you were lost in the woods and you kept on hearing strange noises in the middle of the night. Just try to imagine if you were Heather, Josh, or Mike. It's about time that somebody came along and made a suspense thriller like they use to. This one is original! See it!

Rating:
Summary: Horror on a different level.
Review: I think alot of the bad reveiws for this movie come from the overhyped advertising, and the fact that it isn't a horror movie of the kind we've come to know today. I feel people went to see this movie expecting a lot of blood, and a lot of witch. That just isn't the case with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. It is a very creative and original movie that relies heavily on the things you can't see. It breaks down the Hollywood power budget that we see in modern "horror" movies. It takes us back to the time when the things you COULDN'T see scared you. It reminded us that isn't necessarily the witch that was frightening, but rather the crack of the twig behind you. And as the lights went out, and you hear everyone screaming for their lives you can't help but feel locked in this imaginary box in which you can't get out. It is a claustraphobic kind of fear. If you are about to purchase this movie expecting gore, and teen tv stars, and a 75 million dollar blair witch CGI, then cancel the order or return the movie. If you want a trip back to the basics and a fear that will keep you gasping for air then by all means purchase THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.

Rating:
Summary: Not good in my opinion
Review: I love the idea of creating a mytholgy or urban legen with the Blair Witch character. I loved the whole idea behind in the beginning. I believe that was the best part of this BWP phenomenon.

The film itself started off all well and good, but soon became repititious arguing and swearing. I agree with another person who posted here who said that the movie lacked scenes that were scary to the viewer. This is very true. I believe a movie has to give visual clues as to what's happening in order to for the "horror" element to work. I also believed this has to occur to suffiently get ones imagination to take part in the film. Many have posted here saying that the film allows a person to use their imagination in the film, but that's just very problem..there is too much left for the imagination. It IS a movie after all. Half the time I didn't know what the hell was going on. I watched this on my vcr instead of going to see this in the theaters, and I had to constantly rewind back to certain parts, especially towards the end to figure out what just happened.

I just don't get why people claim this movie was "Scary as Hell" as it says on the box which the video came in. Ok, perhaps if you and a couple of friends were really walking in the woods and came across some rocks and sticks formed weirdly it would scare you. But, you aren't in the woods with them, you are merely a spectator in an event that's really dumb to be honest. I mean, if you were lost in the woods (because a one guy got mad and threw the map away..smart move) Would you keep rolling the tape even though you don't know where you are going? And further more would you keep it going after you are chased by some psycho? I think if the makers could strech the idea of people filming while they are running in terror, it wouldn't have been too much for us to see a little bit of an indication of what it was that was after them.

I aplaud the efforts of trying to do something different with movie making, and enjoyed the concept of the film though. Let's hope the next installment is better than the first.

Rating:
Summary: Uhhh???
Review: Heather Donahue and company walks around in the woods, documenting their journey with a camcorder. Someone scares them with sticks and fingerpaint. That's it, nothing happens, the film just ends with the audience wondering why this film was made. But I give it 2 stars cause it has some weird and cosy atmosphere.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing much but the hype...
Review: I agree that TBWP is such a unique film. Unique in the sense that the presentation was quite different -- the audience were watching through the lens & seemingly made them part of the actors/cast. However, it made me feel awfully sick afterwards & whatever good things I may be able to say about the film, that awful headache just overcame everything else. Considering it was a low-budget film raking in millions of bucks afterwards, you just have to hand it out to the marketing staff who created much hype & made the film too curious & attractive to gullible people. No offense meant to other viewers but I did not find it scary at all.

Rating:
Summary: Scary and innovative.
Review: Everything that can be said has been said by other reviewers I'm sure. The cool thing about the DVD is the commentary Directors and Producers give us a run-though of mistakes, misunderstandings, and emotions that got out of hand. A good buy for the Blair Witch fan.

Rating:
Summary: An Effective Shaggy Witch Story - Excellent DVD Extras
Review: When I saw "The Blair Witch Project" in the theater I remember thinking I had never seen a theater that filled, that quiet. In retrospect I think that experience was superior to the movie. There is a sense in which this is a great Shaggy Dog story because the payoff is certainly not as good as the set up. Then again, I can make the same comment for "Apocalypse Now."

"The Blair Witch Project" works on your nerves because it uses all of the cues we have learned from Horror/Suspense movies to set up the audience. We know how to read a film and we know something is about to happen. But it does not, at least, not in a way that allows you to settle back down into your seat. I remember figuring out half way through the film that nothing was really going to happen, but still was able to go along for the ride.

Not that it would have taken much. A ghostly figure in white glimpsed at night in the distance would have done it, so it is not like they had to shell out the big bucks they did not have. However, now Hollywood has a hold of this "franchise" and it is going to be wrecked the same way they did with "Halloween", The Exorcist", "Nightmare on Elm Street" and just about every decent horror flick you can think of.

The film does hold up. Its uniqueness is more important that its quality, but theres not a lot unique out there. Perhaps the ultimate irony is that Hollywood is now caught up in replicating the uniqueness of the film. That might be the biggest joke of all.

The DVD edition is excellent. The Newly Discovered Footage is not all that much and the "Curse of the Blair Witch" mockumentary is obligatory, but the Director/Producer coverage is the strength of the disc. Because of how this film came to be, their comments and insights are more important than they might be with other films. For example find out what one scene was filmed after the original footage was completed, as well as comments on what was cut out and why. My favorite story is about what happened when Heather found the little bundle and tossed it away without opening it. If you enjoyed the film at all, you should check out the DVD just for the commentary which is a solid "A" grade. Do that instead of shelling out bucks for the sequel.

Rating:
Summary: FILTERED REALITY
Review: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT deserves, in my opinion, the perfect 5 for several reasons. First of all, it's a movie with an original screenplay full of ideas, very well conceived and a lot more professionnal than what we have to digest all year long. Secondly, I know that it's extremely difficult to shoot a movie which must follow as a pattern a documentary filmed by semiprofessionnal people. Thirdly, I was really impressed by the actors involved in the project and I never had the impression to watch a fiction.

But, principally, I'm glad that THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT reminds us one or two truths about cinema and movies. One cannot judge a movie by saying that the action is not plausible, that, in the case of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, the characters are not reacting in a normal manner, that they should have followed the river downward, etc. If you want to see real things, open your eyes and go get lost into the woods yourselves. Then, you will encounter real things.

Cinema is not about REALITY. Cinema is a filter letting the IDEAS of a director or a producer become moving images. The most important scene of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is the scene presenting Josh while filming Heather and discovering that the camera changes reality and acts as a filter. The camera is reassuring. At this moment, one can hear the directors of the movie murmuring to our ears : what you are watching is not reality , it's only OUR reality translated into images so don't judge it by your standards of reality but by the impression THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT will make on your mind.

I'm aware that my interpretation is not particularly "in" in 2000, a cinematographic period presenting very graphic movies, the more the movie is surgically precise, the more the average moviegoer is happy. But what I'm sure of is that the best directors of Movie History are certainly not Michaël Bay, Steven Spielberg or Wes Craven but rather Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Orson Welles or Werner Herzog, directors who tried to translate their dreams into images.

A DVD for my library. And for yours if you love cinema.

Rating:
Summary: BAAAD!!!
Review: Dumb movie! a total waste, Im a 14 1/2 yr old girl and I did not find horror in this at all! It's so increadibly dumb, the only thing it's about is a bad cameraman and buddies walking through the woods and saying the F word every minnute. The only freaky part was the very very end, but it wasnt scarry, it was freaky. If u wanna c this movie I suggest u just rent it 1st cuz ya may not like it!

Rating:
Summary: "dirt under fingernails horror!"
Review: Very few films have put a viewer down in the dirt right beside the cast and attempt to get them just as filthy and just as scared. Blair Witch did it. "Deliverance" is a classic parallelism. When I sat down all comfy and cosy to watch my tape of the Blair Witch Project, I had to pause two times to both rejoice for finally getting scared by a movie and to settle down in order to continue the flick! We can all place ourselves in REAL moments of our lives when we got THAT scared. From noises to hallucinations to the REAL monsters we have in our memories, this movie will bring them back! My brother and I were camping eight miles from anywhere, USA and were terrorized by a rabbid canine of somekind. This creature circled our tube tent, snarling and poking at it for about four solid hours, only pausing when it killed and ate a smaller creature that had this awful, high-pitched scream! I've LIVED the Blair Witch Project and I'm THRILLED I did!