Rating: 
Summary: I have seen the Blair witch and her name is Heather
Review: I had a hard time making a decision about this movie. Up until the end it looks as if there's a good chance that these people's college classmates followed them into the woods and played pranks on them all the way through the movie. But yet there is always the element of fear of the unknown present. And we all know that your mind can imagine things that are more frightening than anything in real life. Or not. The final scenes in the old abandoned house though, are just simply terrifying. And that's what this movie is about. The movie does everything it was intended to do. The film looks amateurish--and these were students from a college class. The camera work is enough to make you seasick--once again, amateur students from a college class. The acting is unimpressive--see above. In other words, this film does everything it is supposed to do and that's why it deserves to be recognized. Yes, there is something in the woods. But the only witch I saw was named Heather.
Rating: 
Summary: DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!
Review: Don't buy into the massive commercial hype created for this " film ". This is the worst " movie " I've ever seen in my life, possibly the worst ever created. A silly, 10-year-olds around the campfire storyline, incredibly poor acting, topped off by home-movie camera work. The script( if there even was one) basically has Heather Donahue screeching nasty words throughout the film. If you took a camcorder, went hiking, became lost in the woods, and shouted obscenities all day, you could have made this movie. Horrendous! Don't fall for the commercial assualt, spend your hard-earned dollars elsewhere!
Rating: 
Summary: fear of the unknown
Review: There's no doubt that this film has successfully got to that part in our minds where we fear the unknown,and although there were no special effects whatsoever,no music,and most important no proper cameras,it has succeeded in scaring the living daylight out of us.the ending,however,was a tottal disappointment,i do agree whith what some may call"an open ending" but in the blair whitch project i don't have any other words but unsuccessful,which degraded the intire film.
Rating:
Summary: Man is trapped in his narrow-minded collective guilt
Review: The Blair Witch Project is disquieting because of the video footage that comes from the disappeared students. Disquieting too because of all the « antecedents ». The original witch was Irish and catholic in a totally protestant and probably WASP community. She was destined to be rejected. She was accused of being a witch but she was not banned, she was taken to the woods and tied up to a tree in the middle of the winter, for her to die of exposure. The stake might have been an easier and less cruel method. Then the fifty or sixty year cycle seems to be surprising. But apart from some tombstones, or the man who was hanged in 1941, the whole case revolves on hear-say and rumors, hence on superstitions. But it is true there are a lot of those in America. Stephen King regularly uses such cases to sustain his books, for example, The Storm of the Century. Disquieting too because of the authoritative voices that are provided in the accompanying documentary : documents, sheriff, specialists on the subject, historians, and even a male witch of today. It is a film we must see and watch and study to maybe understand two essential human procedures : how a superstition is built and how the supernatural is always called in when man does not understand something. We may come to the conclusion that the supernatural does exist. And this conclusion might be right. We do not know much about the world and our traditional scientific and pragmatist approach of life has made us very narrow-minded as for anything that is not kosher scientifically. But in many cases, like this one our empiricist approach traps us into having to accept the « facts » and yet not knowing what to do with them. Hence, among many simple people, we find a lot of interest, fascination and fear in front of such disquieting « facts ». There remains one element : this Blair witch case started with a clear and horrifying human injustice : a woman, Irish, catholic and hence different, was accused by children and the whole community accepted those children's testimonies and put the woman to death. That can only create a deeply-rooted collective guilt that then produces the sequels. The only really attested sequel is the serial killer of 1940 hanged in 1941. In his case, the collective guilt became a haunting voice : he projected himself into the « witch ». Humanity often creates its own problems by acts of injustice and by narrow-mindedness as for natural phenomena reduced to their explainable parts. Then the rest is phantasizing, at times criminal, on the basis of the unexplainable parts of these natural phenomena. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.
Rating: 
Summary: A film that reflects the performers attitude at the time.
Review: First time filmmakers just trying to get noticed will use every trick in the book to get the attention of Hollywood and any number of distributers.So the makers of the Blair Witch knew they would have to create a film that was distinguished from the rest.No music,no special fx,no invincible mass murderers,no nudity or sex,etc...They probably realized even that might not be enough,so in order to get authentic performances from the actors/actress,they would'nt set up scenes in the traditional sense,but give them waypoints to follow through the woods and keep them guessing the whole time as to what to expect next.They were totally clueless as to what fate was to befall them,and as a result the audience to a certain extent was experiencing or identifying with their confusion and horror because most likely they were scared for real.Imagine agreeing to go into the woods with these guys who say there making a movie for the first time,but that they will be hiding out the entire time,and terrrorizing you for 8 days and nights.I don't know how or why the three performers agreed to something like that,but i feel it was out of desperation,and that sense of desperation,combined with an genuine fear of the unknown on their part,is what truly makes this film resonate.They were struggling actors/actresses just trying to get noticed and that frustration was conveyed in their performances.There were two scenes that illustrate this point.Heather when asked why she kept on filming even though they were lost:"This is all i have".Mike when told by Heather that there still lost,after constantly reassuring him that they weren't ... .If you pay attention to all the explanations of the legend in the beginning of the film you'll see that everything that happens in the woods is leading up to something and is foreshadowing their demise.Even though the witch is the obvious suspect,it was left open that it could have been anything. ... So simplistic,it's brilliant.I was cynical about this movie for obvious reasons,but after all the hype dies down,i have to admit that this is a truly chilling movie that gave me nightmares.From the opening scene that tells you it's found footage you will be seeing,to the final frame,i was anxious and uneasy.This is guerrila filmaking at it's best,and i hope there are more films of this sort in the future.Highly recommended if you don't need stunning visuals,sfx,creepy music,blood and guts,and the final showdown with the unknown evil to entertain you.A personal favorite,and what i consider an instant classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Great use of Camera work, but poor story
Review: The movie makes great use of student camera work, you do get the sense that these are students in the woods being hunted down by unknown forces, but the story never realy goes anywhere and it looks like it was influncecd by X-Files. I always kept expecting the students to run into Mulder and Scully at any moment.
Rating:
Summary: Terrifyingly Bad
Review: In general, when a movie is really really good it's something you want to watch on a reocurring basis. Bad movies you tend to stay away from. But that isn't the case with Blair Witch. Not for me. This movie reeked. It was atrocious. And yet I'll probably watch it everytime it comes on. Probably because it's so bad that it's entertaining. The acting, while not the worst I've seen, isn't very good. Heather Donahue does her best, but the other two guys are repetitive, babbling... It's no wonder Hollywood ain't exactly knocking down their doors for acting gigs. As for the fright factor? There is none. I've heard some people say this was the most terrifying movie they've ever seen. I suppose they never saw the Exorcist, but everybody's entitled to their opinion. I'm just curious as to why anybody would say that. Is it because the movie looked "real"? It was also horribly acted, which kills off any connection to reality in my opinion. Is it because the threat is never shown? So basically you'd be scaring yourself to death. That's not the mark of a good movie, that's an overactive imagination. The mark of a good film to me is one that makes you feel what the characters are feeling, and I never got the honest impression that any of them were scared. Bad film, but entertaining to be sure. Just not in the way the director/producer hoped.
Rating:
Summary: If you want a review, READ THIS!
Review: This movie is a must see for any horror fan, any male, or anyone who enjoys being scared. Don't expect a normal movie though, because it definitely is not normal. Towards the end of the movie, I was didn't think any ending could possibly live up to what the rest of the movie had set up.. But I was completely wrong. This movie's last few seconds make up the most chilling ending I have ever seen. It is one of the few movies where the ending is the climax. If you liked the feeling you got when you saw the ending of Planet of the Apes, you'll love the end of the Blair Witch Project even more.
Rating:
Summary: A brave, groundbreaking masterwork of horror
Review: Why was this the most hotly debated film of 1999? Perhaps because of how much it was both hated and admired by everyone who saw it. No mistake about it, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT provoked reactions that were almost always in the black/white frame-of-mind, with virtually no middle-ground to speak of. It is the story of three film students, more than likely in their early to mid-20s, who decide to take a weekend trip into the Maryland wilderness to film a documentary concerning the local legend of the Blair Witch. The leader (or director more appropiately) is a well-read girl with a fascination for colonial mythology but she is flawed by her stubborness and arrogance, a trait which is usually associated with males, which is why some have labeled her as a feminist. She IS headstrong, but to me if she really were a feminist, perhaps she wouldn't have included men on her trip (?). Those who didn't like the film have based their dislike on the manner in which it was filmed--the amateurish camera work is SUPPOSSED to resemble that of a student film, which makes this 101% non-constructive criticism. Others have based their dislike on the acting itself--if you were lost in the middle of the woods without any food and desperate for a way out, you probably would also be at the end of your rope, trying to make sense out of a life-threatening situation. This would include mistrust of your compatriots (as was perfectly presented in this film), swearing, and threats leveled against one another every now and then along with convienently laying blame whenever it seemed appropiate, in an irrational rather than rational manner. Each night, they hear bizzare noises for which they struggle to make sense of but ultimately cannot. The real genius of the film (which is unmatched in the history of cinema) is how it constantly compels the viewer to use his/her imagination to figure out just what is happening, the lack of clear images in many cases only forces the viewer to derive his/her own conclusions as to the events taking place. In this manner the film works more on a subconscious rather and conscious level. Are the events taking place really the work of supernatural forces, or are there "crazy people" (as one of the students put it) out there simply trying to scare them off? No one really knows, which is essentially what makes the film so frightening. There are sequels to this film in progress, but I doubt they will have the enormous impact this film has had on audiences. I dare say that within the next two decades or so this will be considered one of the 50 best films ever made. Hopefully that statement will not be seen as being "controversial" by that time.
Rating:
Summary: A classic approach to 90's horror.
Review: Taking us back to the days of 'The Uninvited'(1944) and 'The Haunting'(1963), The Blair Witch Project is all about the unseen. We are never told directly what the characters in the film are seeing. We are never given a glimpse of the horror persuing them in the woods. Directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez take the best approach to this type of story, leaving the horror in the minds of it's viewers. The imagination is so much more powerful than CGI or special make-up effects that a couple of college kids screaming at something off-camera could keep you up for days and days without sleep. As we all know, it isn't being alone in the dark that frightens us as children... it's of NOT being alone in the dark. The thoughts of what might be under our beds... or watching us from outside our darkened windows... that's what scares us. That's what makes The Blair Witch Project unique. It doesn't tell us to be scared of anything. It allows us to project our own fears into it. That would also explain why it's one of those 'love it / hate it' movies. Some people need something to scream at. They lack imagination. Other people don't. The latter will get the most out of this picture. The phenomenal acting (most of which was ad-libbed) and dreary locales are major pluses. But it's the little things... the bumps and scratches... the shadows... the sound of dead leaves cracking in the darkness... That's what makes this film so powerful. It will stay with you for days, months, even years. Brace yourself. You're not getting out of this one untouched. You will be terrified.
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