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The Blair Witch Project
1999
Made for $30,000 by two young filmmakers from Florida, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT wowed festival audiences for several months before finding distribution at the 1999 Sundance Festival. It is an ingenious creation which makes effective use of its lack of budget and cast of unknowns. The film is composed entirely of reportedly ".. Read more
| Starring | Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard, Bob Griffin |
|---|---|
| Director | Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez |
| Genres | Horror |
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The Blair Witch Project
Made for $30,000 by two young filmmakers from Florida, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT wowed festival audiences for several months before finding distribution at the 1999 Sundance Festival. It is an ingenious creation which makes effective use of its lack of budget and cast of unknowns. The film is composed entirely of reportedly "found" footage shot by three missing college students who made a journey to the woods of Western Maryland in 1994 with the purpose of making a documentary about a "witch" of local legend who is linked to murders and mysterious occurrences spanning 200 years. It begins with footage of the crew leaving their homes and testing their equipment, but before we know it, they are lost deep in the endless woods, with the voices of screaming children piercing the blackness from off in the distance. Things get worse from there. The experience is disorienting and frightening as well as the most rewarding horror film experience to come along in many years, as it wisely chooses to prey on our vulnerable imaginations rather than bombard us with graphic images.
| Starring | Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard, Bob Griffin, Jim King, Sandra Sanchez, Ed Swanson, Patricia Decou, Mark Mason |
|---|---|
| Director | Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez |
| Studio | PATHE DISTRIBUTION |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 18 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Horror Films |
| Genres | Horror |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 30 Jun 2003 Production year: 1999 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (6)
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Made on a shoestring ($40,000), this no-frills, no-stars, no-effects horror yarn was released amid expectations that might have been hard to live up to had the film not been so different and so simple. Through arch use of the internet and word-of-mouth, it became a box-office sensation. A campfire ghost story in which three students go into the Maryland woods to film their own search for a mythical monster, the film's rough, video-diary edge and shaky point-of-view camerawork — while demanding on the eye — take the viewer right into the unfolding story. Scary without being explicit, it's a 1990s cinematic landmark, and best judged away from the hype.
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A extraordinary box-office success, this looks and sounds like the amateur movie it's meant to be, yet somehow, with its horrors never quite seen, scared audiences the world over, so well-faked was its feeling of reality.
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Most helpful member's review
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43 out of 48 people found this review helpful
Original and demands some imagination
I saw this at the cinema the day it came out at 11pm as the cinema was so busy in demand for this one film, they were showing it throughout the night! Anyway...
This is the first film of it's kind and hugely original in it's thinking. Now, I don't find an axe murderer chasing a helpless woman up some stairs scary. I become irritated when the aforementioned axe murderer is hit over the head with a fire hydrant and still appears miraculously behind the next door - this film is different. It plays on your imigination, the inate fear of the dark we all have and is presented as thought you are there, at the time everything happens.
I found this film very chilling. At no point will you probably scream out loud in fear (although some may), it did however give us both a cold feeling as we left the cinema without having seen much to do so - i therefore think this movie is quite clever and miles more interesting than some regular gore fest tripe that is never going to happen to anyone. This could have happened, and for those with an imigination, that's where it becomes scary.
Ignore anyone who says this film is a waste of time, for appreciation of amateur film alone it stands out on it's own...kids being brought up on throat slitting gore wont appreciate it, and neither will those who have no imigination. I've seen virtually every 'horror' going, and this is in my top 3. -
Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Customer Review
Please, please, don't buy into the hype surrounding this movie. It was pretty darn awful. Let me tell you now; I'm a very squeamish and easily frightened viewer(I practically had a heart attack when a certain little girl crawled out of a certain TV-you know which movie I mean!) but this film did not have me diving behind the sofa cushions. Not even a little bit. It starts out good; the tension is there alright, but because it is set 'film documentary' style there is no atmospheric music to set the scene, which means any tension or atmosphere has to come from the actors. Maybe I'm missing the point, but a bunch of teenagers running around in pitch black woods whispering the 'f' word over and over-and yes folks, a good five minutes is spent where you can't see a darn thing and can only hear the sound effects as the kids drop the video camera and screech terrified obscenities to eachother-doesn't really entertain me that much. Even then the volume had to be turned up ridiculously high just to hear what they were saying, then turned down again in disappointment as I realised I wasn't missing much. I found the scene where they emerge from their tents and practically have a hernia over some re-arranged twig formations more funny than ominous. Was anyone else willing the Blair Witch to pop out and say boo? Anything would have been less laughable than twig formations!! It is true that a good horror flick can entertain you not by what it shows, but by what it doesn't, but here is where the movie fails. Had the teens been stalked and chased down by an evil presence then it would have been frightening and entertaining, instead we have three college-age idiots lost in some woods and behaving like hysterical, well, college-age idiots. 'AHHH!! A re-arranged twig formation!!!' Please. Can you say 'low budget?' Give us viewers some credit! And I won't go into the disaster that was ending. Just as the movie builds up some tension and genuinely grips you to the screen, the credits roll. I had to go back to the title menu screen and repeat that scene just to make sure the DVD hadn't skipped. In the words of Comic Book Guy...'Worst Ending EVER'.
Bless Heather Donahue, for she was meant for things far greater than this.
Well, thankyou for taking the time to read my little review. I beg of you not to waste any more actually viewing this movie, if it weren't for the foul language it would barely make a PG certificate. There are plenty of better chillers out there, and I know children who wouldn't take this flick seriously. -
News and features
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Diary of the Dead
- 03 Mar 2008
Zombie maestro George A Romero proves us all wrong again: you really can flog a dead horse. Just watch that it doesn't bite you back. This isn't exactly a sequel to the unfolding Night of the Living Dead series (so far 68-year-old Romero has given us Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead, and not a dud among them). Rather, it takes us back to square one and the very first night. The diary idea is similar to the first-person point of view in Cloverfield and The Blair Witch... Read more
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The Blair Witch Project
Made for $30,000 by two young filmmakers from Florida, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT wowed festival audiences for several months before finding distribution at the 1999 Sundance Festival. It is an ingenious creation which makes effective use of its lack of budget and cast of unknowns. The film is ...
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