Horror is just one of those genres that get's a pretty bad wrap some days and it's not hard to see why, cruddy remakes, poor acting and sometimes they just feel so unreal they are horrible. Sometimes though horror's come along that not only satisfy those looking for a fright, but also those who watch all kind of films, The Blair Witch Project is exactly that. Of course it was applauded when it first came out for its new take on horror using the hand-held camera and also that it felt much more human than most horror movies that came out in the 90's. It's all about a legend that some kind of thing lives in the woods near Burkitsville (formerly Blair) in Maryland. A trio of students go to search the woods to make a documentary on the legend and well there footage was found a year later and the students have vanished.
The film is quite fantastic in the way it sets itself up, it doesn't try to jump into the end too fast and even with an 81 minute run time it never goes too quick. The plot is well crafted as well and the way in which it jumps between shots is good for the story to move along well and nicely, It can have it's periods where you might get frustrated at the pace but in general nearly overall it is timed well. Of course it isn't hard to get hand-held movies like this done on such a low budget and you can't expect much from this in terms of spectacular things but my word does it not need much of a budget. The creepy feel the people behind this give is spine tingling, never revealing anything properly and always the film uses the dark to great effect.
The people behind this are Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez who direct and write this and do a fine job, sure everyone especially when it came out heralded the hand-held camera which is great but also these two get things like sound, colour and just generally the whole feel of the movie is spot on. Myrick and Sanchez create a script that has some nice dialogue too, it's the kind of dialogue that most horror movies need the stuff that actually sounds normal and not cheesy or lines that are way over dramatic. The cast are pretty solid too and of course being unknown it has the element of realism in there, of course after leaving the town and heading to the woods you only really see these three characters so the people playing them had to be picked just right and they are, they are likable and at the same time can be unlikeable and that really shows how the characters change as the plot goes along.
The Blair Witch Project isn't something I think all horror fans will like with it's hand-held feel and not a lot of horror that's right in your face, but it works mostly in it's way that is leaves you quite literally in the dark at times. It's spooky and there aren't many more words to describe this movie than that, even when things going on aren't necessarily creepy, you still look around those woods as if something will come out at any moment. In fact watching this I even got to looking into the woods from the very first second they step foot in them, as if expecting some sort of weird thing to come out any second, but if you haven't seen this, you will see what happens.
The film is quite fantastic in the way it sets itself up, it doesn't try to jump into the end too fast and even with an 81 minute run time it never goes too quick. The plot is well crafted as well and the way in which it jumps between shots is good for the story to move along well and nicely, It can have it's periods where you might get frustrated at the pace but in general nearly overall it is timed well. Of course it isn't hard to get hand-held movies like this done on such a low budget and you can't expect much from this in terms of spectacular things but my word does it not need much of a budget. The creepy feel the people behind this give is spine tingling, never revealing anything properly and always the film uses the dark to great effect.
The people behind this are Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez who direct and write this and do a fine job, sure everyone especially when it came out heralded the hand-held camera which is great but also these two get things like sound, colour and just generally the whole feel of the movie is spot on. Myrick and Sanchez create a script that has some nice dialogue too, it's the kind of dialogue that most horror movies need the stuff that actually sounds normal and not cheesy or lines that are way over dramatic. The cast are pretty solid too and of course being unknown it has the element of realism in there, of course after leaving the town and heading to the woods you only really see these three characters so the people playing them had to be picked just right and they are, they are likable and at the same time can be unlikeable and that really shows how the characters change as the plot goes along.
The Blair Witch Project isn't something I think all horror fans will like with it's hand-held feel and not a lot of horror that's right in your face, but it works mostly in it's way that is leaves you quite literally in the dark at times. It's spooky and there aren't many more words to describe this movie than that, even when things going on aren't necessarily creepy, you still look around those woods as if something will come out at any moment. In fact watching this I even got to looking into the woods from the very first second they step foot in them, as if expecting some sort of weird thing to come out any second, but if you haven't seen this, you will see what happens.