#14: The Blair Witch Project (1999)

"I wanna make movies, Heather. Isn't that what we're here to do? Just to make some movies?"

In 1994, three films students (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams) set out into the backwoods of Maryland in order to capture footage of locations related to the so-called "Blair Witch," a figure of local legend that has apparently motivated a series of murders and disappearances over the past two hundred years. Heading deeper and deeper into the woods, the trio soon become hopelessly lost. Worse, though, is the fact that they're not alone.

Presented as "found footage," The Blair Witch Project can be thought of as the spiritual successor to 1980's Cannibal Halocaust (which was accused of being a snuff film when it was originally released and led to the arrest of its director, Ruggero Deodato.) I think this film, had it been released in the days before the internet, and had not included directorial credits, could have been much more of a sensation- it's certainly believable (as there doesn't need to be a supernatural explanation for what is going on), and if they could keep the cast out of the public eye for a year (send 'em on vacation to the tropics perhaps) who's to say it wasn't real?

Anyhow, I think the improvisational skills of the three leads are top notch. Their descent into desperation is incredibly believable, especially considering that there was only a skeleton of a script to work with. I also appreciate the fact that they've been pretty much out of the public eye since this film (in Heather Donahue's case, this was apparently intentional.) It's almost like they really did disappear . . .

A lot of people I've talked about this film with have claimed that it is boring, in that you never really see anything, and not all that much happens. I think these people are missing the point, which is that this film is really only as frightening as your own imagination, particularly if your imagination is as dark as mine tends to be. When you let the viewer fill in the blanks the result can be (and in this case, is) terrifying.

By the way, there's a 1998 film called The Last Broadcast that shares a lot of similarities to The Blair Witch Project. Check it out sometime if you're curious.

Check back tomorrow for # 13!