This week marks 20 years since the iconic horror movie The Blair Witch Project was unleashed on the world, creating a frenzy of terrified people struggling to decide whether this ‘found-footage’ movie was real.
This is perhaps one of the biggest draws of this film, the intrigue and mystery behind it. I remember being captivated by it, this was back when I watched Most Haunted and completely believed in ghosts, so I was partially convinced that The Blair Witch Project could have been real.
“The Blair Witch Project does not begin and end with the theatre release; the film is a piece of a broader narrative”
James Keller, Language & The Blair Witch Phenomenon
Then I decided to Google it, and this website was what I found. Bearing in mind that this was before I was completely internet savvy, so for a good ten minutes I was convinced, but with a bit more delving I realised that it was a masterful marketing tool. Even so, it still doesn’t ruin the film for me at all, because how the entire film was made is still incredible.
I have discussed the found-footage genre in more detail in a previous post The Blair Witch Project & Beyond, in which I discuss how the found-footage genre has become somewhat lazy since The Blair Witch Project and especially with its sequel Blair Witch.
But countless films after it have tried to monetize on this genre, but where they fail is the true commitment and attention to detail that the original film went through to achieve the real-life effect from the actors.
It takes a lot of trust to let your actors loose with the filming equipment and essentially partially wing it, it could be a disaster. But this is where the film works so well. If it was heavily scripted the entire thing would not have felt as real, this is one of the ways in which the film itself really tricks the audience into thinking this is authentic.
A lot of people disregard the film, saying it is ‘boring’ or saying that ‘nothing happens’ but this is possibly why I actually love it so much. It was the first real horror movie I watched and didn’t hide behind a pillow waiting for jump scares and I love it for that.
But it isn’t not scary. Its the tension that is built that makes this film scary. It is the context that it builds and builds as the film progresses, from the narrative of the Blair Witch, to the stick ‘sculptures’ and rock formations. All of this builds up to the ending that is legitimately so scary because we have had so much context and we piece it all together as they enter the house, where we get no explanation really about what is happening.
This is what makes is such a terrifying experience, it doesn’t spoon feed you everything, it lets you use your imagination based on the things it does tell you. It is incredible.
But even if you aren’t a huge fan of the film itself, you have to appreciate how much influence it has had on the horror genre these past 20 years. It was a cultural phenomenon at the time that created such a fun dialogue surrounding its ‘real-life’ claims and influenced films like Paranormal Activity and REC, two of my other favourite found-footage horror movies.
It’s legacy still lives on 20 years later, with a (less than excellent) sequel and a horror game coming out in August, it still has the scare factor all these years later and will go down in history as one of the most iconic horror movies ever!
Siobhan of the Dead 