[Film Review] The Blair Witch Project (1999)

This review contains spoilers. 

In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary. A year later, their footage was found.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) opens with those words silently displayed on the screen, and that’s all the context we have before we meet our three main characters: Heather, Mike, and Josh. These three students visit the small town of Burkittsville (formerly Blair), Maryland and begin their documentary by interviewing townsfolk about the legend of the Blair Witch. Several residents have stories to share, each one a little different from the last. Heather, Josh and Mike venture into the woods to capture footage of locations related to Blair Witch activity. They soon become lost, and while trying to escape the woods, only march deeper and deeper into the trees. They fear they are being stalked by someone (or something), are running drastically low on supplies, and wake one morning to find that Josh is simply missing. Mike and Heather frantically look for their friend and begin to accept the reality of being truly lost in the woods. The pair find an abandoned house, and think they can hear Josh in the basement. The last thing we see is Mike standing in the corner, facing the wall, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it call back to an earlier story heard in town. Abruptly, their camera drops to the floor, and the movie ends. 

That’s the plot, but the way this movie was made is just as important as the story. This is found footage at its best, and in 1999, this was groundbreakingly fresh. The casual conversations that feel like they might not matter (until they do), the strength of the cast’s improvisational skills, the care put into the sound design - all combined, The Blair Witch Project remains unique in a sea of found footage movies and folk horror. 

One of the movie’s greatest strengths is in what you don’t see. There are some shots that are just a black screen with horrifying sounds, or blurry shots where part of the fear is trying to understand what you’re seeing. At one point, Heather yells “what the fuck is that?” but doesn’t pan over to show us what she sees. Much is left to the audience’s imagination, and we scare ourselves. 

It’s notable for a movie called The Blair Witch Project that we never actually see a witch. There is not necessarily any evidence that a witch exists, or that anything supernatural is happening. In the town of Burkittsville, strange occurrences have been blamed on this “witch” for a long time. Everything from harmless apparitions floating above the ground, to disappearing children, and even a child murderer claiming he was controlled by a witch. If the town had one witch causing problems, wouldn’t the stories be more similar, the experiences more consistent? Was this town truly targeted by a witch, or did the townsfolk all conveniently agree on a female scapegoat so they could move on with their days? 

And while we are on the topic, we can’t ignore the fact that Josh and Mike completely blame Heather for the outcome of their trip.  Yes, this is Heather's project, and she is in charge, but Mike and Josh agreed to work with her. Near the beginning, they all seem to be getting along, but Heather is trying hard to joke around, and it's not always well-received by Mike and Josh. After their first day of filming, they are in a hotel room, and Heather wants to recap their progress and prepare for the next day. Josh and Mike  almost totally ignore Heather, until she asks for a shot of scotch, which finally gets their attention. Heather has to push her personal boundaries to be accepted by her colleagues

Heather is not only in charge of the film, but the whole trip. She has a map and a compass, and has scouted a hiking path. Mike and Josh consistently grill her about their location and progress, and they might as well be whining “are we there yet?” from the back of a station wagon. But when Heather invites them to check the map and study the trail, they back right off and tell her she is in charge. Mike and Josh are ready to blame Heather the moment things go wrong. As the sense of dread increases, there are many scenes where she is being yelled at, and Josh and Mike are taking out all their fear and anger on her. They do not want to help Heather because they want to be able to blame her. In a scene that is now famous, Heather apologizes to the camera and takes all the blame, which she does not deserve. It is true that it was her project, but they were a group working together. And it is true that she was overconfident, but it was clear that she needed to act confident to be listened to. If she had seemed unsure of herself, she would have lost the respect of Mike and Josh. This movie is about a group of filmmakers, filming a story about a town that used the idea of a woman as a scapegoat for their problems. The filmmakers themselves are two men who gang up on a woman, and eventually use her as a scapegoat. Heather and “the Blair Witch” might have a lot in common. 

The Blair Witch Project is a simple story, told perfectly, that remains terrifying almost 25 years later. This film trusts its audience. It’s hard to become desentized to the scares, because so much is left up to the viewer’s imagination. If you have never watched this movie, or if it’s been a while since you revisited it, please give it a watch. I recommend you put your phone away, and watch it with the lights off and volume up.

RELATED ARTICLES

---

---

EXPLORE

---

MORE ARTICLES

---

---