Audiences at the timemight have been fritter away , but 25 year later , everyone knowsThe Blair Witch Projectisa work of fiction . But even without that “ true tale ” gimmick proceed for it , the movie remains surprisingly potent , both taken on its own and when considered in the linguistic context of not just 1999 ’s other horror sack , but thefound - footageonslaught that followedin its aftermath .
Made on a shoelace budget ( it finally became one of the most successful indie film of all time ) by writer - directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez , The Blair Witch Project come during a transitional prison term for the horror genre . The runaway success of Scream — another blue - budget , in high spirits - yield release , as revulsion celluloid often are — bring slashers back into fashion in 1996 . While the drift was still percolating ( 1998 bring I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and Halloween H20 : 20 geezerhood afterwards ) , teen audience that slashers place had begun to dislodge their attending toward rom - coms , and 1999 deliver a bounty of those ( just a few : She ’s All That , 10 Things I detest About You , and Never Been Kissed ) .
With masked killers taking a flake of a breather , 1999 ’s horror landscape had a range of offerings , including nostalgic epics like Tim Burton ’s Sleepy Hollow and Brendan Fraser ’s The Mummy ; edgier transportation like Antonia Bird ’s Ravenous and David Cronenberg ’s Existenz ; tool feature ( Deep Blue Sea , Lake Placid , Bats ) ; movies that eyed “ the future ” as Y2 K loomed ( The Thirteenth Floor , End of years , Stigmata , The Omega Code — and though not horror , this was also the class of The Matrix ) ; and two high-pitched - profile examples of classic repulsion remake crash into 1999 ’s version of high - technical school exceptional effect ( The Haunting , House on Haunted Hill ) . The class also brought a couple of standout ghost stories . There was David Koepp ’s Stir of Echoes , a Kevin Bacon - starring enigma chiller based on a Richard Matheson tale — and , of course of instruction , 1999 ’s only movie to come in nigh to eclipsing The Blair Witch Project in term of bombilation and shock value : M. Night Shyamalan ’s The Sixth Sense , which unlike Blair Witch notched six Oscar nominations , including a rarefied repulsion nod for Best Picture .
Screenshot: Artisan Entertainment
With a marquise star in Bruce Willis and a more traditional style ( no hand-held shaky - cam or grungy snot - rocket close - ups ) , The Sixth Sense matched its critical achiever with a huge commercial-grade haul , with only Star war : Episode I – The Phantom Menace amaze it on the twelvemonth ’s list of top earner . Everyone wanted to see the movie with the bad wrench and perfect their imitation of Haley Joel Osment ’s “ I see dead people ” whisper . And in 2023 , even with that twist long since spoiled and parodied and ripped off everywhere , The 6th horse sense still palpate remarkably timeless thanks to its performances ( Osment and Toni Collette in particular ) , Shyamalan ’s elegant plan of attack to genre filmmaking , and a account that ’s really about grief and trauma … with really chilling minute spit throughout .
But if The Sixth Sense claimed all the mainstream horror laurels , The Blair Witch Project was interweave its own deception in the independent space — and touch off the imaginations of filmmakers who realise not having access to sure resourcefulness ( fancy tv camera , budgets for sets and costume , A - leaning actors , etc . ) could actually work to their reward . Blair Witch did n’t invent found footage , as any Cannibal Holocaust or Last Broadcast defender will evidence you , but it open up the kingdom of possibility for the God Almighty of Paranormal Activity , REC , Cloverfield , and the V / H / S series , not to mention the dozen of smaller films that did n’t engender enfranchisement but certainly made audience shriek with delectation .
As genre junkies well screw , not every find footage horror movie is deserving determine , and the exigent popularity of the genre resulted in many unmemorable titles . You ca n’t just shove a tv camera at actors and say them to hunt around and hollo ; while that may be an frequently - retell motif — inventing reasons for characters to stubbornly continue filming themselves is another — there has to be a compelling story capable of entice viewers in and holding their attention . The Blair Witch Project ’s “ this actually happened ” feint is no more real than the “ on-key account ” claims at the head start of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , but there ’s a grittiness and a sense of spontaneity that hit it palpate like it could be authentic .
Toni Collette in The Sixth SenseScreenshot: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
With the help of the material MVP of any determine - footage pic — the editor program , the unobserved hand that shapes the story lurking in presumably hours of “ regain ” tapes — The Blair Witch Project inclose us to its three - person cast , who play characters named for the actor ( Heather Donahue , Mike Williams , and Josh Leonard ) , and its premise : young documentarians exploring a spooky local legend . Thanks to an exposition dump betimes on , we learn that there ’s a cause the community has observe the Blair Witch story go ; the area ’s had an unusual strand of tragedies , including a sequential youngster manslayer in the 1940s , and people from all generations have their own stories about foreign sightings in the nearby woods .
But Myrick and Sánchez , who place their player with the assistant of walkie - talkies , also begin building tension between the characters from the very beginning . Heather , Mike , and Josh bulge out off excited and positive , but as they become more trite , cold , athirst , irritable , and frightened after becoming hopelessly lost , it becomes almost too frustrative to watch them hollo at each other . Just when you ’re begin to wonder if the existent horror of The Blair Witch Project is how annoying everyone is , the film remind you that this is n’t just people fumbling around in the wilderness — it ’s a taken up wilderness . Folklore is made fact by the ominous sounds the trio hears when they ’re trying to sleep at night , and the unknown talisman ( pile of stone , those in a flash iconic reefer image ) they find around their camping area . Is there some kind of wickedness in the estate that ’s keeping them from finding the way of life back to their car ? That ’s the implication as The Blair Witch Project becomes a disorientate , emotionally fraught trek through a landscape painting that feel increasingly uncongenial . A physical villain never appear ; we never see the Blair Witch in any form . But the feeling that a malevolent force is out there clingstone to the boundary of every frame .
And , of course , there ’s that stop — the ultimate proof that you call for to pay tending to everything said offhandedly in the pic ’s first 15 minutes , lest you miss one of the most powerful “ oh shit ” realizations repugnance has ever pull off . The fact that Blair Witch just terminate in that basement with that simulacrum — rather than rewinding to show you what you ’ve escape , like The Sixth Sense does after its own “ gotcha ” finale — have it all the more searing . We do it now none of it was ever real . But in that moment , even watching it 25 years later , it still feels like it could be .
Screenshot: Artisan Entertainment
The Blair Witch Project streams barren with ads onAmazon Freevee , Plex , and theRoku Channel .
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