The Blair Witch Project review.
Upon release…the story of The Blair Witch Project centered on its clever marketing campaign and (seemingly new) found-footage aesthetic. Twenty-five year later, modern discourse has become obsessed with its impact and legacy (for better and for worse). There’s never been a shortage of ways to look at one of the most influential movies in modern horror.
Classic movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
The Blair Witch Project
Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez
Written by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez
Starring Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams
The Blair Witch Project Review
The Blair Witch Project wasn’t the first found footage movie. It wasn’t even the first horror movie to utilize the format. The truth is…it may as well be. The release of The Blair Witch Project 25 years ago drew a clear line of demarcation for the controversial format. What followed its massive success has always made its own legacy a difficult one. All the things that you may hate about the found footage formula can rightfully be blamed on The Blair Witch Project. It doesn’t matter how original the film that popularized them back in 1999 was. In fact, that’s not even something that people routinely bother to discuss.
The quality of The Blair Witch Project has rarely been at the center of its own conversation. Unless, of course, it is being used to deride the film as amateurish and overhyped by people who are want to do so. That’s been true as far back as its release a quarter of a century ago. Back then we weren’t discussing influence and legacy…we were discussing an incredibly effective marketing campaign and this (seemingly) new fangled film format. 25 years ago…The Blair Witch Project used these tricks to feel real. An early internet viral marketing campaign created an incredible buzz that took the movie from the arthouse to the general cinema. Most movie goers had never seen a found footage format before. It proved to be a perfect match for the realistic marketing campaign. Lines formed around the block with people excited to see this once in a lifetime convergence of timing, marketing and format.
That creates a second difficult aspect of the movie’s legacy. It’s never as simple as “if you weren’t there you won’t get it” …but it’s part of the conversation. For those who weren’t a part of the buzz that surrounded the low budget phenomenon…here’s a quick refresher. The Blair Witch Project spread like wildfire due to an ingenious use of the internet. The lore of the film was presented like facts on a true crime website. The three primary actors performed under their real names…legend having it that they had really disappeared in the woods while researching a local legend. They went so far as to hide from public view even as their movie was turning in some incredible profits. The Blair Witch Project was never simply a horror film…it was an entire experience made to question what was real and what wasn’t.
It’s fair to say that the marketing aspect is a piece of its legacy that will forever be stuck in its past. You can’t bring back the feeling that the release of the movie elicited 25 years ago. Gone to is the novelty of the found footage format. It’s hard to remember a time when found footage wasn’t popular. Perhaps “frequent” is a better word than “popular”. The Blair Witch Project blurred the line between actual footage and fictional story better than any movie before or since. For better or worse, its legacy is directly tied to the decades of imitators that have followed its success. Points for originality have been dulled and replaced by the negatives of a movement within independent horror that The Blair Witch Project both is, and isn’t, responsible for. Yes…these movies exist because of it. No…it doesn’t reflect poorly on the original film that you hate them all.
Twenty-five years of perspective on the film has shifted the original narratives. With the brilliant marketing lost to time and the clever use of the format replaced by hundreds of unclever knockoffs…The Blair Witch Project is now largely judged by its influence on the genre. It’s fair to be of two minds on it. Even if you strongly dislike the sheer number of unoriginal found footage movies that flood the horror genre year after year…you must tip your cap to the number of budding filmmakers who discovered a way to make their own films in an affordable way. Anything that breeds more creativity (or more people to be creative) is a positive. The problem has always been the number of uncreative people who learned to do it too.
We’ve spent 25 years arguing about the legacy of The Blair Witch Project. A surprisingly small amount of that argument has been about the movie itself. It isn’t uncommon to see a modern reaction to the film as holding up better than, or being better than, someone thought it would (be). There are entire generations of viewers who think about The Blair Witch Project solely in the context of its massive influence. The talking heads segments, the faux-real footage, lengthy investigations that allow us time with the characters…a slow build to a loud payoff. It’s all there. It’s all in most of the movies that exist because of it too. It can be easy to dismiss The Blair Witch Project as a blueprint for future use. A rewatch quickly shows that it is, and always has been, more than that.
The Blair Witch Project works. Strip away the marketing. Ignore the format. Forget the influence. The movie itself works. It works in 2024 exactly as it was intended to in 1999. Three realistic characters argue their way through being lost in the woods as things slowly start to turn weird. A simple story that has always worked beat for beat. Unexplained things happen. The desperation of being lost/trapped in a never-ending maze of trees. Unable to trust the person next to you…unsure of where they just disappeared to. The Blair Witch Project was always a simple story. That’s how it manages to defy the passage of time, or the plethora of bad movies made in its name. You can’t dull the effectiveness of the original.
Of course, the found footage format isn’t for everyone. If you hate that type of movie…you’re probably going to hate The Blair Witch Project. That’s where all the “amateurish” commentary comes from. The people who make it fail to consider that they’re identifying one of the movie’s strengths. As if they forget, or ignore, that this isn’t supposed to be a professional movie. This is supposed to be the recovered footage of three amateur filmmakers who went missing in the woods. That’s the story people were interested in in 1999. It’s the same one that holds up perfectly in 2024. Even after you strip away what made it buzzworthy. Even after you slap 25 years of middling to poor movies that followed in its footsteps on top of it.
Scare Value
Whatever your thoughts are on the effectiveness of The Blair Witch Project, there is no way to deny its importance in horror history. The number of films influenced by its popularization of the found footage genre grows by the month. That can be a hard legacy given most people’s resistance to the format. What allows The Blair Witch Project to endure is that almost every one of the movies influenced by it pale in comparison. They’re all trying to improve upon something that was done right the first time.
4.5/5
The Blair Witch Project Links
Rent/Buy on VOD from Fandango at Home and Amazon
Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon
