Spotlight on Blair Witch

In some interviews I've seen Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, the masterminds behind the film, say that they tried to use the usual weaknesses of an independent film as their strengths. They work very well. The relatively small budget of $30,000-$60,000 is all they needed to make this movie. Heather Donahue's horrid camera work maintains the illusion of the movie being a true story. The three actors, Donahue, Michael Williams, and Joshua Leonard, despite being total unknowns who found out about the movie via an actor's trade journal, deliver totally solid performances. Perhaps because they basically lived the plights of their characters, being assailed by the meance of Myrick and Sánchez, who were the Blair Witch for the purposes of the movie.

The few final moments as Mike and Heather are running through a dilapidated house were the most suspenseful to me. The ending is abrupt and confusing, but as I thought about it more, the more haunting it became to me. The true horror of this movie for me was more afterwards, as I laid in my bed and thought about the Blair Witch lurking in the shadows outside my bedroom. Or the possibility that I might wake up in the middle of the night, and see someone standing in my room, facing the corner. The Blair Witch Project is a simple movie that makes you think, and sticks with you for a long time after you leave the theater. When I see its advertisements on TV now, the chills I had in the theater return to me. Probably the saddest thing about the film is that the studios are inevitably going to roll out clones that are not going to be nearly as effective. It's one of the best horror films I've seen in a theater ever, and it will probably be a long time before I see one that can even rival it.

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