Hmm. Wow. What is there left to say? I've waited for most of the hype to die down to even add my comments for this movie to IMDB, and here they are:

This is really a movie that has polarized a lot of people. Many love it and consider it the best thing since sliced bread, and plenty more absolutely hate it and call it tripe, drivel, awful, wretched, the worst ever, etc. (NOTE: as far as I'm concerned, the opinions of anyone calling any movie the best- or even more especially, the worst- movie ever are to be immediately disregarded.) Highly innovative in its way, it spawned many parodies and an interesting but inferior sort-of sequel. In the summer of Star Wars: Episode 1, this was the movie that originated several cultural symbols.

I saw this movie shortly after it opened in wide release. Sitting in a theater surrounded by my friends with popcorn in my lap and watching Mike and Heather run around some creepy old house, I felt for the first and last time in my adult life *real, creeping fear* when I myself was not in danger.

Many have complained about the shaky-cam, the cussing, how nothing 'really happens', and that it's not scary. By and large, the camera is not *that* shaky, at least to the point where you can't understand why- they're tromping through the woods and they're scared half to death. I must not get queasy very easily, as I had no problem with it. As for the cussing- the lines were ad-libbed, the actors are college-age, and all three sound exactly like every American college student I've ever known. So maybe people have a problem with young peoples' language, but what else is new? That's not a flaw of the movie- it's realism and part of why so many more young people found TBWP scary.

I think at least some of the dissention in opinions is caused by generational and cultural differences. My mother's friends told me it wasn't scary, but that 'Psycho' terrified them. 'Psycho', while interesting and a classic, is not the least bit scary to me. 'The Excorcist' has only a couple scenes that I find frightening, but my mom breaks out in goosebumps at the mere mention of it. The scariest thing I ever saw until I watched this movie was a reel in a collection of horror shorts: a woman walks into her house carrying groceries, drops her keys down her heating vent, bends down to try to get them, and something grabs her scarf. She struggles, but within a minute or two, she's drug down and strangled. The scarf goes slack, the woman is lying dead on her floor, and that's it.

TBWP is about what you *can't see*, about how your fear of the unknown is so much worse than what the unknown could probably ever be. The characters were not even necessarily likable, but they were *familiar*- Heather is the girl I sit next to in film class who thinks she has all the answers. Their mundane existence, captured in the beginning of the film, roots them in reality. What happens to them is terrifying because they are so every day, so interchangable with millions of other college kids. And, finally, you never know whether the Witch exists or not. Everything that happens can be explained away by coincidence, pranksters, bats, hunger, exhaustion and imaginations run wild with fear- or you can choose not to explain them away.

Young Americans are not scared of much- school shootings can roll off us like water, the evil human beings inflict on each other is run-of-the-mill 6 o'clock news, we are raised in a culture that claims to worship a vengeful, elitist god while almost everyone is hypocritical and uses the power of spirituality as a way to abuse others. We are in information overload from birth. What we fear is not knowing. And in the Black Hills Woods of Maryland, just beyond the flashlight's reach, something is making strange and terrible noises- but we don't know what it is.

*** This comment contains spoilers ***

As a fan of movies and horror films for 45 years, I've seen a lot, and I have to say that BWP is a totally amateurish piece of junk.

To call this a "film" is laughable. It has no plot, no ending, no story. It is the 90 minute rambling of some dunderhead carrying around a hand held camera filming everything he sees. This movie was made by loading some film, getting some nobodies together, going to the woods and shooting enough film to make up 90 minutes. No film was left on the cutting room floor. Every worthless scrap was included. The ineptitude and total lack of film-making skills is astounding. I used to think Robot Monster was the pits; BWP is worse.

Here is what happens in the "film". Three dimwits find a tape made by three nitwits who supposedly uncovered the Blair witch and were never seen again. The three dimwits head into the forest to investigate. Along the way they hear weird noises at night, find some sticks hanging from trees, get lost in the forest, start to cry because they are so scared. In the end one of the dimwits wanders into an abandoned shack and the last scene shows him trying to look scared into the camera. THE END. That's all folks. I'm not kidding. That's the movie.

In these times when anyone has access to equipment to make a movie, BWP proves the theory that any talent less person can make a "film." BWP was the biggest movie marketing SCAM in history. It proves P.T. Barnum's "There's a sucker born every minute." By using the internet to lie and hype the film, the cynical lug heads who made this suckered people in. As they say in the used car business, "For every seat, there's an ass." I was one of the asses who got suckered. Using the same "based on a true story" technique as The Amityville Horror, BWP lured well-intentioned moviegoers into the theater. If BWP were a car then it would be subject to a "lemon law" and you could get your money back. Unfortunately, the movie business doesn't work that way. Those of us who lost our $$ on this scam have no recourse. The only recourse I have is to slam this piece of trash in this review, which I hope I have done. Why I detest BWP so much is because it was such a shameless scam that showed utter contempt for movie goers. This was not a film; it was just a mechanism to cheat people out of their money.

I would rather watch Robot Monster ten times than ever see BWP again.

On a Sunday morning in 1999 I made a rare venture to a multiplex cinema, which is 17 or so miles away from my house. I don't usually make a habit of travelling that sort of distance to see a mere film, but I felt that this one in particular was special. I mean, nobody on the face of this planet can fail to have heard of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, a low budget independent production which took Hollywood by storm and became the most profitable film of all time. My expectations were high, based on the hype. Then it began...

I remembered hearing that the dizzying camera work could induce nausea, but happily I was not afflicted in this way. The shaky hand-held camera didn't annoy me in the least, and in fact within just a few minutes I was settled into the film, engrossed. As time went on, my nerves began to fray along with those of the guys on screen, and my heart beat faster. By the end of the film I might have well as been a nervous wreck. Because, more than any other film I've seen in my life, this film scared me. Yes, it was creepy and extremely disturbing too, but mainly it was just scary.

Now I've read all the negative comments about the film simply not being scary. I can understand this, because for one to be truly affected by the film then you have to make an effort to engross yourself in the events, to believe that they are real, to not get distracted by the person sitting next to you. It's easy to sit back and laugh, but it's hard to actually get into a film and be there with the characters. Thankfully I did this and I had one of the scariest experiences of my life, an experience which left me scared to go to sleep that night in case I dreamt about it (I didn't, though, thankfully).

The inventive use of the hand-held cameras really makes the viewer feel as if he/she is there in the film. Well, not totally perhaps, but halfway between reality and the celluloid strip. While the film may not be totally original (take, for example, the previous year's THE LAST BROADCAST),in the light of contemporary dull 'post-modern' horror films like SCREAM 2, HALLOWEEN H20 and THE FACULTY, this is a breath of fresh air. I've heard people moan and complain that nothing happens and you don't get to see anything. Well, that's the point...it's left up to your imagination, and I suppose that if you don't have one, then the film just won't scare you. It's the viewer who's lacking, not the film.

The acting is surprisingly brilliant and realistic. You really get to feel for the actors by the end of the film, and each of the three is a solid, well-drawn person who could be a neighbour. Michael Williams is the most likable of the three, he loses his cool first but then regains it at the end. Joshua Leonard is the most tragic of the three as he sits and cries, and you really feel sorry for his character. Many people have said they didn't like Heather Donahue, but I thought she was amazing. The best bit has to be when she holds the camera up to her face and apologises to the trio's parents. Heather is believable, sympathetic, and her performance really tugs at the heart. The film may have a high level of swearing, but then again I'm sure if I was in that situation I wouldn't mind my language. The trio are simply superb and their acting creates believable characters to sympathise with and understand throughout.

The woods are a perfect setting to conjure up fear (see THE EVIL DEAD and many others) and this film makes full use of them. Behind every tree lurks an unseen menace. I've been in the woods myself at night, and the atmosphere is just right. I don't know if I'll be able to venture into them again in the dark, though. There are also some surprisingly intense moments when the students fight amongst each other, some say that these are funny but they actually brought tears to my eyes...not because I was sad, but just because of the ferocity and violence and because I felt so sorry for the three.

The actual horror elements in the film are outstanding, subtle and all the more effective for it. The piles of stones and stick men hanging in the trees are very disturbing, as is the slime covering the backpack. The worst of all has to be the teeth and things wrapped in the cloth, a moment which is hard to watch. The night time scenes are the most chilling, with the unknown noises and even the - shudder - sound of cackling and a baby crying. So creepy, and so frightening. The bit where the tent is violently attacked from the outside comes out of nowhere, and made me jump out of my seat in terror, it's that horrible. And of course the finale in the ruined house is just totally eerie with the laughing and the jolting, disorientating cameras spinning around in a last desperate rush. The final frames of the film are the most inexplicable and unnatural and leave the viewer pondering events well after the film is over to draw their own conclusions.

As you might just be able to tell, I loved THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT which easily lived up to the hype in my opinion. I'll be sure to buy the video when it comes out. Unmissable, a classic, I can't praise this film enough. The scariest thing I have ever seen!