The Blair Witch Project (R)

The “found footage” cinema tool has been used, or in some cases, overused, by a legion of filmmakers. Some use the tool as a gambit to make their pictures creepier or more authentic (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”), while others use it to make a movie more exciting, chaotic, or anxious (“Cloverfield”). However, there is always a trendsetter in movie realms, and for many reasons, the seeming genesis of the “found footage” craze can be traced back to the 1999 film, “The Blair Witch Project.”

The best horror films draw upon not monsters or psychopathic killers, but upon something elemental, something that could indeed happen. The 1975 masterpiece “Jaws” showed this extremely well, terrifying us perhaps because we are afraid of being killed by a giant shark, but possibly more because the ocean is so big, and can be filled with so many deadly things that we can’t see, with “Jaws’” shark one possible suggestion. It is in this vein that “The Blair Witch Project” is so successful, combining the fear of the known but terrifying prospect of being lost in the woods, with the fear of the unknown, a witch, a demon, or some kind evil being which supposedly inhabits the forest, while never seen, its legend spread by locals who whisper its name in hushed voices out of fear.

“The Blair Witch Project” is filmed as a documentary. Unlike most other “found footage” films, it doesn’t say the film is based on real events, but promotes the movie as if it itself was a real event. The film features three college students who are making a documentary on The Blair Witch – Heather (played by Heather Donohue), Josh (played by Joshua Leonard), and Mike (played by Michael Williams). This blurs the lines between movie and reality, as the film reserves its casting info to the end, making it feel like a documentary and not a film.

The movie also switches up its’ filming style between color and black & white, with the color being used primarily for everyday things or when the three are simply walking along, exploring things, and the black & white being used for purposeful filming events, such as when Heather films the history of Coffin Rock, where the Blair Witch or some other killer had done an awful deed to a number of townsfolk. The legend is further solidified by the legend of the Blair Witch, where supposed children from the town were captured and murdered one by one, somewhere in the forest where the filmmakers now tread.

The fear of the movie is brought through the low budget filming style, and through the acting brought from Donohue, Leonard, and Williams, which becomes more and more realistic as tensions rise and emotions start to break down. As they walk through the forest, first filming, the woods are full of things that might scare us: noises we can’t identify (once Josh swears he hears footsteps, and we, the audience, clearly hear leaves rustling and in one ominous scene what appears to be a child crying), as well as things we can’t explain. Rock formations, as well as stick figures hanging from the trees make the forest an eerie place which seems a lot bigger than initially thought.

Of course, the real fear comes later on, after the three have exceeded their 3-day-supply of food and become faced with the real prospect that they might be lost in the woods. “No one gets lost in the woods in America,” Heather says rationally and calm, and even Josh seems to understand someone will send help when his girlfriend notices he doesn’t return and the camera and video materials aren’t returned on time. However hopeful these prospects sound, it soon becomes apparent that whether witch or bad luck, the three are going in circles, have misfortune befall their map, and lose at first their tempers and ultimately their sanity as they realize they may, in fact, never leave the forest alive. It’s the small things that make these scenarios worse. Losing a map is one thing; but it’s not as bad as realizing you’re out of cigarettes. “The Blair Witch Project” recognizes this, that the things we hold onto for sanity, once they’re gone, perhaps we go with them. There is one somber scene, where Heather, realizing the three may be hopelessly doomed, apologizes through the camera to hers, and Mike and Josh’s family. The camera, which turned the world so unreal to Heather before can no longer even provide her with this comfort.

“The Blair Witch Project” is a slow, purposeful movie. It is not horror in the sense of boogymen jumping out for quick scares, or for creative kill sequences. It is low budget (filmed for roughly$60K, the film went on to make $248M worldwide), with its scares drawn off of audience’s fear of the unknown. The end of the film, with a possible answer to the Blair Witch legend, while scary in its own right, is more so built off of the unnerving material set beforehand. The film wisely makes becoming lost in the woods its scariest prospect, and offers the audience no reprieve from the character’s struggles. The camera never cuts away to the town, never shows us how close the three might be to the road. It becomes a nightmare we must share with them. All in all, it’s very effective. There’s far too many horror films of masked men stalking pretty girls, or of limbs and heads being hacked off these days. Sometimes it’s good to remember that a horror movie can be about something else. That might help explain “The Blair Witch Project’s” unlikely success, as well as its unexpected charm.