Force Fed Film: The Blair Witch Project (1999)

As the first "Force Fed Film" of October, Puneet wanted to make sure I saw the start of all the "found footage" style movies. That would of course be The Blair Witch Project. I never saw this when it first came out, and I didn't understand why someone would want to watch a movie that looked like this. I, of course, have learned the error of my ways, finding a number of "found footage" movies to be some of my favorites. While I may not have ever seen The Blair Witch Project in full, I've certainly seen a number of key scenes from it since it was first released. How did that affect my viewing of the film, and does it hold up to all the terrified confessions I've heard over the years? That and more after the jump.


I think most people who might read this probably have either seen The Blair Witch Project or at least know the story premise already. Three young filmmakers head out into the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland to make a student film about a local legend. This of course being the Blair Witch. They interview some Burkittsville locals concerning the legend, and then head out, never to be heard from again.

The footage of the film is obviously supposed to be of their last days as they are tormented, stalked, and hunted in the woods. The Blair Witch Project isn't the very first movie to use the premise of "found footage", but its success certainly made the style of film more popular, and brought it into the limelight. I firmly believe we would never have movies like [REC] 2 if it weren't for this.

Josh and Mike ready to start their camping trip

I'll be honest, I had some high hopes for this movie. I did have some factors hampering my ability to enjoy it though, mainly in the form of scenes that I've already seen before. The even sadder bit is that the scenes I've seen turned out to be the most "frightening" scenes in the film. Turns out all that was left for me were daylight scenes of people complaining to each other and arguing. Probably the worst of all the spoilers I've absorbed over the years, is having seen the ending. Of course it never made much sense until I heard the locals talk about the legends near the start of the film. Sadly, it also made that moment not very scary at all.

To say the footage is amateur is an understatement

Besides already knowing pretty much all the spoilers I could know for the whole movie, I still wasn't really enjoying the movie for other reasons. Primarily the "cinematography" was bugging me. I know they wanted it to look amateur, but they succeeded to such a degree that it was often nearly unwatchable. The daytime scenes were almost OK, but the night scenes were nearly pointless since you couldn't see anything. If you could at least make out the trees and the area surrounding them more clearly, at least it would have given me something to look at. At least then I'd be able to look into the distance on the off chance I might see something creepy. But as it was, it was often blurry and out of focus. It seemed like the lens was always smudged, which was just really annoying.

Also the sound was really poor. The only interesting things going on in the night scenes are the sounds and noises you can almost hear. But they're so faint and distant that you can barely make them out. Maybe that's supposed to be creepy, but I would have liked it much more if they had either made it louder, like how Paranormal Activity treats its own quiet scenes, or clearer somehow. There are moments when you are trying to hear a voice of one of the 3 friends, and it seems like the person filming can hear them clearly, but on the tape you can't really make it out. I just think these scenes would have been more effective had they had better sound.

They find weird hanging things when they get really lost

The only really positive thing I can say about the film is that the acting was really good. I tried to read up on the production of the film, and it seems the cast actually did camp out for about 8 days and hike around, and the production staff would torment them at night and deprive them of food. Also, most of the footage was improvised, with only clues as to what to do, or where to go next provided by the production staff, left in milk crates they would find. These would also have secret messages to each cast member about things they might do to further the story, unknown to the others. So basically, when you saw them frustrated and starting to lose it, they pretty much were for real because of all the stress.

While I can appreciate the significance of The Blair Witch Project as a piece of film, and what it has allowed to come after it, I just didn't enjoy the movie. Some of the night scenes were a little creepy, but others were just annoying and unclear, and frankly, not enough happened. The film and sound quality were terrible, and even if it was planned that way, that doesn't mean it wasn't a bad idea. Having seen the vast improvements in this style by movies like Paranormal Activity, and [REC], the Blair Witch just doesn't hold up anymore. I would say only bother seeing this if you have never seen anything about it, but if you know the plot points already, and you've seen the clips, don't waste your time seeing this. There are much better movies out there that have improved on the formula by leaps and bounds.