The Blair Witch Project - Film Review

This review will showcase how the supernatural horror film The Blair Witch Project (1999)
directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sбnchez uses realism to create horror.
Key source will be Steve Rose`s articles Blair Witch Project: the film that frightened me
most (2014) and How The Blair Witch Project changed horror for ever (2019).

In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville,
Maryland while shooting a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch.

A year later their footage was found showing what happened to them in the woods. (The
Blair Witch Project, 1999)

The Blair Witch Project (1999) set up a convincing everyday reality and furtively sneaked
the horror in. (Rose, 2014) The film uses the concept of “found footage” to create horror
and even though “found footage“ is now a sub-genre it was not the first movie to play
with the idea of using found footage, it was just the first to catch the public’s attention.
(Burke, 2019) The film took the idea of reality and twisted it. Even though it was a low-
budget film, the planning and world building started years before the actual shooting. A
new format of promotion was used for the film by creating fake websites, TV news clips,
newspaper and police reports, interviews, journals based around the Blair Witch and the
disappearance of the three students. The film’s official website featured fake police
reports and interviews to sell the idea of it being found footage, which caused the film to
go viral. (Fig. 1) Back then the audience believed that the footage was real and it actually
happened because it was a time when people actually believed what they read on the
internet, without the labeling of fake news and untrusted sources. (Rose, 2019)

Fig. 1: Fake poster of the missing students

But it wasn’t only the background story that created the horror, it also was the realness of
the making that got the audience. The film was made in a documentary style (Fig. 2) and
had no script, no jump scares, no music, no professional crew, no special effects and not
even any witches. (Rose, 2019)

 Fig. 2: Heather directing the filming

So the convincing actors had the main role of creating the horror by placing fear ‘in our
own hands’ rather than waiting for it to be evoked by visual or aural cues. (Fig. 3)
(CinemaWizardBoy, 2018) “The image quality and camerawork were authentically
amateurish. And much of the time, there wasn’t anything to see at all. Rather than
showing you terrifying images, it gave you the space to create your own.“ (Rose, 2014)

It links back to Burke’s idea that if we can’t see something, we make ourselves see it,
meaning we create our own horrifying images in our head. (Burke, 2019)

So it can be said that real horror is the evocation of our own fears, but The Blair Witch
Project is not about confronting our darkest fears, instead, it shows us other people
confronting theirs. “The hysteria is contagious.“ (Rose, 2019)

Fig. 3: Heather crying in a close up shot

Furthermore the horror in The Blair Witch Project is created by panicked shaky-cam
footage running through night-time forests which triggers primal memories of our
evolutionary ancestors fleeing jungle predators.(Fig. 4) (CinemaWizardBoy, 2018) That
deeply rooted fear of being hunted is supported by the fear of being lost. The frustration
and terror the three students go through builds up over the film. With their lack of sleep
and the loss of the map the terror of escaping slowly haunts the characters and the
audience. “The aspect of psychological horror is the fear of mental degradation, and this
is exactly what we witness within this film.“ (CinemaWizardBoy, 2018)

But based on the marketing of the film, it can be argued that psychological terror was
unleashed upon the audience before they even saw the film. (CinemaWizardBoy, 2018)

 Fig. 4: Heather running through the woods

So summing up it can be said that The Blair Witch Project (1999) deals not with the fear of
a witch, but with the fear of the unknown. That fear of the unknown is triggering everyones
own fears and imaginations. Connected with the documentary realism and the idea of
found footage, the film created a new horror which is scaring the audience on a far deeper
level, than any CGI alien or zombie film could ever accomplish.

 Bibliography

Burke, K. (2019). What Were We Really Afraid Of? | The Blair Witch Project at 20 -
HeadStuff. [online] HeadStuff. Available at: https://www.headstuff.org/entertainment/film/
blair-witch-20-anniversary/ [Accessed 6 May 2019].

CinemaWizardBoy. (2018). How The Blair Witch Project Perfects Psychological Horror.
[online] Available at: https://medium.com/@cinemawizardboy/how-the-blair-witch-project-
perfects-psychological-horror-292bdc9f9d2a [Accessed 6 May 2019].

Rose, S. (2014). Blair Witch Project: the film that frightened me most. [online] the
Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/oct/23/blair-
witch-project-film-frightened-me-most-steve-rose [Accessed 6 May 2019].

Rose, S. (2019). How The Blair Witch Project changed horror for ever. [online] the
Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/08/how-the-blair-
witch-project-changed-horror-for-ever [Accessed 6 May 2019].

Illustration List

Fig. 1: Fake poster of the missing students - https://www.gbhbl.com/movie-review-the-

blair-witch-project-1999/

Fig. 2: Heather directing the filming - http://www.btchflcks.com/2011/10/horror-

week-2011-the-blair-witch-project.html#.XNBbOi0lxsM

Fig. 3: Heather crying in a close up shot - https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/movies/

blair-witch-shaky-cams-that-left-audiences-shaking.html

Fig. 4: Heather running through the woods - https://aminoapps.com/c/horror/page/blog/

the-blair-witch-project-1999-the-what-did-heather-see-theory/
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