I always have some kind of stupid story that I like to include about this first time I saw movies. For this one in particular, it was when I was about 10 or 11. Our parents used to let us have a birthday party and decide whatever we wanted to do. Of course this year, I had somehow heard about the Blair Witch Project. My birthday is near Halloween so I thought it might be fun for me, my sister and maybe 4 of my girlfriends to come watch the movies at our house. We had rented this one as well as the sequel from the video store up the hill, and of course my parents had to do it because it was rated 18A. Just another one of those stories of my Dad letting us watch horror movies we were too young for.
So we are in the basement and it's dark. We got our sleeping bags all set up with snacks and what not. We watched this whole movie practically in silence because we were MORTIFIED. Not a single one of us could sleep after we watched the movie. We really thought it was real. I remember maybe one of the girls started crying or had to leave and go sleep at her house. We stayed up all night clinging to each other for dear life. We were so scared we wouldn't even watch the sequel. To say the least, my mom was not impressed yet again.
My sister and I, although very scared for many nights after were always inspired to make movies with our Dad's video camera. We used to go find nearby blocks of trees and make our own Blair Witch movies to try and scare ourselves even further. Just going out in the dark in the middle of the night with a video camera being absolute idiots. It's hilarious to me now but man it was fun and terrifying at the time. Anyways, enough about me.
So the movie starts in October 1994, where 3 students decide to hike the Black Hills near Burkitsville, Maryland. There is a real life legend (not just real to the movie) that there is a witch that lives in the forest and many people have gone missing or been murdered. So of course the ambitious trio decides they want to go hike and camp these woods and investigate the truth behind the Blair Witch. They interview multiple people from the town who basically tell them different versions of the story they've learned through rumor or that they truly believe themselves. Apparently there were two men fishing near the cabin she lived in that never returned. There were bodies of seven children found in the forest. There is a story from the "local lunatic" that says she was in the forest and she saw the Blair Witch herself. She had a cloak on and was covered head to toe in thick dark hair like a horse. Of course the three main characters all laugh it off, because of course there's just no way it seems real. It's not made clear whether or not any of them actually believe in ghosts or witchcraft or anything like that, they are kind of just going into the project for fun. So out they go, hungover from the night before to be perfectly prepared for hours and hours of hiking. The first biggest error of either this movie, or maybe it's just the way they purposely portray Heather, is that she seems to of course be an expert of the woods. She don't need no map. She don't need no compass. She knows everything. There's no possibility they could get lost! No way! No one cares or has any plan either. Let's just all trust Heather. Seems logical. First night, they didn't set up a fire - which is apparently important to the plot. They all sleep in the same tent. I mean, if it were me there would be no fuckin' chance I'd be sleeping alone in the woods. Mike wakes up and thinks he hears two things. Says one sounded like a cackle and one could have been an owl. But of course it could just be Mike being scared cause no one else hears anything. "There's a trail on top of this hill, don't worry!" says Heather. Still so sure of herself. In the fucking woods where nothing looks like anything. They parked their car no where near a trail. They never started on a trail. Like why? But of course they never encounter this so called "trail" that Heather has promised and this obviously starts to piss off the other two guys cause they already feel lost. And it's only Day 2. "We aren't making a documentary about us getting lost. We are making a documentary about a witch," Mike yells at Heather after poorly trying to convince them she knows where they're going. They keep hiking. Crossing creeks with giant bags of camping gear and huge cameras. Nothing drops and no one falls. Unlikely to me. The trees kind of start to divide a bit, but they're not necessarily on a trail. They encounter these really strange rock arrangements. There is 5 arrangements. One with 3, one with 4, 5, 6, 7. Mike kicks over a rock pile cause he's being a pissed off little bitch baby. Maybe that's what starts it all? It doesn't necessarily say. In the night, they hear leaves crunching and tree branches snapping. It sort of sounds like foot steps, but they are in the woods. It could be an animal or a deer or just wind. It is October, it's probably fucking freezing outside. The sound is coming from all around them. Josh suggests that locals probably know that they are there are they aren't welcome so maybe they are playing pranks on them. He thinks maybe they're overstepping their boundaries as randoms trying to benefit off of their town's stories and what not. There are multiple nights of the same thing happening. A couple days later the map is gone. Heather was last to have it so everyone starts screaming at her. Mike has completely lost it and is laughing but in a really creepy way. He has obviously completely lost his mind. Of course the map is gone. Everyone is stressed out and screaming at each other and blaming each other for everything because no matter how far they are walking they seem to be walking in circles. They keep finding weird shit in the forest including more piles of rocks. In a a oddly open area in the forest all these terrifying stick figures appear that look like some kind of voodoo witch craft shit.
Mike admits to throwing the map in the creek because he is a fucking idiot and has lost his mind. So more screaming and arguing and fighting commences. They start screaming for help, but for what? They've been walking for hours and just keep coming back to the same place. The nights are continually filled with screams and cackles and footsteps and no one can seem to keep it together. See, the scariest thing about this movie is that they are able to build such high tension and suspense. They really put you in the position of these three who are frantically trying to find their way home with absolutely no luck. You don't see any demons. No one gets attacked on camera. It's all just what you can't see that terrifies you. Most of the footage is just black or shaking cameras because how could you possibly properly film when you are out of your mind and terrified. It makes it feel real, it makes it feel like you're filming. "You're lost, you're angry in the woods and no one is here to help you. There's a fucking witch and she keeps leaving shit outside your door. There's no one here to help you. She left little trinkets and you fucking took one of them. She ran after us. There is no one here to help you. We walked for 15 hours today. We ended up in the same place. There's no one here to help you." Josh says this all while dangling the camera in Heather's face while she's crying because she is still trying to make the movie. "It's all I have left okay." The next day Josh goes missing in the middle of the night. They spend the entire day screaming for him and there is no sign or trace of him until the next night. While Mike and Heather are in their tent, in the same place, they hear Josh frantically screaming. Another present is left for them the next morning. Which is one of the scariest parts of the movie. It's the only real sign that something is after them. At this point the movie goes from being very slow to a point where everything starts happening really quickly. But they have to keep moving. The next night, they hear him screaming again. They completely abandon the tent, and start running towards the screams. They encounter this old abandoned cabin which is obvious who it must belong to. I won't spoil the ending scene but it is one of the most iconic horror movie scenes ever to me. You don't see anything. It's all left for interpretation. The cameras drop. The screaming stops. It's all inside your imagination to come up with what you think happened. I think a movie designed this way it scarier than a movie that reveals all the torture and violence. To each person what happened is left up to you. Imagination is far more terrifying that what you really see. This movie was filmed with a budget of 60,000 over something like eight days. They even used a missing persons poster with Heather, Josh and Mike's photos on it to promote the movie. This makes it seem like they actually went missing. And in 1999? How are we supposed to know if they did or not for sure? The movie grossed over 250 million dollars making it one of the most successful independent films of all time. I absolutely love this movie. It inspired so many movies in the same style after ward. Found footage is truly a special thing because it gives a much larger sense of realism. I almost wish they didn't roll the credits after the movie ended because then it would seem even more like it was just compiled found footage. Do not watch the sequel. It is hot garbage.
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