1999, 1 hr 22 min., Rated R for language. Dir: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez. Cast: Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael Willams.

Is The Blair Witch Project the new thriller for our generation? I don't know, but it was definitely refreshing to see a film shot so simply with such engaging actors and a situation we can all agree that would grip us with as much fear as is shown on screen.

Not that you think ghosts and goblins are real, but being lost in the woods for days with little food and no map, hearing noises throughout the night, I would be a little frightened as well. This makes Blair Witch more of a study in psychological terror than horror, which works just fine with me.

POSSIBLE SPOILER, IF YOU LIVE IN A CAVE:

I could not believe, but even after all the hype of the last month, half the audience in my full theater were genuinely concernced about the actors, thinking it was a true story. This tells me that the filmmakers did their jobs, or these people cannot or do not read. Just two days ago The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a full page story on the movie, since one of the producers is from Atlanta, complete with pictures of the actors (still alive) and interviews about how they made the movie. I personally informed two groups of the news when they looked a little worried, a threesome of teens behind me and four senior citizens.

The story sets us up at the beginning, with the brief synopsis of the story : "In October of 1994, three student film makers disappeared in the woods near Burkittesville, Maryland. One year later, their footage was found."

From there we follow three young college filmmakers, Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard, as they set out to make a documentary of the legend of the Blair Witch, supposedly haunting the woods near the town and murdering many people, including seven children in the 1940s. The group is full of zeal as they gather their things and drive to the forest, in a manner I related to a lot, being a young'un and only two years removed from college. There is a lot of hamming it up with jokes and pop culture references as they think of this as a good time, not just a project, as any fun-loving student is want to do.

Warning to anyone prone to motion sickness: you may want to stay away from Blair Witch. I'm not, so I didn't even take notice of the constant movement of the camera except for filmmaking and realism's sake. Someone else, though, could be quite nauseated after only ten minutes.

Heather is the leader and director of the rag-tag bunch in their trek to find the ghoul in the woods. She is a cutie, and definitely my favorite of the three. Too bad she is holding the camera most of the time, so we don't see her as much. Some may say she gets on their nerves with her dramatics and bossiness, but I thought she was the most engaging. Josh, the main documentary camera operator, is the typical Gen X/hippie wannabe, with the cool pop culture references (such as Gilligans Island) and too cool for school attitude. Mike, the sound guy, is the first to get frightened and is prone to starting fights because of this.

Little by little we learn of the myth of the Blair Witch from locals that the threesome interview, and an old lady, Mary Brown, who supposedly has seen the witch but the students dismiss as a kook. They hike into the woods looking for a cemetery, armed with plenty of supplies, clothes a tent and of course, two cameras (one for personal documentation, another for the actual documentary).

After a couple of days, though, they're ready to get home after lots of rain, walking, and strange noises at night. They never found the cemetery and the map doesn' t seem to be helping. They're lost, and increasingly scared. Day after day we witness how their spirits are broken, as they devolve from funny college kids to emotional wrecks hunted by the unknown. We witness the psychological terror of the moment. The trio goes through all the emotions, from nervous laughter to anger to being scared to saying they have to work together to being delirious to guilt and finally being scared beyond belief.

"We'll all look back at this and laugh heartily" - Heather.

They hear noises in the darkness but see nothing, see piles of rocks (foretold of the Witch by Mary Brown) and then come across dozens of symbols made from sticks in the trees. Also, in an apparent homage to Ghostbusters, Josh finds ectoplasmic residue, aka "slime", on his pack one morning. At first they believe some locals are messing with their heads, or the noises are animals scurrying about. But the symbols are the last straw. "This is no redneck. No redneck is this creative."

This is where I wish I didn't know that it wasn't a real story. I can't imagine the concern I would've had if I somehow thought these students might actually still be out there or dead. What confusion that must cause someone in their belief system on the supernatural! I may have been affected more by the movie rather than just intrigued and focusing on the psychological aspects.

Talking with one of my co-workers, Melissa, we agreed that there should have been more shots at night, when any little noise could cause even Stallone to crap his britches. The majority, though, is during the day, and focuses on the trio's search for civilization and their fervent yearning to "get the hell out of" there. But, as a I said before, they're lost, traveling in circles. When deciding which way to go, Mike asks "Which wicked witch was the worst, west or east?" Heather tells him that "west was the bad one," so Mike responds "Then let's go East." This brings about chuckles from the audience, but again it is very nervous laughter.

Of course, as the group head out in the darkness with cameras in hand to find the source of the noises and record them, I would've been curled up in the fetal position saying the Lord's Prayer over and over. Which proves that I'm not a fan of horror movies, and am glad this wasn't a haunted house or Freddy and Jason type horror film, because I'll be able to watch Blair Witch many more times, and definitely buy it when it comes out on video. I may even buy the book this fall, because even if it wasn't real, the story is fascinating and worth learning more about. Kudos to the filmmakers, because they put together a whopper of a movie, and more kudos to having people believe that it actually happened after all this time and hype.

A post-script of sorts: After Blair Witch, there will be many a camper who will feel the effects of this movie, either by having piles of rocks strewn about or sticks arranged in a similar pattern as the film, or just an increase in the relative fear of the unknown that already exists. I hate camping already, so after seeing this movie it won't help at all!