"When in danger;when in doubt. Run in circles;scream and shout."That pretty much sums up how the characters of The Blair Witch Project tended to react to every crisis. It�s also one of the biggest flaws during this picture. Yes, The Blair Witch Project was suppose to be done �realistically� and the protagonists were suppose to be young, inexperienced college kids, but did they have to act like such dorks? The 3 Stooges would�ve acted cooler, calmer and with more grace under pressure then these three did. Understand me, I�m not knocking the actor�s performances. They did wonderful jobs, but the characters they played might as well have tattooed the word VICTIM on their foreheads. Here, without spoilers, are a few things they did that were so dumb as to be inexcusable. First, going into the woods before anything weird or bad happens they get seriously lost. With a map. And a compass. And directions from one of the locals who told them the site they�re were looking for was only about twenty minutes away. But do they ever turn around, go back to the road and get their bearings? Or maybe go back and try to talk a local into guiding them in exchange for being in their documentary? Nope. Next, they didn�t carry a single thing into the woods they could�ve used to defend themselves with; not even a pocketknife as far as I could see. Of course, they didn�t know they were going to run into a supernatural boogieman, but didn�t it occur to them they might run into the rednecks from Deliverance, a rattlesnake or any other wild animal? The best I could tell they didn�t even bring an axe to cut up firewood or a small camping shovel for digging privies. Third, even if they�d had a weapon they were too busy crying, screaming, whining and running to have tried to defend themselves. I am not claiming to be some sort of manly man James Bond type who�d have had the foresight to have brought a laser cannon with me in case I ran into a monster and the cool to use it if I had. If I�d been in the same situation these three were in I'm sure I'd have been scared half to death, but I truly believe I�d have at least picked up a piece of wood as a club to defend myself with and I think most people would do the same. I�ll admit a weapon probably wouldn�t have done much good given what they were up against, but they could�ve at least *tried*. Finally, why the devil didn�t they light a fire? Their logic was that the first night in the woods they didn�t light a fire and nothing happen. The second night in the woods they did light a fire and weird stuff started. So they reasoned that maybe a fire was attracting the bad guys and the third night they didn�t light a fire. Not bad reasoning perhaps, but more weird stuff happens the third night even without a fire so what do they do the fourth night. They don�t light a fire. Aaaaaarrrgggg! By that point they should have built the biggest flaming bonfire anyone had ever seen. Maybe set the whole durn woods on fire so that if nothing else Smokey the Bear would have gotten ticked off and personally thrown them out of his forest. If the boogieman came for them with a fire going he�d have had to come after them in the light where they could at least see what they were up against. Instead they spent the night huddled in the dark feeling scared and sorry for themselves. Nuts. Two other things they did that were incredibly stupid, but which I can�t discuss without giving away too much, involved the map and a decrepit old house in the middle of the night. If you see The Blair Witch Project, when you get to these parts, you�ll know what I�m talking about. Ask yourself if you�d have done what the characters in the movie did. If your I.Q. is larger then your pants size the answer is probably no. By the time the movie was almost over I was so disgusted I was muttering to myself, "Heck, let the witch eat `em."
The only other big negative to The Blair Witch Project came from the grainy film and jerky camera movement. This was suppose to have added realism to the film, and did to a large part, but it also undermined several of the movies best parts. During the more frightening moments of the film, when the cameras were the most unsteady, it was almost impossible to tell exactly what was happening. Trading off a slightly clearer picture for just a little less realism was definitely called for. This was also true for some of the background noises which tended to come off as just a little too faint to really understand or properly be spooked by.
Taking all of that in stride the question remains, is The Blair Witch Project scary? The answer is a definite yes. But it�s frightening in a way moviegoers are unaccustomed to. There is no hulking monster chasing some nubile teenager through the woods in this movie. No BEMs waiting to eat their way out of our hero�s chest. No vampire hoping to put the bite on a bosom beauty. There�s just a sense of dread that grows so gently and quietly that you almost don�t realize at first just how uncomfortable you�ve become watching it happen. I realized as The Blair Witch Project became more and more intense that in all my years of movie going I�d never heard so many people in the audience talking during a film. At first I was annoyed, it�s rude to talk during a movie, but then I understood why so many people were doing so. They were scared. Not the sort of �scream cause the monsters going to get you� scared, but scared with a sort of growing dread you can�t articulate, but comes from knowing that this isn�t right. The sort of fear that has an emptiness to it, a kind of void, that you want to fill up with words. The sort of fear that comes from knowing death is coming. Because after all, we know from the beginning of the movie that these three students are going to disappear and never be seen again. The good guys are not only not going to win, they�re never going to be heard from again. And in some cases words were not enough to stave off the fear. There were at least two women in the audience who were crying out loud by the time the movie ended. As for me, well, I�ve been scared by some of the best; Alien, Silence of the Lambs, Jaws and others, but those scares were more like the thrill you get from riding a roller coaster then actual fear. In at least one spot, despite it�s serious flaws, The Blair Witch Project scared me; I mean it really scared me. When the last scene rolled past I felt literal cold chills go up my back and arms and I seriously wondered on my way home if I would have nightmares that night.
So go see The Blair Witch Project and see if it scares you. And if you feel you have to mask some of your fear by talking the rest of the audience will probably understand, but even so, talk quietly. Otherwise, you may have to go stand in the corner.
Average Grade: A
