There have been mockumentaries before, but "The Blair Witch Project" is different in several ways. It is a horror film, and not a comedy. It is not a mock documentary, but a mock making of a documentary. Finally, those making the documentary are also the cast, and are amateurs, not professionals.

So, "The Blair Witch Project" has some good, original ideas, and this helps explain the media 'buzz' behind the film. But the film's success is also the triumph of marketing over content. The expense of promoting the film is far greater than what it cost to make it, and the initial limited release ensured that those who saw it first were those who were most likely to appreciate it.

The final clever idea that the film has is
to reveal the ending in the first few frames.
We are told immediately that the three students
end up killed. If "The Blair Witch Project"
was a great movie, this move would be considered
to be robbing the film of its suspense. But
since it is a mediocre film, revealing the
ending helps create the illusion that a script
full of petty bickering, obscenities and
screaming, and cinematography on the level of,
well, college students with a rented camcorder,
is actually leading eventually to a really
scary finale that you don't want to miss.

The story has Heather Donahue (the actors all
use their real names) filming a documentary about
the Blair Witch, a fictional horror legend
set in the woods of Maryland. Donahue conscripts
fellow students Michael Williams and Joshua
Leonard, and they hike into the woods for a
weekend of exploring and film-making. They soon
get lost (apparently no one thought of putting
a cellular phone in one of those massive
backpacks) and quarrel amongst themselves.
Things only get worse from there, as they
hear voices at night, run out of provisions,
become separated, etc.

There are some entertaining scenes early on.
The students joke amongst themselves about
chest hair and Gilligan's Island. But there
is already the feeling that the script is
killing time since there is no story or
suspense other than What Will Happen, or
more to the point, How Will They Die. When
we finally get there, we don't even get to
see the killer(s). What a con. (35/100)




Recommended: No