The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Directed by: Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick

Starring: Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams

In 1994, Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams are film students interested in making a movie on the legendary Blair Witch of Burkittsville, Maryland.  The Blair Witch incident is a myth about witches killing children ages ago. The students were never seen again.  However, their filming equipment was recovered a year later.  The footage shown in The Blair Witch Project chronicles their final days and hours of life.  It highlights how quickly a school project can become a nightmarish disaster.  Small misfortunes quickly lead to fear and desperation as the students struggle to survive in this horrific film.

In a typical horror flick, the audience has ample information to determine when the next big thrill will occur.  You know when Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger is going to gut some poor horny teenager.  However, The Blair Witch Project brings a different filmmaking style to the horror genre.  Just showing the last record of the students’ lives has a certain authenticity to it.  You’re witnessing the horrors alongside them.  Like the students, you don’t know what happens next.  This unpredictable nature is both realistic and frightening.  The Blair Witch Project is one of the scariest films made to date; it was also one of the cheapest.