The Blair Witch Project (1999)

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is built on the bonafide premise that 
grainy, shaky, first-person-shot footage of people lost in the 
woods is unnerving as Hell.  Particularly if any accompanying 
supernatural horrors are *suggested* instead of shown.  Where the 
ultra-low-budget-filmakers-turned-likely-millionaires falter is 
in the construction (or, rather, lack thereof) of a full-length 
feature as compelling as their premise; one where the viewer
never once questions what may or may not be real, what might or 
might not have been added in post-production, and, most poten-
tially off-putting, what kind of person keeps shooting under such 
seemingly scared-out-of-their-wits circumstances.  Huh?  The less 
you know about this one, the more you're likely to have your hair 
turned white.  Thus the review ends here, save for my overall 
opinion which echoed that of my companion's: we wouldn't object 
to 90 minutes of our lives back.  Yawn...  Heather Donahue, 
Michael Williams, and Joshua Leonard.  Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel 
Myrick wrote and directed.  (Rated "R"/87 min.)

Grade: C+

Copyright 1999 Michael J. Legeros
Movie Hell is a trademark of Michael J. Legeros