The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 146
Fresh: 127 | Rotten: 19
Full of creepy campfire scares, mock-doc The Blair Witch Project keeps audiences in the dark about its titular villain -- thus proving that imagination can be as scary as anything onscreen.
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 33 | Rotten: 3
Full of creepy campfire scares, mock-doc The Blair Witch Project keeps audiences in the dark about its titular villain -- thus proving that imagination can be as scary as anything onscreen.
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Average Rating: 2.5/5
User Ratings: 396,346
Movie Info
Combining Hi-8 video with black-and-white 16 mm film, this film presents a raw look at what can happen when college students forego common sense and enter the world of voodoo and witchcraft. Presented as a straightforward documentary, the film opens with a title card explaining that in 1994, three students went into the Maryland back woods to do a film project on the Blair Witch incidents. These kids were never seen again, and the film you are about to see is from their recovered equipment,
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All Critics (146) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (127) | Rotten (19) | DVD (25)
You can dismiss The Blair Witch Project as a trick. Or you can give in to the treat and savor that rarest of accomplishments in a field notorious for tedium and repetition -- an original horror movie.
Top CriticThe thought that Blair Witch Project just might be real makes it much scarier than any of the teen horror flicks that have stumbled along in recent years.
The Blair Witch Project" is the scariest movie I've ever seen. Not the goriest, the grossest, the weirdest, the eeriest, the sickest, the creepiest or the slimiest... Just flat out the scariest.
Using the most modest means, Sanchez and Myrick manage to tell a compelling story, create recognizable characters and hold our attention even when there's literally nothing on the screen.
I have seen the new face of movie horror and its name is The Blair Witch Project, a groundbreaker in fright that reinvents scary for the new millennium.
A cunningly conceived and crafted exercise in suggestibility and terror.
No doubt part of the reason that the film has affected some viewers so intensely is because it requires them to fill in a lot of blank spaces, to exercise a perceptive muscle which, especially among younger viewers, may have grown flabby from neglect.
Scary without being explicit, it's a 1990s cinematic landmark, and best judged away from the hype.
Don't go see The Blair Witch Project alone; it's too scary to sit through without company. Thrillingly, nauseatingly so.
It's like watching actors rehearse Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf in the forest.
Its shaky camera work and fuzzy images get monotonous after a while, and there's not much room for character development within the very limited plot.
It's a thrill to behold this supernaturally accomplished triumph of guerrilla filmmaking technique.
This terrifying ghost story is guaranteed to haunt filmgoers long after they've persuaded themselves that it's only a movie.
This hyper-realistic mockumentary will scare you witless -- without grossing you out. One of those rare films with the power to haunt long after the final frame.
Somewhere, P. T. Barnum is smiling.
Sanchez and Myrick's film knows that what's not seen frightens more easily that what is, and that the imagination's thoughts of what might have happened generally horrify on a deeper level than knowing what did.
This one could be too scary even for your teen.
A brilliant marketing campaign, to be sure, but this Z-grade con of a film offers no payoff for audiences looking to be scared.
It's a gem.
Audience Reviews for The Blair Witch Project
Super Reviewer
Possibly one of the most innovative horror films ever made. The Blair Witch Project is not only consistently scary but also a recreation of modern horror in the sense that it explores how not knowing the source of what is frightening you is a far worse experience than actually staring the threat in the eyes. It's a film that benefits from it's micro budget restraints, and is much better than what it could have been as a result. Namely a generic stalk horror movie. The acting is also much better than I first expected, I sincerely hope the cast get a chance to take part in some great things any time soon. I have to say that despite it's lack of developed characters you believe in them and care for the horrible situation that they're in. A situation that you also don't fully understand. It is wonderfully directed, and probably the only found footage horror i've ever seen where I genuinely believed the events that took place were part of reality. The only mistake made was a slight repetition of plot points. Nevertheless this is really worth watching, it isolates you, makes you ponder, stays with you, and distresses your psychology almost effortlessly. Some people might give The Blair Witch Project a bad time, but those same viewers probably require serial killers and monsters handed to them on a silver platter to feel alarmed, rather than allowing the power of atmosphere and imagination to slip underneath their skin.
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- Le Projet Blair Witch (FR)
- El proyecto de la Bruja de Blair (ES)
