'The Blair Witch Project' (1999)

I think it's a kind of all time great - the most interesting thing about it is how it created a whole mythology in its backstory which is actually quite complex......and how some people loved it and others found that (very) slow burn absurd / tiresome. It's a very American kind of myth and also it came out in a year - a great year - where movies were being argued to an insane degree.

It almost wasn't about whether it was good or not but rather what kind of movie fan were you? To many people who hated it - The Sixth Sense was the horror of that year - to others The Sixth Sense was comparatively corny - you didn't even "need" to see it.

A few years later Paranormal Activity did this exactly the opposite way - at first by swiping the premise, technique and ditching the trappings - by minimizing backstory - but then it had to keep expanding on it anyway so it eventually over several films resembled Blair Witch

The movie was pretty fascinating to me because it isn't professionally acted, or shot really or well written but like a lot of things in horror historically (and um, Porn ) it works within its own odd parameters - Heather Donahue was a kind of brilliant lead because she isn't softened........on some level you root against her even when she breaks down

THe ending of the film is either brilliant or the biggest nothing rip-off and true story:

In the woods near casa de pacinoyes there is a burned out building that totally could be from the movie ........and it freaks me out tbh

A movie some of us (ok now it's just me and Mattsby ) talk about a lot on MAR - In The Dark (2000) gets a lot of the same pull as Blair Witch - just a year later - and now has a horror cult that rose up around it like The Blair Witch mythos

Ive seen the movie a good handful of times, and even remember the first time being just whelmed by the movie. Thought it was just fine and could really only just appreciate it for being a part of horror film history. But as Ive been rewatching it, its clicked and quickly become one of few movies that genuinely unnerves me. Not sure when that happened, but I do consider this as the scariest movie ive personally seen.

The big argument Ive heard against the movie is that, theres not even a witch, or nothing even happens, but to me its not the idea of the Blair Witch that gets to me. Its seeing this group of friends getting lost in the woods, losing all sense of sanity to the point they can barely stomach looking at each other without needing to say something horrible. Theyve got no hope and can barely rely on each other anymore, and maybe there might be a witch out there, im not sure.

Regarding the ending, the confirmation of the witch and the house from the urban legend also adds to the terror. Mike running ahead to find Josh, Heather screaming for help as shes left behind. All added by how you can hear Heathers audio creeping closer into the basement, from Joshs dropped audio equipment, as shes still recording on her 16mm camera. Is there a witch, or has everyones sanity finally snapped beyond help?

Personal All-Timer, if I kept a consistent LB Top 4 it'd be in there

It's a movie I admire despite never actually enjoying. I think the mythology it develops is nicely done (my favorite bits are when it plays more as straight documentary in the first act), I think the marketing campaign is total genius, and I appreciate how much of a landmark it is in low budget horror and the currently rising analog horror genre - which just produced Skinamarink, one of my favorite films of the year and what feels to me like The Blair Witch Project for a new generation. However, I cannot say I actually enjoy watching the film itself. I just don't care to watch these people get stuck in the woods. I do appreciate the ending, which I think does a brilliant job of paying off everything (which makes the fact it was thrown together especially remarkable to me) but by then I've already lost any emotional investment or investment from its dragging 2nd act.

Perhaps due for a rewatch since it's been a good while.

This is a great recommendation to those who wish the main movie was more formed and informed. I never heard of it until a few years ago.... Were people talking about this too around the initial release or was it destined to be some gem on the DVD extras?  I'm pretty sure it's made of deleted material from the movie - repositioned, cleverly, as a cable promo a week or so before the big theatrical push.  But it's interesting, with a really skilled likeness to those kinda "cheap" chiller docs of the era. 

Masterpiece. 

singular, mammoth, perfect etc. probably in the top 30 movies i've seen.

I can attest how much uncertainty there was at the time whether this was all real or not.