Made for $30,000 by two young filmmakers from Florida, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT wowed festival audiences for several months before finding distribution at the 1999 Sundance Festival. It is an ingenious creation which makes effective use of its lack of budget and cast of unknowns. The film is composed entirely of reportedly "found" footage shot by three missing college students who made a journey to the woods of Western Maryland in 1994 with the purpose of making a documentary about a "witch" of local legend who is linked to murders and mysterious occurrences spanning 200 years. It begins with footage of the crew leaving their homes and testing their equipment, but before we know it, they are lost deep in the endless woods, with the voices of screaming children piercing the blackness from off in the distance. Things get worse from there. The experience is disorienting and frightening as well as the most rewarding horror film experience to come along in many years, as it wisely chooses to prey on our vulnerable imaginations rather than bombard us with graphic images.
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Blair Witch Project
