Written by Andreas Babiolakis

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The first major horror phenomenon I experienced as a youth was the promotional push for The Blair Witch Project. Before you could really find out anything on the internet, it was indeed possible to be persuaded by the word-of-mouth and other promotional strategies that made this indie film feel like an instant classic; was all of this actually a real film? In hindsight, it’s painful how obviously fake this film was. That’s where the magic of The Blair Witch Project was found, though: in how much a film could get by with the bare essentials and some damn fine marketing. This is why it felt like a classic upon its release: because no one could stop talking about it or needing to experience it. It really was the event of the year (for many, at least). The film was made for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and yet it brought in nearly two hundred and fifty million dollars. That’s a successful increase in profits if I’ve ever seen one.

However, I’m not concerned with how well the film did or how strong its promotional strategies were. I want to know how the film itself is. At the end of the day, it’s pretty much just okay. Is it actually scary? Well, definitely not as scary as we were all once led to believe, but I also think we’ve been exposed to enough online (which includes the debunking of similar tales), so that isn’t really in the film’s favour. As a story, The Blair Witch Project is very hit or miss, and its flaws have to do with its pros: what could be achieved with no money. I’m aware of how much of an achievement The Blair Witch Project is in numerous ways, but I also think it’s quite a letdown in the grand scheme of things. Its minimalism may creep you out, but it may also bore you to death; both outcomes could happen to you (as they did to me). Its big scares may also feel extremely lousy as well, depending on what your major fears are and what gets to you.

The scares here are hit or miss, especially if you have a big horror film threshold.

That’s the caveat of a film like The Blair Witch Project, especially in hindsight. What you love about it may actually be what its biggest vices are. Not every resolution to answer a slim budget works, and the style itself can be a bit of a headache to watch (especially when the video camera shakes for extra “realism”), and yet it is also so much more cleverly orchestrated than one may think. I’m really on the fence with this film. I don’t really like it, but I do admire it, and it goes beyond what it accomplished at the box office. I can’t imagine just about anyone could make The Blair Witch Project. You need some understanding of on screen subjects, timing, and other crucial cinematic elements that you can’t just be born knowledgable about. I respect the film, but I just don’t feel in love with it. It’s an important piece of ‘90s cinema as an artifact of how mass hysteria occurred at the dawn of the digital age, but the film itself is so-so.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.