The inventive use of the hand-held cameras really makes the viewer feel as if he/she is there in the film.
Thankfully I did this and I had one of the scariest experiences of my life, an experience which left me scared to go to sleep that night in case I dreamt about it (I didn't, though, thankfully). It's easy to sit back and laugh, but it's hard to actually get into a film and be there with the characters. I can understand this, because for one to be truly affected by the film then you have to make an effort to engross yourself in the events, to believe that they are real, to not get distracted by the person sitting next to you. Now I've read all the negative comments about the film simply not being scary. Yes, it was creepy and extremely disturbing too, but mainly it was just scary. Because, more than any other film I've seen in my life, this film scared me. By the end of the film I might have well as been a nervous wreck. As time went on, my nerves began to fray along with those of the guys on screen, and my heart beat faster. The shaky hand-held camera didn't annoy me in the least, and in fact within just a few minutes I was settled into the film, engrossed. I remembered hearing that the dizzying camera work could induce nausea, but happily I was not afflicted in this way. My expectations were high, based on the hype. I mean, nobody on the face of this planet can fail to have heard of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, a low budget independent production which took Hollywood by storm and became the most profitable film of all time. I don't usually make a habit of travelling that sort of distance to see a mere film, but I felt that this one in particular was special. On a Sunday morning in 1999 I made a rare venture to a multiplex cinema, which is 17 or so miles away from my house. Reviewed by Leofwine_draca 10 / 10 A film that turned me into a nervous wreck Could the nightmarish myth be real? -Nick Riganas Who knows what truly happened during their creepy five-day journey into the mouth of madness? Was there, indeed, an intangible supernatural presence in the dark woods that led to the team's disappearance? Either way, the missing trio must have seen something. Now, one long year later-after that fateful October of 1994-there's still no sign of the student filmmakers, apart from the raw footage they left behind. In search of a local legend, three bold amateur documentarians-director, Heather cameraman, Josh sound recorder, Mike-hike into Burkittsville's gloomy Black Hills Forest to find a shadow: the fabled Blair Witch.