The concept: three filmmakers embark on a journey into the thick woods of Burkittsville, Maryland to document a project about a local myth and vanish. They leave behind the horrifying footage with the answers of their disappearance. "Practically spilling fear and wonder into many filmgoers," _The Blair Witch Project_ created a large phenomenon this past summer. The film's directors cunningly tossed fake news stories and missing reports into the public eye via Internet about the filmmakers. Not only did these seem all too real to the common reader; the movie trailer gave the viewer actual images of these reports along with frightening footage of the film. In essence, The Blair Witch Project,s creators, Edwardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, molded a believable hoax out of a low budget film through the film,s format and their promotion techniques.

The film introduces the viewers to Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams during the first few minutes of the film. Here the viewer learns that Heather is heading "The Blair Witch Project and that Josh and Mike are along to help her with the technicle end"Josh running the eight-millimeter camera and Mike working the boom mike and digital recorder for the sound of the film. Heather,s intentions are to interview some of the town,s people of Burkittsville about the legend of the "Blair Witch, a ghost that has allegedlly haunted the woods on the outskirts of Burkittsville for hundereds of years, and then shoot some footage in woods where the ghost has supposedly appeared. It is in the woods where things go foul for the young trio. A horrifying and unexplainable chain of events occur that eventually lead to their death.

There is not a speck of this film that is true but due to its documentary format it looks as if the students are real life filmakers documenting their travels in and around Burkittsville. The diologue is raw and unrehearsed and there is seldom a coversation that goes by between them with out an obscenity used. There is no dramatic music every time something strange happens to the students nor is their any breath taking cinematography involved. The movie is shot with a hand held video camera and a low-end eight-millemeter camera. The footage is shaky and at often times dizzying making the viewer feel more involved with the movie- bringing the audience behind the camera as if they,re viewing the movie through the lens.

Surrounding the film,s plot are the believable names and places of Burketsville, Maryland all of which are false. The sight of the gruesome massacre, "coffin rock, and the creek the filmmakers were following, "Tappy East Creek, are not in or anywhere near the town of Burkittsville. The Black Hills forest, in which most of the footage supposedly is shot, does not exist. Most of the woods scenes were shot in Seneca State Park and Patapasco State Park in Montgomery County, Maryland twenty plus miles from Burkittsville. In fact, very little of the movie is shot in Burkettsville: There is the "Welcome to sign, the graveyard scene where Heather is talking about the suspicious deaths of children possibly connected with the Blair Witch, and the two shots of them driving on a road after the graveyard scene.

The film is full of false characters as well. There is Elly Kedward-the strange lady who lived in a trailer home. She spoke of an encounter with a woman covered in hair by "Tappy East Creek; the story as well as Elly is of course a lie. There isn,t an Elly Kedward who resides in Burkitsville nor is there a Rustin Parr-the man who slaughtered the seven children out in the woods and was sentenced to death; he was also fictitious character; there is no record of him or his trial. Perhaps what made these characters so real was how they were presented in the as random passerby,s in town who the filmmakers stop to interview. These actors lines are also choppy sounding unrehearsed and spur of the moment leading the viewer to belive that these are real people with real stories.

The film makers Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams are not film students but actors as well - their names being the only thing that,s real. They are the backbone of the film their incredible ability to adlib as they did gave "The Blair Witch Project its all too real flair. Thier struggles and conflicts throughout their whole dilemma pulls one closer into the movies, plot.

Possibly the most brilliant aspect of this film was how the idea was presented that something was after the three film students without showing the viewer any tacky special effects of what that something might look like. But, with the imagery of the strange woman (" the Blair Witch) given by the townsfolk earlier in the film, the viewer,s imagination is inevitably put to work. The noises in the woods from all sides of the tent were the most eerie. What is more horrifying than some one beyond the light of the campfire lurking in the woods? The strange crosses that were strategically hung from a cluster of pine trees, the rock formations around the tent-all concocted by someone whom the viewer never sees. These are all very feasible occurrences in that they all can happen without any need for scientific explanation or without the use of special effects for that matter.

One can not forget the media hype involved with the film. Months prior to the release of "The Blair Witch Project the phony news stories police statements and missing posters were posted on the Internet. There was even a documentary on the "Blair Witch Project on the sci-fi channel that was in a way a spin off of "Unsolved Mysteries. The program had police interviews, news reports, and a brief history of Burkittsville and the Blair Witch. In surrounding the film with this convincing propaganda, Edwardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, created a craze long before the film was even to be released into theaters. Having their grossly gullible public waiting to see the horrifying footage of the lost students. Their promotion with a twist definitely paid off at the box office for a low budget movie costing sixty thousand dollars grossed millions at the theaters.

The movie overall was a refreshing taste of something new in an entertainment industry full of clichéd ideas and Hollywood endings. It,s delightful that such an amateur team of Directors right out of film school could entice an entire nation with a horror movie of a different kind - A movie posed as a real, breathing, frightening occurrence that could happen to any one strolling through the "Black Hills Forest of Burkittsville Maryland - and that idea is truly frightening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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