The original “Blair Witch Project” (1999) directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, was a cinematic masterpiece for it’s time. Having a budget of only $60,000, the movie ended up grossing over $248 million! In my opinion, Myrick and Sánchez used the introduction of the internet in the 1990’s to utmost perfection when it comes to advertisement. 

The “Blair Witch Project” was released to the U.S. on July 14, 1999, an era where the internet was finally becoming a vastly used resource. Where Artisan Entertainment, the movie’s distributor, created a website that seemingly planted the idea behind the urban legend of the Blair Witch who resides in the woods of Maryland. Which also included the history of the witch, and a background of three film students who went missing…the same film students represented in the movie.

The movie starts out as innocent as it seems. Three college film students: Heather, (Heather Donahue) Michael, (Michael C. Williams) and Joshua (Joshua Leonard) set out to the woods of Maryland to create a documentary about what they considered to be the myth of the Blair Witch. Nothing bad could possibly happen, right?

The whole movie is seen through the eyes of the physical cameras the actors use, which adds another effect to the storyline and truly makes it feel more real, like a documentary. No zoomed out, wide shots or perfect angles, just straight up perspective where the viewer really gets absorbed in the moment. During the night scenes, the 1990’s technology had a hard time picking up  any type of light. However, I think this was on purpose because these scenes could be considered the most powerful.

As the movie progresses, the main characters can be seen to exponentially become more frustrated with each other. 

Whether it’s just a dark scene with dialogue between the characters, or a walking day scene, every minute of the film draws the viewer closer and closer in, causing them to create their own theories of what is really going on.

This continues all the way through the final seconds of the movie. With the last couple minutes holding such pandemonium that it is quite hard to take anything in at all.

Until the final scene, when Heather finally makes it down to the basement to catch up to Mike, but instead you see the figure of a man in the corner. And then the camera drops… 

Is it really the Blair Witch? Were they set up by town folk? Or one of their own that has just gone crazy?

I’ll leave the questions for you to decide your own theory, but regardless the cliffhanger you are left with is one to be thought on for a long period of time.

Loved this movie to death, and it rightfully deserves 10/10 Greenfields for not only it’s time but it’s uniqueness.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the GENESIS staff. Email Caleb Webb at [email protected]