The Blair Witch Project — seeing is believing, but hearing is horrifying
Shot in faux-documentary style, and made believable by the improvisational performances of three leads, The Blair Witch Project is one of the best horror films in recent history.
Three film students go out to Burkittsville, MD, to make a documentary about the legend of the Blair Witch, who supposedly still haunts the area. Heather (Heather Donahue) is the director, and accompanying her on the trip is cameraman Josh (Joshua Leonard), and Mike (Michael Williams), who records audio. As they ask locals for legends, they get a tip about the cemetery up in the hills. Supposedly, the site is home to the seven children who disappeared after outing Elly Kedward as a witch. Elly Kedward was an Irish immigrant banished from the town of Blair in 1785 accused of witchcraft. After accounts of children saying she led them into her home to draw their blood, she was found guilty and banished from the township in winter, where she died from the cold. Other stories say that she was dragged by a mob into the woods, tied to a tree, and left for dead.
On the trail, Heather, Mike, and Josh find the cemetery after map issues create a lengthy detour. With the footage logged, the three are ready to call it quits for the weekend. Supplies are almost finished after only three days, and tempers are short. Tensions rise when they get lost again trying to find their way back to the car. The map is lost and something is stirring outside of their tent at night. Despite the initial conclusion that their fears were just hysteria, clearly, someone is following them. They wake up the next morning to find their campsite altered. Three stones markers fashioned the same way as the seven piles found at the cemetery.
Already unsettled, the crew begins to start losing their nerve and, eventually, their minds as Josh disappears. The imagination is a powerful weapon, only heightened by the footage of local townspeople sharing legends of child murderers and crazed hermits in the woods. Not every tale shared with the three filmmakers in the film’s opening is spine-tingling, but as the situation escalates, we are primed to believe them. The woods in that part of Maryland are beautiful in fall, but directors Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick take great care to make them uninviting. The stick figures that hang from nearby trees don’t cost a lot to make, but they pack a wallop in creating ominous dread.
Seeing is believing, but hearing is much more persuasive when it comes to horror films. Darkness heightens the feelings of dread, visibility is low, and the fall air amplifies every echo. Nights in the Burkittsville woods are marked by odd howls and scratches that keep the trio awake. The camera shows nothing as the filmmakers record the tent walls as the sounds continue, but that doesn’t matter. The mind’s eye is creating much more unpleasant sights of what could be after them: animals, the ghost of Elly Kedward, or the base desires of men. Heather keeps up a brave act for the unraveling documentary, but she knows what any child afraid of the dark knows: what you can’t see is infinitely more horrifying.
Originally published on PopOptiq.com
