“It’s all in your mind” may be the generic catchphrase of cocky psychologists everywhere, but that really is the case when it comes to the Blair Witch Project. The movie is something of a genre breaker in that you never actually see ‘the Blair Witch’ but it is up to you to imagine it and as such the film is only as scary as your imagination is active. This is largely the reason that the film has received a mixture of praise and criticism from pundits and filmgoers alike. Personally I thought the film was exceptionally good, bladder-leakingly scary and it had me glued fervently to the screen

::Storyline::
The storyline of the movie is very strong, ultimately original and very compelling (at least the first time you watch the film). As most Hollywood horror flicks nowadays seem to place a bunch of scantily clad teens in a scary situation with little or no motive, Blair Witch project is a refreshing change as it had both motive and reasoning and lacks the usual cringe-worthy busty blonde teenager running from a masked killer brandishing a large blade of some description.
The film begins with the message “In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found.” This sets the realistic documentary-esque style that is followed throughout the entire film. It originally had a lot of people believing it was real footage (and to this day there are people who still do), but rest assured it is in fact a cleverly directed and edited fictional piece.
One of the first scenes shows the crew of three teens interviewing people in the village about the Blair witch and acting as a small build up to the events of the actual ‘film’. The interview portion of the film is what I think makes it more believable but it isn’t as good as the rest of the film and is perhaps in place as “padding” to make the film stretch over one hour (in its entirety it is only an hour and 15 mins). As the teens go into the woods everything is going splendidly for a short while until the map goes astray and they find themselves lost and roaming in circles. The tension and panic mounts and then strange things begin happening to the three petrified youths. Stickmen hung from trees, piles of rocks outside their tent, scream of small children in the middle of the night. After one of the party goes missing the other two are left distraught and in a midnight search stumble upon an old ramshackle house where they too meet their untimely demise.

::Soundtrack::
As this film was a lower than low budget film there wasn’t a soundtrack as such, nor was there a score to accompany the film (Unless you want to count Heather Donahue’s petrified screams). Some would say this was a negative thing but it works to great effect as it builds on the illusion that this IS in fact footage found from a group of teens in the woods. It’s a shame the publishers had to go and mess this up in the sequel by having a very busy soundtrack.

::Extras::
The DVD has a bunch of extras including trailers, a documentary about the Blair Witch Legacy, Extra Footage and Interview with the directors of the movie. Accompanying the movie itself is the website www.blairwitch.com which gives much more information about the legend of the Blair Witch amongst other spooky things.