ViewGuide

Created Apr 10, 2009 02:17AM PST • Edited Apr 10, 2009 02:17AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   OK 2.5

   Propelled to an astounding box office return by a wild assembly of critical praise for its supposed visionary techniques and purported chill factor, “The Blair Witch Project” is that peculiar cinematic beast that, despite having some individual fluorishes worth comment upon, fails to live up to the hype its generated in a way that even partially excuses it. Much of what happens off-screen in this POV horror takes precedence over what we actually see, the theories behind what is truly responsible for the bizarre occurences tormenting its trio of student filmmakers overshadowing yet flattering these general non-events. Thus, the broader scares — like a nighttime tent scene and a lingering shot of a terrified Heather Donahue confessing to the camera — defeat the film’s more faux-refreshing elements. Exaggerated performances duly noted, making cairns and stickmen scary in the manner that “The Blair Witch Project” attempts is a task apparently too lofty for Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez to handle.

   Like “The Matrix” — another proprietor of aesthetic fluorishes subsequently parodied to death — “The Blair Witch Project” fails to live up to expectations encouraged by the storm surrounding it. Yet where the aforementioned Wachowski Brothers mediocrity felt callously inauthentic, at least “The Blair Witch Project” has a small-time charm about it that ensures it never becomes a total chore to sit through. In fact, the atmosphere present throughout is palpable if never fully lived up. Had lessons been taken from the work of truly visionary filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and Dario Argento, perhaps the filmmakers here would have been able to pair their suspense off with a worthwhile pay-off. As is, however, “The Blair Witch Project” succeeds primarily at coming off as a strangely overhyped horror movie that fails to do what even smaller-scale movies as Dean Alioto’s “Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County” (a pseudo-documentary POV horror that predates this) in not possessing any genuinely chilling moment.

   No, not even the ominous ending.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music OK 2.5

14. Visuals Good 3.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.5

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Gentle 1.4

19. Rudeness Salty 2.1

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.5

22. Circumstantial Supernatural 3.5

23. Biological Supernatural 3.5

24. Physical Supernatural 3.5