Four students venture to Burkittsville, Maryland to investigate the myth of the Blair Witch. Things slowly start to unravel.

I remember the hype surrounding The Blair Witch Project in 1999, with some saying this was a horror masterpiece that would be seen as a trailblazing entry into the genre.

The marketing for the film reminded me of what a modern-day William Castle might do. It was inspired to try and promote this found-footage film as being a true story with the filmmakers going to extraordinary lengths to try and validate this (one example was that the three leads weren’t registered with the Actor’s Guild which would fix any pesky journalists trying to prove that the film was actually fake. There were even death notices on IMDB).

I was also impressed that this low-key and low-budget film made it into huge cinema chains rather than niche arthouse cinemas. I remember I went to see it in a multiplex in Hammersmith, London when I lived nearby. The film was garnering great reviews and great box office returns. Good for them.

But is the film any good? It’s great that this is a found-footage film and that a niche horror sub-genre was given a shot in the arm. The first few scenes of Burkittsville locals being asked about the legend of the Blair Witch were a nice lead-in. It lends the film a nice urban legend campfire vibe.

But then things start to unravel very quickly and not just for the characters but for the film itself.

Firstly, not much happens. We get piles of rocks and twigs bound together to make stick figures. Also, the characters are irritating as hell. When they’re not whining or bickering, they’re shouting. I lost the will to live several times during the running time.

We get the iconic sequence in which the character Heather speaks straight into the camera underlit with a torch, all fear, tears and snot. But such a sequence doesn’t make the whole film just as iconic if the material just isn’t that good.

The film’s climax involves fleeting glimpses that you might miss if you blink in the midst of blurry, grainy camera footage. There needed to be a significant big reveal but it doesn’t happen. What we get instead feels like a cop-out and excused by the filmmakers as this is a found-footage film.

I remember feeling shortchanged when I first watched the film in 1999. I still feel the same in 2026.

Apparently there’s an unofficial extended cut that lasts nearly 4 hours. Not on your Nelly.

1.5 out of 5 stars