The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project is the scariest film I have ever seen, it's brilliant.

I give it four stars.

Guess this movie started the reality tv craze. But most of it was them running around in the woods and waking up to find that rocks were rearranged outside their tent. It got scary when they found the house and went inside.

To each his own. Exorcist 3 was scary.

Pure marketing.

I was generous and gave it 2 stars. Much more a cultural event than a good film. Shrewd marketing both overcomes and enhances the ultra-low budget aesthetic. The ending was a bit chilling, but much of the film was a lot of shaky camera movement and unsympathetic characters. It certainly does prove that suggestion alone is very powerful in a horror film without necessarily showing a monster at all (cue Robert Wise's original version of "The Haunting").

Admittedly, they get points for taking the mockumentary into horror territory, though the idea itself is not altogether original. As with so many horror films, it owes a tidy debt to the Italians. Check out Ruggero Deodato's film "Cannibal Holocaust" to see what I mean--a movie that is hard to stomach for many reasons and will leave you wanting to take a bath afterwards.

Although it seems a bit silly now, at the time it was hugely effective. Given that the American horror film has gone rapidly down the shitter since the mid-80s (if I'm being generous), it's still the best Hollywood film in the genre from the last decade or more.

Oh, and I don't do "stars". Maaaaaaan.

How good of Americans to be importing all of their ideas from the Asian horror craze these days. Mood pieces aplenty. The Ring, The Eye (due to be remade), Ju-on (The Grudge), and Dark Water upcoming. Gosh, I really hope they start exploring other national cinemas and dig up some Jess Franco and Lucio Fulci.

It's alright, gave it 2 and a half. Loved the ending, but didn't care much for the rest. I do own the video, but I haven't felt like watching it in years.

3 1/2. it was a good film and an interesting concept, but the only part that scared me was the end (in the house, when she's looking for her friend and finds him in the basement). i found their quibbling rather annoying, but i don't mind watching it over again.

good point about japanese cinema. they make the best horror films around; 'the audition' was one of the most demented films i've ever seen!

Agreed, Agentwood. "Audition" is fantastic, but I doubt it'll ever get a proper remake in America! Takashi Miike's flicks other flicks are just as bizarre, though not usually as horrific. Usually more along the lines of live-action manga (e.g., Ichi the Killer) crossing over into the yakusa genre (e.g., Dead or Alive trilogy). The ending of Dead or Alive has to be the best ending ever filmed...hilariously bizarre and unexpected.

I prefer the first ten minutes.

Yes, the first ten minutes are damn hilarious...makes you want to eat ramen. Then there's that nice gunfight in the middle, but the ending goes so over-the-top into fantasy territory that it totally turns the entire movie on its ass. Apart from about 30 min. total, the movie is a very slow and rather typical yakusa flick (albeit with some of Miike's very politically incorrect touches throughout), but I still think the ending is perhaps the funniest I've seen given the slow pace of most the film up to that point.

Spotnick wrote:

His (Late) Holiness, The Pope wrote: How good of Americans to be importing all of their ideas from the Asian horror craze these days. Mood pieces aplenty. The Ring, The Eye (due to be remade), Ju-on (The Grudge), and Dark Water upcoming. Gosh, I really hope they start exploring other national cinemas and dig up some Jess Franco and Lucio Fulci.

And yet, I still don't get why americans can't live with a dubbed version or with subtitles...

Dubbed versions need to be bombed. It's bad enough that so damn many Italian horror flicks are only available dubbed. I have nothing against subtitles, but a lot of Americans do. We're so lazy that we can't read and watch at the same time. Admittedly, the success of some foreign films like Crouching Tiger and Hero has seemed to make subtitles a bit more palatable to some, but it's still a hard thing to force the common man to see something subtitled or B&W. Then again, many people don't like to watch their movies in the correct aspect ratio either and think they're being ripped off by letterboxing. Morons.