CONTINUED FROM PART 1...

If anything, it could be argued that the film shows too much instead of too little. After all, why would the students keep shooting all these crucial moments of their journey even though these moments have nothing to do with their documentary, and when their project is long since abandoned? Fortunately, the movie provides credible motivations for this, especially for the director Heather, who is usually shooting the footage. There is a rare introspective scene in which Josh is filming her and says, "I can see why you like this video camera so much." She replies back, "You do?" He continues, "It's not quite reality." Mike (Michael Williams) interjects, "Reality says we got to move." Then Josh says, "No, but it's totally like a filtered reality, man. It's like you can pretend everything's not quite the way it is."

The Blair Witch Project not only works as a horror movie, but also as a film exploring how people react under an extremely stressful survival situation in the wilderness. In this way, it's a kind of "man vs. nature" story rather than a "man vs. supernatural" story. At first, they are playful and having some fun. The agitation starts as soon as they realize that they are lost in the woods. As time goes by, more weird incidents happen to them and they don't seem to be going anywhere, escalating the tensions between them (particularly Mike and Josh against their director Heather). There are times when they violently fight and argue with each other. They don't exactly have clean mouths in the beginning of the movie, but they understandably cuss more and more when they are in distress. There are also several scenes in which they seem to be cracking up and losing it, even crying. By the end, they have practically lost all their hope and energy, vainly trudging along to get out of their predicament.

The wholly convincing performances of each of the actors are what make us believe their plight and sympathize with these initially obnoxious characters. This was achieved by the fact that the actors actually hiked and camped out in the woods for many days while filming all of the footage themselves. Therefore, most of their tiredness and misery is what they are really feeling. The documentary look, the real-life town of Burkittsville, and their names being the same as their characters' names also help make the film feel all the more real. It's a skillful blurring of fact and fiction.

A certain realistic quality I like a lot about this movie is that, despite there are two guys and a girl trapped together for such a long time, nothing romantic in the slightest ever happens between them. There is a nice, tender hug that Heather gives Mike near the end of the film, but that's about as close as it gets. This is a welcomed departure from most horror movies involving young people, in which they usually end up having sex halfway through the movie. Every time I see The Blair Witch Project, I watch it in the dark to completely immerse myself into the experience. I don't get scared by it per se, but it always succeeds in thoroughly creeping me out. This is one of my favorite horror films.