The Blair Witch Project

I still remember the first time I watched this film with a group of friends as a high school kid at my friend Steph's house on VCD.

I hadn't seen anything like it before and by the end of the movie we were unsure as to what had happened and whether or not it was a movie or a real life event. Having to walk home in the dark was also quite scary because I was living in a semi rural area at the time.

Although the movie and website is made to seem roughly cut and "real" it is actually quite complex in its use of story devices. The 'realism' created is the underlying theme of the whole production and it is this verisimilitude that makes the Blair Witch Project film and website stand out from other films.

For example, the website itself does not state whether the events are true or false but offers further evidence in The Aftermath section on the website through falsified documents (i.e. missing persons flyer, fake police photos), mock interviews and news report audio and video which continues to draw on the strengths of verisimilitude as the basis for mythology and legends. In a sense, authenticity is the ultimate Red Herring for the Blair Witch Project.

The story devices within the film itself (e.g. asides by the students, foreshadowing in the interviews etc.) and the multitude of subtle editing techniques (e.g. dissolves at a fraction of a second that would not be picked up by the untrained eye) are complex and varied and the cliffhanger ending coupled with the website and ongoing franchises take the story's 3 act paradigm further than what the film accomplishes on its own.

Truly the work of genius!