Search - The Blair Witch Project [Fullscreen] on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Mild Violence, Adult Situations, Adult Language Movie Release: 1999 DVD Release: 10/22/1999 Format: DVD - Pan and Scan Edition: Special Collection Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 27 mins Studio: Live/Artisan Total Copies: 43 Genres: Horror, Supernatural Horror

Combining Hi-8 video with black-and-white 16 mm film, this film presents a raw look at what can happen when college students forego common sense and enter the world of voodoo and witchcraft. Presented as a straightforward documentary, the film opens with a title card explaining that in 1994, three students went into the Maryland back woods to do a film project on the Blair Witch incidents. These kids were never seen again, and the film you are about to see is from their recovered equipment, found in the woods a year later. The entire movie documents their adventures leading up to their final minutes. The Blair Witch incident, as we initially learn from the local town elders, is an old legend about a group of witches who tortured and killed several children many years ago. Everyone in town knows the story and they're all sketchy on the details. Out in the woods and away from their parked car (and civilization), what starts as a school exercise turns into a nightmare when the three kids lose their map. Forced to spend extra days finding their way out, the kids then start to hear horrific sounds outside their tents in the pitch-black middle of night. They also find strange artifacts from (what can only be) the Blair Witch, still living in the woods. Frightened, they desperately try to find their way out of the woods, with no luck. Slowly these students start to unravel, knowing they have no way of getting out, no food, and it's getting cold. Each night they are confronted with shrieking and sounds so haunting that they are convinced someone is following them, and they quickly begin to fear for their lives. The film premiered in the midnight movie section at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Chris Gore, All Movie Guide

Heather Donahue
Michael Williams
Joshua Leonard

Artisan's DVD of The Blair Witch Project is a Dolby 2.0, full-screen 1.33:1 presentation. What would one expect from a movie famous for shaky camerawork? Predictably, plenty of the special features explore the made-up mythology of the film. The best of these is "Curse of the Blair Witch," the 45-minute "documentary" originally aired on cable TV to hype the film.
The fascinating commentary and production notes step out of the "documentary" conceit to explain the nuts and bolts of the filmmaking. Two things were frustrating about the commentary by directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez: discussion of deleted scenes that the filmmakers hoped to see "end up somewhere" (they didn't), and references to specific dialogue that the viewer can't hear over the commentary (the directors may have the movie memorized, but most of us don't). Beyond those two problems, the commentary is a great window into the movie-making process, including the techniques used to make the actors almost as hungry and scared as their characters. To find some semi-hidden features, select "Special Features," arrow down to the stick figure symbol, and press enter. Ignore the ad for Stephen King's The Stand and watch the trailers for Blair Witch instead. ~ Jen Muehlbauer, All Movie Guide