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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Boys (and Girls) in the Woods

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy The Blair Witch Project on DVD

Legendary producer Val Lewton (1904-51) made his career by crafting low-budget horror movies in which the scares were implied instead of shown. These pictures are still some of the greatest ever made. Co-directors Eduardo Sanchez and Dan Myrick accomplish essentially the same thing with The Blair Witch Project, which shows us the make-believe footage of three young filmmakers who were lost in the woods and never found. The movie doesn't deliver any Exorcist-type slam-bang thrills, but it does keep us tense and tingly for most of its running time. It's an original and admirable effort.

Starring: Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, Joshua Leonard
Written by: Eduardo Sanchez, Daniel Myrick
Directed by: Eduardo Sanchez, Daniel Myrick
MPAA Rating: R for language
Running Time: 81 minutes
Date: July 16, 1999