Seeing the scare: How The Blair Witch Project uses the obvious to terrify

The classic 1999 horror film, The Blair Witch Project, is iconic for so many reasons! One of the most intriguing aspects about the film is, how it uses the most obvious elements to terrify the hell out of the viewers.

Made in a 'found footage' pseudo documentary style, which was something new to be explored at that time, the film has set across a new genre of its kind that has inspired filmmakers in the following years.

Penned, helmed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, this indie film was made on a budget of approximately $200,000–750,000. However, the film went on to become a huge success, garnering a global collection upto a whopping $248,639,099.

The film follows the plot of how a friends' trio: Heather, Mike and Jason go on a forest expedition to uncover the truth about the local myth 'The Blair Witch'. As they are also budding filmmakers, they have documented their entire journey. As they begin their journey, they come across many disturbing stories and situations, and we witness how they try to navigate from this place of no return.

Let us explore more about how the makers of The Blair Witch Project have managed to terrify its audience all the years.

Seeing the scare: How The Blair Witch Project uses the obvious to terrify

The Blair Witch Project is a classic film to be studied in the genre of horror. Right from its marketing to how the film was executed, its experimental approach has worked quite well.

When The Blair Witch Project was showcased at the Sundance Film Festival 1999, the helmers came up with an interesting marketing strategy. They put up the lead actors' photos in a way that announced that either they were disappeared or were dead.

One of the key elements in the film's execution is its found footage style. When we watch something in that form, it automatically makes the viewers more proximate into the world that the film is creating. It shows itself to be something as 'real'. and with that, the viewers experience a feeling of being a part of the person's journey more closely.

In the entire film, we do not actually witness any physical or literal manifestation of an actual ghost or any supernatural entity, and that aspect is the most unsettling part. How did the film manage to make us terrified despite not revealing the ghost or the 'Blair Witch'? Well, the answer lies in its soundscape and its visual aesthetic.

In order to bring in the creepiness and fear, The Blair Witch Project does not primarily rely on blood and gore. It actually seeps deep inside the mind and plays with it. There is only one scene when we witness blood, gore and mutilation, when Heather finds Jason's mutilated body parts. In other parts of the The Blair Witch Project, one shall witness eerie scenes of structures from an occult world, where figures made of sticks are hanging from the trees.

There are also moments of sudden gushes of strong wind, which ofcourse, does not literally 'show' us any ghost, but it makes clear about a certain presence. In the end scene, when Mike and Heather enter into an abandoned house to find Jason, they witness the walls of the house filled with blood soaked handprints of children. There could not possibly be anything more unsettling than witnessing remnants of violence inflicted upon children.

The fact that we cannot witness the Blair Witch at any point adds to the unsettling feeling and increases the stakes of its storytelling. Since they do not show her, the audience is left to keep on anticipating to witness it anytime, at any given point!

Now, you may choose to close your eyes if you are too scared, but you shall still experience the heebie-jeebies. That is, due to its brilliant sound design!

The makers of The Blair Witch Project have made a compelling use of the sounds in the film, which elevates and grasps the actual tension that not only are the characters going through, but also the audience. There's a line in the film that Heather utters, which actually speaks the audience's state of mind while watching the film. She says:

“I'm scared to close my eyes, I'm scared to open them!”

Every bit of sound that the characters make, be it them walking on dried leaves of the forest, or the eerie sounds of the sticks breaking, it is all heightened. Your prime focus falls on the 'real' sounds of the location, and gives the feeling of the characters and the audience to be sharing the journey. Because the soundscape is so raw and realistic, the audience could feel it to be overwhelmingly terrifying.

They also play with a sense of dichotomy, as the trio hears children's voice outside their tent, something very unlikely to be heard in that eerie location. Children's laughing voices, which is regarded to be pleasant, do not feel pleasant at all in this context.

Overall, The Blair Witch Project stands out due to its captivating use of understatedness. It does not try too hard to make us feel scared, it only presents itself the way it is. It's sense of ambiguity works very well for the film. It is one of those films were the spectator's world sort of blends in with the ethos of the film.