The Blair Witch Project wasn't the first film in the "found footage" genre but it was certainly the most important one. It was the first independent film that a lot of today's film students (myself included) had access to and really helped prove that you could create a hit film with very little resources as long as you have creativity.
Like I said earlier, the film is in the "found footage" sub-genre which at the time of it's release was practically unheard of. When this was combined with a fantastic marketing campaign (see above) it made for a huge hit and an important piece of pop culture. Financially speaking what the film was able to make over 245 million dollars worldwide on a 60 thousand dollar budget. What that did was open up the floodgates for a lot of small independent films to get wider releases.
With that being said the film itself really stood up to the hype. It was a chillingly believable tale about three teens getting lost in the Maryland woods while shooting a documentary. They begin to loose their cool, especially when a series of unexplained events test the three young filmmakers.
The film originally had some fan backlash because it wasn't as traditionally as graphic or as lets say loud as most other horror films. But personally I think that the film's realism is what made it so scarier than anything that could have been added to the film to give it more "traditional
scares.
The Blair Witch Project is one of the most important films of the late nineties and is a real treat if you are looking for a different kind of scare.
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