The Blair Witch Project
Artisan Entertainment | Release Date: July 16, 1999 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Ingenious in its simplicity. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
A pretty impressive horror film. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
At a time when digital techniques can show us almost anything, The Blair Witch Project is a reminder that what really scares us is the stuff we can't see. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMarc Caro
Many of us may have thought that with the world offering so much vivid horribleness every day, movies had lost the power to give us a good cathartic scare. It's a shock -- and a pleasure -- to discover we were wrong. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The movie would be better as a 30-minute short, though, since its shaky camera work and fuzzy images get monotonous after a while, and there's not much room for character development within the very limited plot. Read full review
90
Dallas ObserverM. V. Moorhead
Easily the scariest horror picture of the '90s, a movie that can take a place among the most potent and inexorable of modern shockers. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
As a horror picture, Blair Witch may not be much more than a cheeky game, a novelty with the cool, blurry look of an avant-garde artifact. But as a manifestation of multimedia synergy, it's pretty spooky. Read full review
50
Film.comPeter Brunette
While it has its scary moments, and while its central conceit is refreshingly imaginative, there's ultimately not much there there.
70
Film.comErnest Hardy
The great power of the film lies in its simplicity, in the slow-building tension and psychological melt-downs that are the result of stark, bare-bones film-making.
90
Film.comGemma Files
Man, I just can't recommend this enough.
80
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
It's a small film whose power is derived from its stripped-down scale. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
A clever, entertaining stunt, no more, no less. Read full review
90
Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson
It might be the scariest movie ever made.
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The inexplicably terrifying ending is good for a month's worth of nightmares -- no small thing for a movie in such a saturated field. Read full review
88
New York PostJonathan Foreman
May be the creepiest and most original horror film since John Carpenter's classic "Halloween."
70
NewsweekJeff Giles
A fairy tale reminding us that childhood fears are deep and tangled as tree roots. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It breaks so sharply from the practice of contemporary horror film that it requires us to return to the most basic understanding of what it is to be frightened by a movie.
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Caused a major stir with Sundance, and for good reason -- it was perhaps the most offbeat, energetic, and eye-opening motion picture to screen there. Read full review
80
SalonMary Elizabeth Williams
The most inventive and genuinely frightening horror movie to appear in years. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Certain to nauseate a portion of its audience. Read full review
88
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
Blair Witch forgoes a literal boogeyman in favor of the unseen, which, in this case, is as scarily bone-chilling as anything they could show you. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
As amateurish and fumbling as it is in every department, the sum total of the movie is pretty darn scary. Read full review
80
SlateDavid Edelstein
No part of us is allowed to relax. Ever. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
A truly scary horror film, something akin to a lost art these days. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
An ultra-cheap movie, ingeniously promoted through the Internet -- is notable primarily as a model of guerrilla-style niche-marketing. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
A nifty example of how to make something out of nothing. Nothing but imagination, and a game plan so enterprising it should elevate its creators to pinup status at film schools everywhere. Read full review
90
TNT RoughCutChristopher Brandon
The what-you-don't-see element makes this an excellent film for people with overactive imaginations, and if that's you, it will scare the living crap out of you.
80
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It's as chilling as Algernon Blackwood's elegantly unnerving "The Willows," played absolutely, unsettlingly straight. Read full review
88
USA TodaySusan Wloszczyna
The suspense becomes so unbearable that it's easy to overlook questions about whether anyone in such circumstances would continue filming.
90
VarietyTodd McCarthy
An intensely imaginative piece of conceptual filmmaking that also delivers the goods as a dread-drenched horror movie. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Paranoid, hysterical, and programmatically subjective, the movie is in every sense a psychological thriller. Although the payoff is ambiguous, the experience remains in the mind. It's an absolutely restrained and truly frightening movie. Read full review
90
Washington PostLloyd Rose
The Blair Witch Project is terrifying. It's also an exuberant prank of genius. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Low-tech inventiveness at its best. Read full review
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