The Blair Witch Project

The 1999 released $25,000 budget film is one of the turn around films in horror. This film bought the horror genre back in the game and changed cinema completely. A film with such a low budget could not possibly be successful we must think? However, without all the sound effects and special effects, the viewers are still scared by the film and would continue to be scared for a period of time after watching it.

It is based around three students 'filming' themselves staying in the woods for a few days to find out information about the Blair Witch. All film footage is recorded by the three students and an unmounted handheld shot is used throughout.


One of the students go missing the day after he discovers some sort of goo slumped onto his backpack and clothing and the other two go looking for him. The two end up in an abandoned house in search of their friend because his voice is heard, the two then separate by accident and a camera we are viewing drops on the floor. The final girl starts running and looking for her friend and her camera, too, drops on the floor. Just before the second camera drops, we see a man standing back towards us and looking in the corner, this refers back to earlier in the film when a man said the witch would abduct children and make them face the corner of the room as she kills another child.

This film is highly influential to my horror trailer as I now have a better knowledge of how to create fear and horror within a film without using special effects and/or sound effects. I will focus on scaring the viewers from their own mind and imagination.