31 Days of Horror: The Blair Witch Project remains a terrifying trip to the woods

Picture this. It's 1999. The internet is in its early stages with that familiar dial-up sound and AOL's "You've got mail" signaling the age of e-mail. Meanwhile, Kurt Cobain has been dead for five years, and in grunge's place, pop-punk bands like Blink 182 and Sum 41 race up the Billboard charts next to the likes of pop superstars the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and many others.

That summer, while everyone wondered what a new millennium would bring, a little indie film named The Blair Witch Project hit movie theaters and essentially upended the horror genre. The film's PR team also made clever use of the internet's early days, building a website to make it seem like three student filmmakers had actually gone missing in those endless Maryland woods, while investigating the Blair Witch. The website, complete with lore and missing persons photos, was so effective that The Academy Museum recently replicated it.

When The Blair Witch Project crept into theaters, I was a teen in high school. I saw the movie with my older sister, and to this day, it's one of my most memorable movie experiences, because, well, the film terrified both of us. I imagine this is how it felt for moviegoers who saw Night of the Living Dead in 1968 or Jaws and The Exorcist a few short years later. It was clear this movie was something special, and it worked so well because the spoilers, especially that creepy ending, remained hidden from audiences for a good, long while, to the point that the three leads, Heather Donahue, Josh Leonard, and Michael C. Williams didn't even give interviews. It made me wonder, did these people actually go missing?

The Blair Witch Project is a movie that grows progressively more frightening as each minute ticks by. The trio hear all sorts of weird noises in the woods, from children laughing to twigs snapping. You never actually see anything attack their tents, but it allows your imagination to fill in the gaps. There's also something hair-raising about the moment they first encounter those weird stick figures hanging from the trees near their tents the next morning.

Meanwhile, Heather, who comes across as obsessive and in total control of her film project for at least half the movie, fully loses it by the last act, to the point she gives that famous monologue and apologizes to Mike and Josh's parents for the terrible outcome. It's evident that she knows, by that point, she's never escaping those woods alive. And I think that's a big part of why this movie still endures. What's more terrifying than a woman so in control suddenly losing it? What's scarier than getting lost in the deep, dark woods?

The Blair Witch Project wasn't the first found footage movie, but it certainly created a wave of similar movies that followed. Some were okay, some less so, but none quite had the effect of my experience in that movie theater back in 1999. The Blair Witch Project simply hit at the right time, using the earliest days of the internet to build speculation and intrigue. It's a film that doesn't show the monster, and it's all the more unsettling because of that. When night fell after I initially saw the movie, I listened for any little creak or noise outside, hoping that the Blair Witch didn't follow me home. I certainly didn't sleep well that night!

The Blair Witch Project is currently streaming on HBO Max, Hulu, and Prime Video. It's also available to rent on most digital platforms.