The movie, they say, cost $60,000 to make. Not hard to believe, since the cinematography is a stream of bad home video footage thrown together to the accompaniment of three generation Xers yelling expletives at each other.

The story concerns a team of three--Heather, Josh, and Mike--who go into the woods to make a documentary about a witch. Heather is the producer, Josh the sound guy, and Mike the cameraman. They use their own names.

From the outset the film is shot using two different styles. There's the documentary footage that Mike shoots, which is on black and white film, and there's the home video that Heather is shooting, to keep a record of the film making experience. At the beginning this dual view of the process is engaging.

The filmmakers begin by interviewing residents of the nearest town, which used to be called Blair. The people there have some measure of respect for their local witch--if they don't REALLY believe, they know enough not to go into the woods.

After the interviews, our team of three pound off into the woods, and as the prologue has already informed us–they won't return. Their next cinematic moment is at Castle Rock. Something bad happened there–but it's not made clear what, just that it involves bodies being tied together, and that it's bad. So on we go, deeper into the woods, for reasons that are not immediately, nor ever like to be, made apparent.

Once were in the thick of the woods, strange things happen. They get lost, the map disappears, they walk around in circles, and they hear strange noises in the dark. Little piles of rock and weird stick figures appear outside their tent. But nothing is ever made clear, indeed, the film depends on its lack of clarity to make it scary. The quality of Heather's home video is so poor you can't even make out what it is that she is seeing, that is when she holds the camera still for long enough to focus on anything at all. Both techniques are deliberate, of course, in the name of reality.

Maybe for the generation that grew up on slasher films that show altogether too much detail, The Blair Witch Project is exciting and new, since you see nothing. But is that scary? For me, no. I found the Blair Witch Project to be annoying. Heather's high pitch whining and screaming got on my nerves so quickly that her demise couldn't come quickly enough.

But to give it its due, The Blair Witch Project does has the feeling of reality. It's every bit as tedious as watching other people's home videos.