The Blair Witch Project

(Artisan)

By now just about everyone is familiar with Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick and their "documentary" about a trio of students who vanished while making a documentary film about the Blair Witch, a 200-year-old legendary apparition haunting the backwoods of western Maryland. Tough-minded Heather (Heather Donahue) operates the video camera; wispy Josh (Joshua Leonard) and beefy Mike (Michael Williams) are clearly cowed by her. The gimmick is ingenious, but as in any horror film, repetition breeds contempt -- The Blair Witch Project might have been more powerful as a short subject.