2. The Entire Movie - The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Imitated frequently, but arguably never bettered,
The Blair Witch Project is one of the most iconic horror movies ever made, and that's because a) it was the first movie to really bring "hand-held" format into the mainstream spotlight and b) it's freakin' terrifying. The plot concerns a group of relatively goofy kids who venture into the backwoods of Maryland to make a documentary about the elusive "Blair Witch," who eventually find themselves targeted by... well, something. It's an incredibly uneasy viewing experience, though one which has certainly been robbed of its impact in recent years, given that it's been parodied, like, eighty-five times. One of the best things about
Witch, though, is how real it seems. How did the movies' young directors successfully manage to imbue the horror sequences with such a horrific sense of realism, huh? They proceeded to torture their actors for real, of course! Yep: the entire film was shot as a kind of improvised acting exercise - almost as if the leads had signed up for a "realistic survival horror weekend" and, hey, these were the results! To rob some truly terrified performances from their souls of their actors, the directors evoked to "not tell them what was happening," and proceeded to scare the shit out of them over the course of the shoot in a variety of ways. This involved shaking their tent whilst they were asleep, wandering around the camp (breaking and throwing sticks), and hiding in key locations when the actors would run past, not knowing they were standing in the trees. This created a seriously tense and uneasy atmosphere on set, and one where the actors where constantly on edge, not knowing what was going to happen next. I'm getting scared just writing this out. Let's move on.