10 Movies That Changed The Genre They Were Made In
3. The Blair Witch Project
Moving into the digital age, we have another movie that popularized a subgenre cinemas are currently inundated with. Yep, found footage. Without The Blair Witch Project it's doubtful any of the Paranormal Activity or [REC] films would have been able to gain the cultural foothold they currently occupy. Like Halloween, Blair Witch is not only the movie that opened its specific horror subgenre up to massive appeal, but also the quintessential example of how to execute the quirks of that subgenre's particular style.
This movie is still more frightening than any of the found footage releases that followed it. Although, your mileage may vary since it is pretty tame in comparison to what we're used to now. What it lacks in outright scares it more than makes up for in pure psychological dread. There is just something so disconcerting about watching two people slowly unravel in the face of an unseen evil.
The idea to keep the witch unseen is absolutely the greatest strength here. When the audience has to constantly scan the frame for anything out of the ordinary they are more likely to be engaged in the mood of the movie. This works to make the smallest things into possibilities for scares as well as keeping the witch in the viewer's imagination.
And we all know that what we can imagine is always more frightening than what is outright shown to us.