Wow! What a movie! It is unconventional, it is innovative, brilliant, original, and whew, it was scary!

The Blair Witch Project" opens with a title card that reads "In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found."

The movie purports to be an edited version of film and tape recordings discovered in the Maryland woods after a documentary team disappeared there in 1994. The team is led by Heather, who is making a documentary about the 200-year-old legend of the Blair witch for a college project, with Joshua and Michael.

Through the footage shot on her camcorder we see the trio playfully filming each other, driving to Burkittsville, and film interviews with the locals about the Blair witch. The trio head into the woods to search for the site where the legend began, park the car and hike into the interior. The first night passes quietly enough. But during the day they see strange piles of rocks, like grave markers. The second night they hear strange noises, and in the morning they come upon bundles of twigs tied together to resemble a human being with arms outstretched. And then they get lost.

The recordings account for three more days and nights, as hunger, exhaustion and fear take their toll. The woods aren't even particularly dark or creepy ones. But as they run out of food, water and confidence, the forest seems ever more hostile and alien. You never see who or what is harassing and finally attacking them. But very cleverly you see the onset of panic.