The fiction-masquerading-as-reality-TV genre wasn't invented with "Blair Witch," of course. A full year before "Survivor" but well into the "Real World" generation, it told the tale of a group of bickering, competitive young people, unfolding in a manner that felt unnervingly spontaneous. What made it different? Start with concept itself, a dark twist on the then still burgeoning reality television genre. And though the filmmakers and stars of "The Blair Witch Project" did not go on to great stardom, the film itself did indelibly change the way we look at movies – and remains one of the most unique summer blockbusters of all time. It's been 15 years now since Heather, Mike and Josh disappeared into the woods - 20 if you go by the film's fictional timeline. They were also, admittedly, likely a little nauseated, a side effect easily chalked up to the film's shaky camera work but soon fancifully reported as vomit-level scares. I got another clue a few weeks later after I attended a press screening, and I observed the audience stagger out, too stunned to yet speak. There are a few things I remember about that night: the haunting shock of the final scene, how I repeatedly had to remind myself - as a newly pregnant first-time mother to be - to stop holding my breath, and how aware I was that I was watching something that was going to be a sensation before it was a sensation. Alone in my apartment, I turned the lights off and popped the cassette into my old VHS machine. It was the late spring of 1999, and all I knew about it was that it had been a surprise sensation at Sundance that year, was the current subject of a clever, utterly original online campaign and that, as the friend who had given me a bootleg copy assured, it would mess with my head. The first time I watched "The Blair Witch Project," I saw it exactly as one should – and few have been lucky enough to.
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