The Blair Witch Project

I watched The Blair Witch Project on Halloween and it was one of the most scary films i think I've ever seen (apart from possibly the Saw series), and the amazing thing was that afterwards i realised that you never actually see anything scary, the whole film plays on the audience's imagination. It's also quite inspiring because it's similar to the thriller i will create in that it was very low budget of around £2000 - cheap for a cinema screened film of course.
I think the most effective factor of the film is the iconography:

Setting
Set in a large forest it provides the scariness factor of shadows, noises in the night time and total isolation - i think this isolation plays on audience fears the most therefore making it even more thrilling. This is all also emphasised by the fact that they are lost and are in unknown territory.

Mise-en-Scene
Is generally very dark - this provides the unknown factor again, the lack of glamour to their clothes and general look adds realism to the film/story so it makes it seem more believable and therefore scary.

Camera
Is entirely handheld (or at least on a very shaky track) so it heightens the sense of their isolation from the world because it allows the audience to suspend their belief and think that there isn't a film crew there. At some points the screen is just black because it is night and they don't want to turn their lights on, and i think this panics the audience a little. It's almost like a break from having to close your eyes in fright but at the same time you want them to turn a light on in case something jumps out - so it dramatically increases the suspense.

Colour
Is all natural browns and greens - which adds realism again. Then sometimes when it's black + white it makes it seem supernatural and almost adds glamour - in an old movie style way. By glamour i mean something out of the ordinary - they seem to have very normal lives and i think the black + white symbolises this extraordinary event (also could be put into 'camera')

Rating: ****