Blair Witch really was groundbreaking. I'm not just talking out of my ass.

It had the highest profit-to-cost ratio of a motion picture ever, thus proving that you don't need a huge budget to produce a money-maker. Does that stop huge budgets? Of course not, but it did pave the way for other low-budget success stories.

Also, on the front of hand-held camera work, there are actually a lot of movies that use that. The Borne series, Casino Royale, Gladiator—Blair Witch showed how the hand-held work can not only increase the immediacy of the action, but that people will go see it. I can't think of examples of hand-held work in mainstream movies before Blair Witch, which doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but BWP did a lot to prove that people will sit through 2 hours of it.

Also, personally, BWP put UCF on the map as a school for filmmakers. And maybe that doesn't mean anything to you, but Blair Witch came out in 1999, so going to school at UCF around that time—wanting to be in film—was kind of a huge fucking deal because for one, it gave us all hope, for two, it gave the film department major credibility and boosted enrollment, and for three, it just made it a better department to get into because they had to be so much more selective. It was awesome and incredible to have that kind of success story right at home.

I totally understand not agreeing on these kinds of lists, but just because you don't agree or think that something else should be on there, it doesn't mean that the stuff that's on there isn't excellent or groundbreaking for a reason that maybe you're not aware of.