Blair Witch

I was a bit late to the game in watching the original Blair Witch Project. I was too young when it first came out, so by the time I got around to seeing it, the found-footage genre was already alive and kicking. 

Even still though, it was an effective slow-burn of a horror film that, while its effect has diminished with competition (like the fantastic Paranormal Activity 3), its still got plenty of scares to its name. 

Earlier this year a film titled The Woods was announced and I don't think many thought too much of it. Outside of having the usual bogus horror-site movie reviews of "The scariest movie ever made!!!", it looked fairly generic. Fast forward until a few months before release and its revealed that this is actually a legitimate sequel to Blair Witch Project. Immediately, interest around the horror film piqued because if anything has been proven this year it's that reviving decades dormant franchises leads to great films [/sarcasm]. 

I'll admit, I was interested in seeing it just because I wanted to see if they were aiming to build a strong mythology with the series, again, similar to Paranormal Activity. And I'm just a sucker for a decent found-footage film. Oh, and some random horror site declared it: "The scariest horror sequel EVER MADE!!!" --> wonder how much they got paid for that?

The resulting film is one that, while it's very much in the same spirit of the original, appears a little too late to the genre that it actually helped to create. There are a sparse cluster of memorable moments, but, now writing this review almost 24 hours after seeing it, I'm shocked by how much I've forgotten the film. I had to consciously remind myself this morning that I saw Blair Witch yesterday and that's not a good thing. 

This warning clearly didn't mean anything to our group of illiterate tourists...

"Let's go into the abandoned house
that just screams 'murder'.
I'm sure we'll be safe!"

The aspects I enjoyed about Blair Witch the most were actually the tricks that it pulled. The ones that I can reveal pertain to the found-footage style of film making. For years, this often means that the camera shakes as much as possible and the film is grainy, trying to elicit a homemade quality. Blair Witch recognizes the technology we have at hand in 2016 and utilizes it for a much smoother and I'd argue better found-footage style than we've seen. Aside from a drone that's mostly useless but still kind of cool, the group that enters the forest is wearing HD camera earpieces. This way, we don't get the constant bobbing of a handheld camcorder (most of the time) and the high-definition helps the picture to be crisper, but still also very POV. The surprises I can't talk about are both because I don't want to ruin any element of surprise and because I don't quite understand them (more on that below). There seems to be a time travel or passage of time element within the story that seems extraordinary and exciting, opening the whole thing up to many possibilities. I enjoyed these random scenes of "Wait...what?!"

Other than that though, Blair Witch is incredibly forgettable and ultimately disappointing. The cast is about as average as it gets for a film like this. Each one is a no-name actor or actress that fails to make a strong impression during this trip into the woods. Most of the slow-burn interactions are lame and represent things we've seen a thousand times before and the attempts to give these kids humanity or personalities comes across as stiff and forced for the sake of checking a box. 

Look out behind you! Oh...never mind. That's just a bundle of twigs.

Even worse is that Blair Witch plays itself like a sequel that's setting up another sequel. Because of that, it doesn't elaborate at all on the mythology and in fact, creates more questions without answering a single one. It's too much mystery, just for the sake of it, and by the time it's over I'm not entirely sure I really understand what it all means. What is the Blair Witch really? Was his sister still alive? Is there some time travel or sci-fi element? Or was that shoehorned in? Where did that person go? Where did that person come from? All are questions that I had/have and if I'm being honest, I don't think I'd be interested in seeing another entry to get them answered. 

Luckily Blair Witch is short at 89 minutes, so I can't say I didn't enjoy my time with it. There are some great scares and the final twenty minutes are intense and claustrophobic. As ironic as it may be however, this newest entry for the series that started it all just isn't memorable enough to stand out in a genre that has seen this done better so many times before. 

CONS:

• Forgettable characters that fail to leave any impression
• Slow-burn or moments of personification of our group seem forced and flat
• Answers no questions about current mythology, doesn't progress the mythology at all, and leaves too many loose ends
• Doesn't do enough to stand out from the crowd

PROS:

• Has some nice tricks up its sleeve. 
• I enjoyed the HD cameras, drone, and less-significant camera wobble
• Also any potential time travel elements are pretty cool in blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments
• A handful of great scares throughout
• The final 20 minutes are intense and some of the most claustrophobic moments I can remember in a horror film
• Keeps the spirit and feel of the original

Rath's Review Score: 6.5/10