The follow-up to the 1999 movie, “The Blair Witch Project,” offers 99 minutes of screaming, flash light waving and falling trees.
Set 20 years after the Blair Witch events, the film follows a group of college students and their local tour guides, who enter the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to see if the disappearance of James’ sister Heather is connected to the Blair Witch.
It was said that a videotape of the incident was found and that Heather was briefly seen in the video. The video prompts James and his friends to go out into the Black Hills Forest.
The group packed up with its latest technology and navigational systems and venture into the woods. As night falls the students realize that they are visited by a menacing presence.
The film could have been better especially with a director like Adam Wingard. He directed hit horror movies like:
- You’re Next (2011)
- V/H/S (2012)
- V/H/S 2 (2013)
- The Guest (2014)
Wingard has announced his next horror film, Death Note which will be released in 2017.
What was great about The Blair Witch project was its sloppiness in the film-making, which achieves audience engagement that the film is really found footage and not a film.
In Blair Witch, plenty of video glitches happen on a narrative cue and takes the audience out of the film at times.
Speaking of taking the audience out of the film, there are jump scares in the film. Jump scares in a horror film seem like they are never going to die. In the film, there are way too many and seem more like punchlines than actual scares.
The acting from the cast is fine, as they all go through an emotional and physical distress.
The film sticks so lavishly to its source material that it seems like a remake more than a sequel. The mythology of Blair Witch isn’t expanded upon in the film either.
Despite these minor flaws, Blair Witch is still a very competent horror film.
Those who expect the approach of The Blair Witch Project will be disappointed but those who want scares with energy and ferocity will be happy.
Wingard did do a great job with the final act. The final act is where the tension and suspense almost becomes unbearable.
It is despairing that the biggest flaw of the film is its association with The Blair Witch Project.
