Blair Witch

Starring: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid, Brandon Scott, Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry
Directed by: Adam Wingard
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Thriller
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A man (James Allen McCune) puts together an expedition to search for his sister's remains where she disappeared after encountering the Blair Witch.

Review:

Tim: I love that this sequel was filmed in complete secrecy. No one outside of the production/studio knew the film was being shot until the shocking revelation of the trailer, two months before the film was released. In a day when we know about movies years and years before they are released, it was refreshing for a studio to surprise us. I really enjoyed the the great original The Blair Witch Project, so I was excited to see this film.

Blair Witch finds itself in the middle of the franchise in terms of quality. It's no where near the unique, entertaining, and frightening first film, but it is significantly better than the muddled second movie. This film is a decent horror movie. It offers some good thrills and just enough to keep the audience entertained. It's not quite a good movie, but it does reverse the declining trend of the franchise, which is a good thing.

I really enjoyed how this film tried to connect to the original by making the main character the younger brother of the vanished Heather from the original. That is so important because it infuses at least one character with an additional reason for us to care about them. That helps, because the rest of the cast is your typical horror movie death fodder. They're a bunch of one-dimensional, forgettable characters that we never really get to know. We have three couples in this film, but honestly, all of the characters are fairly bland. We never really get to know them, so we don't care about them. We know they are all (or almost all) going to die anyway. This movie can't escape that horror movie cliche and even worse, it doesn't give us a chance to forget it, either. We know this expedition is doomed, so some of the suspense is taken out of it.

The movie does return to the "recovered footage" concept that was executed so well with the original. I thought that was fine, as it was true to the franchise's roots. The one nice addition was the use of drone footage (gotta love 2016). This might have been slightly gimmicky, but it was more authentic to the times in which we live. The drone footage didn't add significantly to the movie, but there were some impressive shots that helped illustrate how isolated and remote the woods and our characters were. It's a small thing, but I appreciated the distinction for this film.

The movie itself unfolds about as we'd expect. We get some creepy nighttime sequences with night vision, we get some odd rock piles and hanging sticks. There's a fairly decent climax in an interesting location. As you might expect, we learn a little more about the Blair Witch. Really, this movie does most of what we'd expect and hope from a third film in a horror franchise. The movie benefits from that, but it also reminds us that this film is moving down familiar paths. It might get the franchise on track and revive it (it's the first film in this franchise in 16 years), but that's all it did. Rather than breaking new ground or charting its own path, it just picked the franchise up, dusted it off and set it back where it was. On the one hand, that's positive- it'll be interesting to see if we get a fourth film. On the other hand, this movie wasn't ambitious enough, nor did it achieve enough to really make us sit up and take notice.

Blair Witch is definitely a decent horror movie. While I wish I knew and cared about the characters more, there is still enough here to mostly hold our attention. It does reverse the trend of the franchise while reviving one that's been fairly dormant. Overall, while the movie might not have been the overwhelming success you'd hope for, you can't call this film a disappointment. It did enough to be a decently entertaining film, so there's definitely some success here.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Blair Witch Project, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2