Blair Witch

Blair Witch (2016)

37% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 131 reviews)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Adam Wingard

Starring: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid, Brandon Scott, Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry

From: Lionsgate

Yep, I went and saw this yesterday. A few months ago I wrote about how I now fully appreciate The Blair Witch Project for what it did, and now can confirm that the Book of Shadows sequel was rather bad, although how much of it was due to studio interference, I have no idea. Blair Witch in particular... it ended up leaving me disappointed. I explain why below:

In case people did not read the reviews I did earlier in the summer for The Blair Witch Project and its Book of Shadows sequel, BWP is now something I fully appreciate-more than I did back in the day-for what it did and how it played on basic primal fears to unnerve you and make you feel bad for the trio lost in the woods. Book of Shadows is quite bad, although who knows how much of it was due to the dreaded studio interference. I am amazed there is even a sequel to the original movie 17 years after it came out, but I am also impressed they kept the true nature of this movie a secret until literally weeks before the release date. I knew I shouldn't have expectations high but considering I rate the writer and director's last two movies (You're Next and The Guest) rather highly, it was bound to happen; I guess I was bound to be disappointed.

As this is brand new I'll try to be on the vague side when discussing this. Basically, the younger brother of Heather from BWP goes out to the woods after he sees evidence he somehow believes is proof that his sister is still alive. Then again, that is not the dumbest thing a character does in this movie, not by a long shot. Anyhow, that dude happens to know a girl who is a film student and guess what, she is going to make a documentary about the search. Several people join along and despite the improvement in technology since then, they still get lost and the things that happened in 1999 happen again.

As I left the auditorium and had dinner nearby, I thought the movie was fine, despite all its problems. There were some scary moments, the ending was nicely done (even if you have more character stupidity) and overall the cast was fine. Then I thought about it some more, and by the time I got home I realized the movie was only about average. I'll try to explain why without revealing too much. I did not want this to be a carbon copy of the original as that wouldn't have made me happy either. But them deciding to streamroll over all notion of subtlety was not the right answer either. They decided to explain things way too much and ambiguity was thrown out the window. In addition, this is definitely stupider than the original; I am not just talking about the characters. What I mean is, all the dumb things that happen (sometimes, logic was thrown out the window as quickly as ambiguity was) and how several plot points happen and they aren't really resolved, thus making me wonder why they bothered with those plot points in the first place. There's some bad storytelling going on, in other words. Heck, not only is there confusion with me and someone else (he isn't a member of this site) over if something at the beginning directly ties into the ending or not, the ultimate fate of every character wasn't even clear to me. While most of the characters weren't exactly memorable or even people you really care about, closure would have been nice.

As others have noted already, I feel free to mention that this is full of jump scares, and not even good jump scares either... unless you love it when people suddenly pop into frame out of nowhere and they frighten someone due to popping into frame out of nowhere. In this case, you'll squeal with delight as it happens in this film at least half a dozen times. I got tired of it pretty quickly. It's a shame, as I still feel disappointed by this despite trying to keep my expectations in check. Somehow, I can't imagine seeing this years later and suddenly recognize its genius. So far from looking around at many different spots on the Internet, this is almost as polarizing as The Blair Witch Project, so at least there's that comparison. I say that this is a missed opportunity as with the concept and the new 21st century gadgets they had, this should have been better than it was.