Movie Review: "Blair Witch" (2016)

BLAIR WITCH (2016)

 

Eighteen years or so after his sister's disappearance in the famous woods known to be the home of the Blair Witch, James and his group of three other friends decide they are going to give it one last go and find the famous Heather.

 

As most people know by now, Heather and her two friends entered these very woods years ago in an attempt to find proof, via a make-shift documentary, of the existence of the notorious Blair Witch.  Their endeavor was not what they expected though and none of them made it back alive.

 

Their story spread across the country and several rescue parties roamed the woods.  They never found any survivors, nor did they find the abandoned house thought to be Heather's final resting place.

 

So, armed with an array of fancy new technology and a couple of odd last minute hikers, James and company make their way into the haunted woods to finally get some answers.  Like the last documented exploration, this one ends in horror as well.

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The original Blair Witch is still, to this day, the most horrifying movie I've ever seen.  It wasn't so much the film that terrified me, but the idea behind the film.  Most young people are used to the first-person film style being used in a number of scary movies these days, but in the 90's this was an entirely new type of approach.  The makers of the original Blair Witch marketed it geniusly.  They pushed the subtle notion that what was capture on film was real...and we believed it.  It wasn't just the rumors.  The movie actually looked real as well.

 

This isn't so much the case with the 2016 sequel.  I am sorry to say.  From the very beginning it's painfully obvious the new version isn't even being filmed in the same location!  That's an unforgiveable mistake.  The woods are a lush green (film location was set in Vancouver) instead of the Midwestern golden brown.  The house which is featured in both third acts are not the same building.  These are obvious and necessary expectations for a movie sequel.  I will never understand why Hollywood doesn't get this concept.

 

One of the elements that made the original so amazing was the subtle and terrifying unraveling of sanity via mounting evidence of something very wrong in these woods.  The new Blair Witch misses the mark, instead focusing on cheap jump scares and loud noises.  When it comes to the characters, well it's more of the same behavior we've come to expect from current horror movie millennials: Running off alone, angry outburst for no real reason, and other bizarre and random life threatening behavior.

 

While the third act slightly rises to the occasion, the film makers never really were able to grasp what made the 90's version so remarkable.  Very disappointed and surprisingly forgettable.

 

Grade: C-