BLAIR WITCH (R)
Released By Lionsgate
Review By Adam Mast
Before getting to the review, it should be noted that I experienced this film under unique circumstances. As I sat down to take in a screening of a much buzzed about upcoming indie horror flick called THE WOODS during San Diego Comic-Con back in July, I was ultimately blindsided by quite an unexpected surprise. The lights dimmed in the theater, the movie began, and not but 5 minutes in, a wildly enthusiastic crowd was clued in on the truth: This wasn’t THE WOODS at all but rather a new BLAIR WITCH movie that Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett, and those sneaky folks at Lionsgate had shot in secret. That’s right. THE WOODS doesn’t even actually exist.
I have to say, this classic bait and switch came across as pretty damn miraculous. Given the digital and social media age we live in–A place where spoilers are common and a place where trailers essentially play like cliff notes for upcoming movies–cinematic surprises of this caliber are downright unheard of. Sure, there’s the mystery box , but it’s one thing to conceal important plot points in a film and something else entirely to shoot an entire movie under an alias and keep the general film going populous from finding out about it. Yes, the makers of this new BLAIR WITCH movie had fooled me and that was an exciting feeling. The kind of feeling I seldom have at the movies these days.
Once the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland was referenced in the early goings of this film and once it was revealed that the lead character was actually the younger brother of Heather–the documentary filmmaker who mysteriously vanished in those same woods almost 20 years earlier–the true identity of this movie became perfectly clear and I was all the giddier for it. For this rabid horror junkie, it was like being a kid on Christmas morning.
You see, I’m a big fan of 1999’s polarizing found footage horror flick, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, so for a good ten minutes into this follow-up I was intrigued not only by the idea that I was watching a new BLAIR WITCH movie after all these years, but by the very idea that I was fooled into thinking I was about to watch an entirely different film. Yep! I was simply elated during the opening moments of BLAIR WITCH. And then…
The next 75 minutes happened.
BLAIR WITCH is a true sequel to THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. It opts to follow the path set up by the original rather than tell a disassociated story featuring the same supernatural presence, ala BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2. Make no mistakes, though. Even though this film is a continuation of sorts, it plays more like an inferior remake.
BLAIR WITCH finds Heather’s younger brother assembling a team and heading deep into the Burkittsville woods in an effort to get to the truth behind his sister’s mysterious disappearance. As expected, this team is armed with various video equipment (since this is 2016, there’s even a drone thrown into the mix) so they can document the whole thing. And as expected, said team ultimately find themselves running in circles and coming face to face with something evil in the forest. If only there was a character here truly worth giving a damn about. Not that most viewers are coming in to a BLAIR WITCH movie looking for strong character work. Still, the fact remains that the characters in the original film felt more like real people.
Speaking of the original, in addition to introducing the world to what has become the increasingly tired found footage gimmick, the THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT also benefited from a brilliant online marketing campaign. Where the polarizing nature of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT really comes into question is when talking to movie goers about their thoughts on the film itself. Depending on who you ask, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is either an overrated cheapie that wouldn’t have been the success it was had it not been for shrewd marketing, or it’s a convincing slow burn punctuated by an undeniable sense of dread and a truly terrifying finale. In my humble opinion, it is the latter.
Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett–the genre loving duo behind the popular home invasion thriller YOU’RE NEXT and the immensely entertaining Dan Stevens-headlined actioneer, THE GUEST–are rabid fans of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and while their heart is certainly in the right place here, this film’s insistence on answering questions by way of more questions becomes increasingly frustrating (think “Lost” in the woods instead of on an island.) Not that there’s anything wrong with a little bit of ambiguity, but too often, it feels as if this movie is planting seeds for future installments rather than simply telling a complete story.
Stylistically speaking, Wingard and Barrett take a lot of the thrifty techniques they learned on the creative V/H/S 2 and apply them here. They couple these techniques with loud (bordering on obnoxious) sound cues making for a handful of standard jump scares. Also in the mix, new strange happenings including an out-of-place occurrence that feels alien in nature and a sort of time loop hook that feels inspired by the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise.
BLAIR WITCH is not without its moments. The movie certainly would have benefited from the less is more approach but there’s no doubt that once the infamous cabin in the woods shows up, Wingard utilizes it to his utmost advantage. Beyond that, there’s one chilling sequence in BLAIR WITCH that will be particularly upsetting to those who suffer from claustrophobia.
If you’re coming into this movie hoping for a near carbon copy of the original with a larger budget, you should go home happy. If you’re coming into this movie hoping for relentless scares and a “real” answer behind Heather’s disappearance, you’ll probably walk away disappointed. Having said that, you might get the answers you seek in the next sequel (or the one after that) which this movie predictably sets up. And given that this flick was made on the cheap, it’s safe to say that it’s going to make a killing at the box-office meaning that BLAIR WITCH will most likely take the Halloween-time horror franchise torch once carried by SAW and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and run through the woods with it. Wingard and Barrett are talented filmmakers but this one feels like step back and is proof that the novelty at the heart of a brilliant marketing strategy will only get you so far.
