Reboots, remakes, sequels and what have you, Hollywood is constantly trying to recycle old ideas to make a quick buck at the box office. The Force Awakens and Creed managed to catch lightning in a bottle by hitting the same notes as the original films, and in doing so they made both a lot of money and positive ratings. With no end in sight to these soft reboots, The Blair Witch Project is up next to bat with Blair Witch, acting as both an entry point into the series, as well as serving as a sequel to the original.
Ignoring (And for good reason) the much maligned Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, Blair Witch picks up in 2014, twenty years since the cast of the original movie went missing. James Donohue, the fictitious brother of Heather Donohue from the first film, is planning with his friends to venture into the Black Hills in Maryland after finding a video on YouTube that supposedly came from said location. As anyone can guess with horror movies, nothing goes as planned and the group now become the prey to the titular Witch in question.
Let’s get this right out of the way first: Blair Witch follows the grand majority of the beats of its original film, albeit through a more modern lense. So you’re getting more showing than the first film’s tell-all method, in which the film stops at noises, rustling tents, and the camera dropping at the film’s conclusion. That being said, the film follows these steps, as they are established in the structure of the original Blair Witch film, but introduces smaller things to add to the mythos in tasteful, somewhat interesting ways. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t describe said scene extensively, but one such thing that plagues a character in the film warranted a “Ewww” from the crowd watching, including myself. There’s clearly more budget at work here (You can tell by the cameras being used) but with that increased budget comes more of you seeing things, albeit not so much in the long run. This will no doubt infuriate people expecting a creature-feature, but the movie does what it can to cater to those who are fans of the original’s shroud of mystery and today’s modern horror style.
Yes, the film follows the original that much. At one point I realized I felt like I was watching a remake of the original, aside from subtle reminders that lead character James was looking for his sister and this was a sequel. What differentiates the film from its predecessor is that being that it takes place in 2014, the cast are taking precaution with technology. Drones with cameras, GPS locators, walkie talkies, and the such. Technology soon falters, however, and cripples their hopes of escaping the woods alive. This helps modernize the aspects of the film that made the original work back in the 90’s, and when the drones and GPS stop working you start to realize they’re on their own.
Said characters act as fodder to the Witch, who lurks off camera and torturing them from afar in more ways than one. While James is revealed to be a paramedic and Lisa is making a documentary for her class, Peter and Ashley receive little-to-no development outside from a few chuckle-worthy or eye-roll-inducing lines from the former. Burkittsville-locals Lane and Talia also serve as the guides into the woods for the group of four, but exist solely for the point of building tension in the group, as is apparent from their first introduction. Ultimately, while the similarities to the original are forgivable and understandable, the characters are one-dimensional, in which the audience makes no emotional connection with them as they’re picked off.
While those complaints are notable, what this film ultimately comes down to is one thing: the horror. Is it tense? Are the scares there? The short answer: yes, they are. While false-jump scares are throughout the film and in the style so many modern horror films are accustomed to, the film does contain true horror moments that are unnerving right down to its core. At one point in the film, the characters realize that it’s 7 AM and the sun hasn’t come up yet. Stuck in a perpetual, looping wooded area, the characters continue to spiral downward as the film starts to transition into its final act. It’s in the final act where the film comes together and becomes stronger than the two preceding it, as any jump scares present are warranted and legitimate frights instead of cheap ones with something that’s not scary at all. It’s in these last 30 minutes, as well, where the expanded mythology of the original film comes into play, as it reveals new and interesting aspects of the mythos, giving the viewer a chance of hope that only ends up squashing them just as quickly as they came.
Fans of the original will surely find things to criticize in this third act, and yet as a casual viewer I only found myself more and more fascinated than I initially was about the supposed Blair Witch. While it’s not much more information to go upon, Blair Witch makes use of what it lets the viewer know and never cheats in its own set of rules. Of course, these rules are reiterated in the beginning of the film for newcomers and returning viewers to (re)learn for the oncoming 90 minutes, but it does well by sticking to its guns and doing whatever is possible.
While ultimately fun and enjoyable, Blair Witch shares its faults in an almost equal number, weighing its pros and cons equally. While films like The Conjuring 2 may, ultimately, be a better movie all around, Blair Witch is still more fun and enjoyable than most of the fodder being shoved into the horror genre for a quick return of profit. Blair Witch surely won’t be reigniting horror films like the original did years ago, but it’s no doubt keeping the spirit of it alive and doing an alright job at it.
Note: The trailer below does spoil an amazing sequence from late in the film, but ultimately shows less than the first trailer. I’d recommend going in knowing the least amount as possible (Outside of this review) for the best experience.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCyYGluxUsE[/youtube]
