Blair Witch review

Director: Adam Wingard
Running time: 89 minutes
Certificate: 15

The 1999 Blair Witch Project was something of a revelation, not only did it father the found footage genre but it was a very effective horror film that had plenty of scares. Underpinning it were characters we cared about, which made the film both believable and full of tension as the trauma unfolded. Which is one of many reasons Blair Witch disappoints on so many levels, and ends up being a letdown.

Ignoring the first sequel to the series Book of Shadows, Blair Witch begins twenty years after the original film, when James Donahue (James Allen McCune) comes across an uploaded clip of his missing sister's recording of when she investigated the Blair Witch legend in Burkittsville Forest. With a few friends Lisa Arlington (Callie Hernandez), Peter Jones (Brandon Scott) and Ashley Bennett (Corbin Reid) he meets up with the person who uploaded the clip onto YouTube, so they can be taken to the place where her camera was found.

The film slowly builds up to everyone setting up camp before things get really loud and predictable. Until the last ten minutes almost all of the apparent scares are manufactured and cliched. You have your usual jump scares such as characters suddenly appearing in frame to scare whoever's point of view we are seeing, and strange noises appearing off-screen just so one of the character's can go investigate in the dark by themselves.

None of it is remotely effective because everything is so bloody loud, unlike the original, the sound never feels natural to the surroundings, making it obvious that a sound effect button has been cranked up to eleven and put into the film in post production. So nothing feels real, not once can you imagine anything onscreen actually happening, of which the original for all its faults, managed to do. Maybe the found footage horror genre has just run out of new ways to work?

While the characters have clear motivation and agency, they are all rather forgettable, you'll forget their names within an hour of the film ending. And like many horror films they do the most stupidest things that get themselves killed.

To its credit the film does get better in the last ten minutes, where for the first time something terrifying actually happens, bringing about a real sense of urgency and claustrophobia. It is also the only time that the shaky cam works.

But this is taken away by a very anti-climatic ending.

Verdict- Unless you absolutely loved the original and have some free time to spare I would not recommend seeing Blair Witch. It's not so bad that it's unwatchable it's just wasted potential that offers nothing new, I'd wait for a rental.

D
2.5/5 (bordering on 2, couldn't decide)