The first found footage style horror movie came in 1999 with the mysterious and intriguing "Blair Witch Project." The movie’s director went to great lengths to sell the story, even going as far as to report the three main actors as missing. The nerve-grating suspense and jump scare tactics made it the most popular scary movie of its time. Now in 2016, a sequel to the movie simply called "Blair Witch" tries with renewed enthusiasm to take the audience back to the creepy, endless forests and inject life back into the legends the first movie created, but fails to bring the Blair Witch back to its roots.
The movie starts off on the same premise it had before, something intriguing catches the eye of James Donahue, the younger brother to Heather Donahue, the girl in the first film who goes missing. The horror of the last movie remains a mystery to these students as they begin to pack up and head out to the woods with many different cameras so that the audience gets the perfect scary angle. The movie continues to bring up the Blair Witch history, readdressing the ones from the first movie as well as adding on to them a bit, but the main feeling is lost when it’s brought up again and again. It seems too much like a story and a warning that whatever happened in the story is going to happen again, which takes away some suspense the movie needs to have for the ending.
Also, the big revelation scene at the end becomes too mangled and unfocused. The witch suddenly has more power than in the first movie, and, almost randomly, a ritual needs to be done for the witch to take her victims. As fresh as the idea is, it doesn’t mix well with the original story that was already presented to the audience in the previous movie.
Beside the added details of the new movie, the story holds its own. It’s creepy and unsettling in so many ways. The viewer is bombarded with freakish noises, scary pop-ups and the suspenseful sense of hopelessness the characters feel. The hopeless feeling everyone starts to feel becomes overwhelming. Towards the end, glimpses of the Blair Witch unsettle everyone further as the strange-looking creature stalks the main characters through the eerie house from the first movie.
While the story itself progresses, the Blair Witch legend seems stuck, and the sudden manifestation of her power seems too much for a slow-burning movie. Regardless of its faults, it’s a movie that makes all your worst anxieties come true. The Blair Witch’s forest has many dangers and enough noises and scenes to make any person want to stay out of wooded areas for awhile.
Blair Witch is directed by Adam Wingard, with a run time of 89 minutes and is in theatres now.
