Blair Witch Project (2016) - C

Quick Hit: Perfectly average, forgetting many of the things that made the original such a novel idea.

I spoke before on my thoughts of the original Blair Witch Project film on Mr. Donahue’s blog entry about this movie. I was hoping that initial impressions of this movie were wrong, that it wasn’t a perfectly average entry to the series (people forget that it is indeed a series, as there was a sequel, albeit a terrible one). However, I was so wrong. This movie had bland all over it , and that’s a shame, because the original Blair Witch project revolutionized media campaigns, along with pushing “Found Footage” to the forefront of money making at the time. Read all about it in the aforementioned comment section of Steve’s blog.

However, as this is the 2016 version, let’s talk about it. It’s fairly dull. Whereas the original truly built up suspense with the acting, here, the acting is pretty dull (in this one's defense, at least they are acting and not being terrorized like the original. Again, see Steve's comment section). Nothing sets it apart. And I just… let me rant here for a second.

The appeal of found footage is to make someone believe that you actually are watching… footage that someone found. I understand the appeal to the millennial generation and throwing in a drone, and fancy ear camera, etc. etc. However, it makes the movie completely nonsensical. How is this movie put together? Somebody found the footage, this horrific footage of people dying, and decided it would be a good idea to make perfect transitions between the different digital sets of footages… Puuuuhhhhhlease. This killed any realism for the movie for me, and then I started to really hate the found footage aspect of it.

Never Trust The Locals. Horror movie rule #2.

 
Normally, I like this style. A lot. It may make my blog partner ill, but I celebrate it, because it really brings you into the movie. For an example of this well done, look at Creep.

Does the Blair Witch Project (2016) still have some appeal? Sure, but it’s not really anything new. Some creepy stuff happens in the woods, and it will make you never want to go camping again (or cut your foot, or trust the locals, etc, etc). There are some moments that will send shivers down your spine, but it lacks so much… how do you say… umph.

The characters themselves are stupid. I like the idea of trying to link to the original with the brother and all, but the idea of finding the footage in the woods, perfectly preserved, putting it on Youtube, happening across it ALL these years later… garbage. It’s lazy, lazy filmmaking. But…

Like I said, it scared me a bit. As I stated in my Husk post, I’m currently in Massachusetts. Driving home, my phone died even though I still had a decent amount of battery left. This was unexpected, as I was using my GPS to find my way back to the hotel. I got nice and lost, as I was trying to traverse backwoods roads to make my way around the tolls. After watching a movie where people get lost in the woods, and then literally finding myself lost in the woods… well.. I wasn’t exactly peachy for a few minutes.

Not quite my face when that happened... but probably fairly close.

But as you can see, I made it out in time to write for our Horror Movie Series.  Because I care about you, Dear Movie-Loving Readers.

I’m going to give this new-fangled Blair Witch a “C”.

For more on this film, check out IMDB.