"Blair Witch"** 1\2 (out of ****)
"The Blair Witch Project" (1999) engaged in one of the greatest marketing campaigns in the history of modern horror movies. Upon being released the movie was being marketed as based on a true story. Audiences would get to see found footage (the movie) recorded by three student filmmakers, who went Burkittsville, Maryland to make a documentary on a local legend known as the Blair Witch. The three students vanished. One year later someone had discovered one of the recordings. That recording was going to be released in theatres.
Saying this now, 18 years later, some readers might think to themselves, what was so great about this marketing campaign? I cannot tell you how many people, people I knew, friends, that actually believed the background story. The three main actors in the movie were unknowns, adding to the believability. They were prohibited by the filmmakers from doing publicity. There was even a television documentary filmed on the legend of the Blair Witch and the three students that filmed the story.
When I saw the movie in theatres in 1999, I summed it all up by writing the movie was nothing more than "watching trees for 90 minutes". The movie was a box-office hit and was shown much love by movie critics (sheep). The late Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the movie four stars. After the first couple of weeks, word on the street was the movie was bad and the public quickly learned this was a "movie". There were complaints, due to the shaky hand-held camera work, audiences would leave the theatre, becoming dizzy.
Although I disliked the 1999 movie, I have to admit it was influential in the horror genre. Would we have "Paranormal Activity" (2009, which I prefer) if not for "The Blair Witch Project"? The movie inspired an unnecessary sequel, "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2" (2000) and this unnecessary reboot / sequel.
"Blair Witch" (2016) takes place approximately 20 years after "The Blair Witch Project". James Donahue (James Allen McCune) is the brother of Heather, one of the student filmmakers from "The Blair Witch Project". He believes his sister may still be alive, trapped in a cabin in the woods. He along with some friends will make their own documentary about rescuing Heather. The footage we are about to watch...blah, blah, blah.
By and large "Blair Witch" is a duplicate, in style and tone, of "The Blair Witch Project". This is all presented as "real". We get the same crummy hand-held camera work and get to look at trees for 90 minutes.
Yes, there was great potential in this story-line but, I can't help it. Neither this movie or the original were scary to me. This is an example of great set-up but poor execution. The entire "found footage" concept with the hand-held camera work and first person point of view are more of a distraction than contribution.
Once again, as the terrified young adults, roam the forest, all we see are trees and leaves. The movie primarily takes place at night, in the pitch dark. I couldn't see anything! I understand how someone could write a nice thesis on how this is effective because it plays to our fears of the dark and "sounds that go bump in the night". Or how not seeing something is more scary because our imagination does all the work (a defense for the 1999 movie) but the camera moves so fast I couldn't register what I was seeing. And, did I mention everything takes place at night and I couldn't see anything!
"Blair Witch" reminds me of a television I used to watch occasionally called "Ghost Hunters". It was a show that followed two plumbers that double as paranormal investigators. They travel to various haunted locations to try and make contact with the spirit world. In the few episodes I have seen, NEVER have the two come face to face with a ghost. Instead the show would feature moments with the two men standing next to each other saying things like they feel a draft or heard a strange noise in the background. None of that is scary. And that's the "Blair Witch" - a group of people telling us they have bad feelings and running away from things, which we can't see because it is too dark.
The performances in the movie unfortunately don't amount to much either. These characters aren't presented as people but merely pawns for the story. Who are they? What are their motivations? We understand James' motivations but never emotionally open up to any of the characters. Everyone, I suppose, is doing the best they can with the script they were given but nothing is fleshed out. Having said that however the performances in this movie are actually better than the 1999 movie, which made no attempt to distinguish its characters. Here we can say the same thing here though. We have the two pretty girls, you always need a damsel in distress. The misunderstood loner, who knows all the town secrets but everyone thinks is a quack, the token black best friend, who isn't good at camping and putting together a tent, and the brave, noble male hero. Outside of the cliches there is nothing here.
What was the purpose of "Blair Witch"? Why make another sequel 17 years after the original and 16 after the last sequel? Do we really need a franchise series of the "Blair Witch"? Given all the new technology since 1999 did a studio head believe today they could do so much more with the story with smart phones and drones? Was it all an attempt to introduce a new generation to this story? Was this all just a sell-out attempt to make money?
"Blair Witch" may scare some audience members but given the reaction the public had to the first movie, I can't imagine a large portion of the audience responding positive to this movie either. It's a copycat. If the first movie gave you motion sickness, so will this one. If the hand-held camera work bothered you the first time around, it will this time too.
"Blair Witch" doesn't feel like a complete movie. There is no sense of a resolution, only a hint at another sequel (!). It becomes more of an experience than a movie. You sit down watching this movie and in the end nothing happens. Maybe one day they will find the footage that had the story.
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