The Horror Show
Blair Witch
by Adam Wingard
Set about two decades after the happenings in the first film, Blair Witch is a long anticipated sequel crafted by the powerful duo Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett - the filmmakers of the very entertaining home invasion horror You’re Next and the moody thriller The Guest.
The original Blair Witch Project, even though it wasn’t the first found-footage horror ever released, it put this horror sub-category on the map and drove it to success. And so, twenty years later, we finally get to see what followed the grim events of Heather’s disappearance that still linger on our minds. The only difference lies in the means our new - and more contemporary - crew uses; the equipment they carry would put Heather’s equipment to shame. Besides that, everything else from the creaking sounds to eerie dark entities, remains the same.
In more detail, the newest Blair Witch story follows six amateur filmmakers, including Heather’s brother James (James Allen McCune) leading the gang and heading back into the Black Hills in search of the vanished girl and her crew. Following a similar pattern, the journey starts out light-hearted, but becomes more and more tense as the story progresses and the group gets a taste of true horror.
Blair Witch is a worthy sequel that stays true to its original spirit and in fact, dares to expand upon the eerie legend. However, the creators’ intention to fill several plot holes of the original, might disappoint the genre’s hardcore fans and especially those who are expecting a horror flick that re-invents the original story. Wingard and Barrett did a good job preserving the mystery and ambiguity of the first movie and keeping the story captivating, considering the already existing set formula of the found-footage horror.
Despite their sincere efforts, though, reheated food is never as pleasing. So, even though, it’s a decent effort to make us re-love the found-footage genre, which - let’s face it - got some pretty serious hits in the last few years, the final outcome is not the cinematic masterpiece its predecessor was.
However, this year’s horror genre has seen much worse, so at the end of the day, Blair Witch is a movie worth a watch, despite it’s guaranteed limited shelf life.
Maria Kriva, HMS
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