Blair Witch (2016)

Directed by: Adam Wingard | 89 minutes | horror | Actors: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid, Brandon Scott, Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry

The fresh and with a very modest budget ‘The Blair Witch Project’ grew in 1999 into an unexpectedly great success within the horror genre. At a time when CGI was slowly playing an increasingly important role in the film world, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s horror work made clever use of the concept found footage, an approach that would later be eagerly copied by a whole lot of genre contemporaries. A shrewd marketing campaign even fueled rumors that fake police reports spread around the internet promoting the film were authentic.

Due to the film’s realistic and raw nature, ‘The Blair Witch Project’ was dubbed by many as one of the scariest films of all time shortly after its release. The story about three film students who use camcorders to search for the legend of Elly Kedward in the woods of Burkittsville did the makers no harm; the print, which was made for approximately $25,000, became a worldwide hit and grossed a whopping $250 million.

In the sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, the concept of found footage gave way to a more conventional horror format. Not a good idea, because the film was only moderately appreciated by both the public and the critics. It took a while, but seventeen years after the original, a new Blair Witch film saw the light of day. In ‘Blair Witch’, main character James and a group of friends go in search of his missing sister Heather in the forest where the dreaded Blair Witch is said to live. Equipped with several cameras, the brave company heads into the dark forest, hoping for a great adventure. But it doesn’t take long before the four notice that strange things are happening in the forest. Creaks, ghostly screams and strange symbols terrify everyone. But what’s really going on?

Like the first film, ‘Blair Witch’ relies mainly on psychological horror and the evocative concept of found footage. The choppy images barely show what exactly is happening, leaving a lot to the viewer’s imagination. Although ‘Blair Witch’ is an obvious homage to ‘The Blair Witch Project’, the film lacks the subtlety and originality of the founder of this horror series. For example, significantly more jump scares used, tried and tested stylistic devices that sometimes work here but also regularly miss their target. Experienced viewers also notice that the concept of found footage does not work as well 17 years later than it did when the original was released, which is of course also largely due to the fact that the film style has now been heavily milked by Hollywood. We’ve all seen it before, which makes certain scenes feel a bit cliché.

‘Blair Witch’ does manage to portray realistic characters, people who act credibly in situations where they are overcome by fear and panic. In addition, director Adam Wingard has the cast make frequent use of relatively new film techniques such as main cameras and drones. That works quite well, although the better quality and sharpness of modern cameras (blur images in which you barely see anything are often the most effective) sometimes detracts from the minimalist character and mystery of the film. The ending of ‘Blair Witch’ is oppressive and quite frightening, which ensures that the lover of the better horror film is left with a moderately satisfied feeling.

‘Blair Witch’ is not exactly a film that adds much to the well-known witch saga or the horror genre as a whole. Nevertheless, it is a decent horror production that offers enough entertainment and tension to keep you glued to the tube for almost an hour and a half.