It’s been seventeen years
since Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez changed the face of contemporary horror
with The Blair Witch Project and made
mainstream what in reality Cannibal
Holocaust did with cinema verite thirty years prior, but whatever. Arguably the birth of viral internet
marketing with accompanying promotional faux documentary interviews and a
carefully constructed belief that the three documentary filmmakers looking for
the dreaded Blair Witch were still
missing. The concept of found footage in the aftermath of catastrophic events as a stylistic approach is commonplace and debatably overused now, but few people recall (or wish to for that matter) the one that opened the floodgates. A year after the still divisive film became an indie horror hit, costing a mere $60,000 to go on grossing around $248.6 million worldwide, Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows arrived and what might have been a continuation of the first film drove a nail in the coffin of the series. It all seemed to be over until out of nowhere, Adam Wingard’s apparently fake titled project The Woods was in what we now know as Blair Witch, a film that not only ignores the events of Blair Witch 2 completely but functions as a direct sequel involving key characters connected to the original. Channeling the look, feel and high watermarks of the 1999 film while giving it a jolt that transcends that film, Wingard debatably has made at once a solid two hour V/H/S style scarefest while also stepping backwards against the heights reached by his still best movie, The Guest.
Having worked with the found
footage genre previously on V/H/S and
V/H/S 2, Wingard more or less bumped
into Myrick and Sanchez who themselves contributed a segment to V/H/S 2.
With the idea having come about to maybe revisit the lore of Burkittsville,
Maryland and all the terrors that came deep from within its woods, this new Blair Witch takes full advantage of all
the resources of a real movie while keeping the look and beats of the original. It’s a retread but I enjoyed how much fun
Wingard heightened everything, particularly in the sound department which takes
the micro budget foley effects of the supernatural woods and amplifies them to
a terrifying screech. Camerawork mostly
mimics the sophomore look of the first but is undeniably technically superior
and even takes advantage of drone camerawork as a plot device. Acting is, of course, stronger than the
original although to that film’s benefit, the filmmakers elicited real
reactions from their cast members through pranks and trickery in the same way
the chestburster scene in Alien was
executed. What I liked about this film the
most over the original was the energetic pacing, which doesn’t take long for
all Hell to break loose at all and much like Safe Haven from V/H/S 2,
it continues to build into an all -out primal scream with some gruesome gore
even. What I didn’t like is its clearly
derivative, even channeling elements of [*REC]
into the fever pitched finale. The
film more or less is a reimagining of The
Blair Witch Project with a budget and while that’s fine it is also more of
the same.
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| This is my happy face. You should see my sad face. |
Adam Wingard isn’t everyone’s
cup of tea, with viewers pretty evenly split on You’re Next while mostly finding a following with his surprise hit The Guest, which makes him the perfect
director for something like Blair Witch. He knows we’ve all seen the first movie and
gives us both exactly what we expect and then some. Yes it is a one-upper of a movie but I didn’t
mind that so much watching it. There isn’t
anything particularly new being done here but the energy and fear generated by
the thing with many surprises along the way make this a fun package for found
footage horror fans. Those who aren’t
into the genre aren’t going to get anything here that will change that view and
for Wingard, who really works best when doing his own thing, is more or less
confined by the first film’s lore and highlights. As a director for hire movie, which it is, its
one of the best but Wingard can do better.
I suppose he wanted to try his hand at something where he relinquished
some of his freedoms and he definitely threw in his touches here and there like
a bar scene you could swear had the same DJ from The Guest. To be fair Blair Witch is also Wingard’s first
feature length found footage effort but by working within what went from a
student film to a brand name in horror, it’s a step backwards for him.
Don't be scared. Share me.
Don't be scared. Share me.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki