I’m talking right down to the blink and you’ll miss them revelations of James and company’s pursuer (just wait for the Blu-Ray release when everyone will be freeze-framing to see if the witch is really covered in black hair as one women told Heather twenty years ago). If the first half cannot remove itself from its progenitor in style, substance, and frustrations, the second owes everything to ‘s darkened corridors illuminated by flashlight terror. The scares have been ratcheted up so that Blair Witch‘s finale is both longer and more intense, taking a page out of one of the most creatively successful copycats born from The Blair Witch Project‘s wake in. Who’s lying and who’s scared? Who can we trust and who is under the witch’s influence to lead the other lambs to slaughter? It puts a spin on everything we’ve seen, making us question what’s real and what isn’t. The filmmakers weren’t lying after all because this wrinkle did get me to invest in the identical story beats with the promise for more. The main purpose of their presence is to give us two distinct groups of campers able to go in separate directions and therefore provide the distance necessary for a new scare tactic concerning elapsed time to hit full impact. Without going into too much detail, the addition of locals does add the intrigue needed beyond simply bolstering character numbers for Barrett and Wingard to kill. They’re who discovered new footage that sparked James’ quest. The only significant difference to this point is the inclusion of local guides Lane ( Wes Robinson) and Talia ( Valorie Curry). Aesthetic and upgrade aside, however, everything else is very much the same down to the bottle of scotch shared in their motel room before setting out. Welcome to the twenty-first century, fellow witch hunters. Budding filmmaker Lisa Arlington ( Callie Hernandez) is even fitting James and friends Peter ( Brandon Scott) and Ashley ( Corbin Reid) with earpiece cameras that are GPS-enabled. We’ve gone from 16mm and VHS cassettes to flash memory cards, DV tapes, and drones. So when exactly does the originality kick in?ĭon’t get me wrong, it’s cool to watch the history unfold almost two decades later if only to compare and contrast the technology. I’ve already waded through exposition and saw what happened to Heather and her crew. And while today’s generation can sit and watch without any preconceived notions, I’ve already heard the stories. The idea to veil it under subterfuge until the eleventh hour of its premiere by going so far as having Lionsgate cut a trailer with the name The Woods was genius, but the movie has to stand on its own two feet once the initial buzz of excitement dies. This was admittedly my biggest worry: would I care anymore? Barrett, Wingard, and producer Keith Calder could talk about this rebirth being fresh and unique all they want, but the comparisons are unavoidable as long as it’s still found footage. We therefore have to ask ourselves if that matters. The reality that this is ostensibly the same film doesn’t diminish simply because its characters are different and those that came before are acknowledged. Opening this latest sequel with an intertitle explaining how James Donahue ( James Allen McCune) and friends went into the woods to find his sister Heather before disappearing and leaving their cameras behind is homage at best, the earmark of a remake at worst. No amount of viral advertising will change anyone’s mind about whether or not the events onscreen actually happened in 2014. Written by Barrett and directed by Adam Wingard (the duo behind You’re Next and The Guest), the veracity of Blair Witch‘s found footage element was never going to be questioned. So why then has a new tale based upon its mythology surfaced seventeen years later? Maybe it stemmed from a conversation between original directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez and screenwriter Simon Barrett or maybe it was happening anyway. Any plans for more installments were scrapped and the legend of the Burkittsville monster was mothballed. The film that was ultimately released into theaters wasn’t his cut-whether this fact has any bearing on quality remains to be seen-and inevitably went on to get panned by critics and audiences alike. It was only sixteen months after the release of The Blair Witch Project that Joe Berlinger‘s sequel Book of Shadows bowed in an attempt at striking while the iron was hot. Rating: R | Runtime: 89 minutes | Release Date: September 16th, 2016 (USA)
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