Blair Witch (2016)

[MinionZombie]

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I never saw 'Book of Shadows' as it looked absolutely atrocious.

This on the other hand looks at least half-decent. Seems to be a mix of traditional and found footage cinematography. Of course, the trailer does all that 'loud noises' rubbish, but hopefully the actual film is more atmospheric.

I still have fond memories of how chilling that whole final act was in the original movie, watching it way back when.

[EvilNed]

Man I really want this to be great. Looking forward to it.

[wayzim]

So if you've followed several of my posts on the original Blair Witch phenomena, you know what a huge fan I am of the whole package; not just the movies. I was well into adulthood when the Project was first released in 1999, and actually got a taste of how clever it was when a lady wandering out of the movies behind me said: Oh, I hope they find those kids. A good inventive little film with a fully fleshed out mythology and amazing marketing campaign. That's what made it memorable to me. Next up, Book of Shadows; which mostly everyone hated. I think a lot of that was that it wasn't a wash rinse repeat duplication of the first film, but was a straight forward poke at the I want to believe fan base, along with an aside toward the whole video is real fixation in general. I didn't learn until much later just how much studio interference there'd been in the theatrical release, so I still have to find a copy of the director's cut; if there is such an animal out there.

The two official Blair Witch books and the Sci Fi channel documentaries; along with White Enamel and The Burkittville Seven, they really rounded out the legend of Elly Kedward to help further this aura of authenticity which surrounded the manufactured mythos. Sort of what sites like CreepyPasta do today. So now we have this new film: Blair Witch, to take the story even further along; and I was so ready for much fun to be had. And - by midway through, I was still hoping as the film fell into a seemingly endless series of sometimes extreme jump scares.

Okay, let's set the basic plot, which is that a previously unmentioned younger brother of Heather Donahue: the girl from the original film, decided in 2014 to investigate an odd viral video which might pinpoint his sister's location after all this time. He recruited another young film-maker and some friends to tramp around in the Black Hills of Maryland. And they bring some wicked equipment; from a drone camera, to some neat mini cams which fit over your ears. Along the way they also hook up with the local who had uploaded this mystery footage; which he found while walking in the woods one day, along with his girlfriend, who promptly sort of blackmails them into letting this couple tag along. So into the woods we go.

It's here that we get some hurried exposition from the locals; for those who never bothered to watch either the original film or the documentaries, right before starting into the general college kids doing stupid and careless things in the woods ploy. One immensely stupid thing forces them to camp early, allowing the witch to begin fucking these kids over. From this point it becomes Blair Witch Project meets This is Spinal Type as actions and events are duplicated from the original; with the volume cranked way up to eleven so you can't help but cringe; though whether this is from fear or annoyance, who can tell? The great lumbering unseen witch seemed at times to have more of a kinship to the Wendigo in Pet Semetary, or the smoke monster from Lost, than Elly Kedward. And there is a moment with the stick men which; while genuinely frightening had even less to do with Merrick and Sanchez's original concept. I'm all for new angles which enrich the mythology, but the new wrinkles seemed very awkwardly inserted into this film. I'm not going too much further because as River Song from Dr. Who would say: Spoilers. I just thought that by the finale, it's connections with the franchise seemed even more frayed than the twine holding those stickmen together. My only positive thing to say is that maybe Blair Witch will do well enough to greenlight a proper follow up, or even that long awaited Elly Kedward(the Blair Witch)prequel. So far the verdict toward this movie seems about fifty-fifty

[rongravy]

Yeah, no. I don't need to see a D+ Rotten Tomato score, or its under-performance at the box office, to know that this one ain't for me. I hated the original, and it's at the top of my list of suckiest movies ever, right above Unbreakable...
And, sadly, I've seen Book of Shadows. If it wasn't for some tittage, it would've been as bad as the first.
Ugh.

[Neil]

Yeah, no. I don't need to see a D+ Rotten Tomato score, or its under-performance at the box office, to know that this one ain't for me. I hated the original, and it's at the top of my list of suckiest movies everWhat?


right above Unbreakable...WHAT?