Blair Witch

...that kickstarted the "found footage" subgenre. A college film student (Callie Hernandez) decides to do her class documentary project on her friend (James Allen McCune), or rather her friend's sister, Heather, another documentary filmmaker who went missing back in the late 1990's investigating a local legend about a witch's ghost that haunted the nearby woods. Hernandez and McCune, along with his friends (Brandon Scott & Corbin Reid) and a local couple (Wes Robinson & Valorie Curry) who supposedly know the woods, all head into the forest to see if they can find the abandoned house where Heather went missing.

I was a fan of the original but not the superfluous 2000 meta-sequel, so I went in with lowered expectations. I was interested in what director Adam Wingard would do with the material, as I was a big fan of two of his previous movies, You're Next and The Guest. This doesn't rate with either of those, but I did enjoy it almost as much as the original. It still uses the "found footage" gimmick, with all scenes supposedly filmed by camcorders, or, since this is more tech savvy, small GoPro style cameras worn by the cast, as well as a remote control camera drone. While the movie relies way too much on loud soundtrack-sting jump scares, I liked the decision to be more demonstrative as regards the witch's ghost, and there are some good creepy moments here and there.

Shhh.... Did you hear that?... Peter?... Peter?!... Peter!... Peeeter!!... Ashley!...Ashley?... Ashley!....ASHLEY!... Aaaashleeey!!... Aaashleeey!....James?... Jaaames!...Lisa!... Liiisaaaa!... Peter?... Peter!!!.... Lane?... Laaane?.... Talia?... Talia!.... Ashley?... James???... Lisa? ... Liiisaaaa!... HEY! All of you just shut the f**k up! It's over! OK? Take it down a notch. It's finally done. What started in 1999 with a unique low-budget, cleverly executed and promoted, and genuinely creepy little indie film, finally ended in 2016 with a ridiculous corporate big-budget hackneyed piece of shhhh...did you hear that?... Ashley?... Ashley?.... ASHLEY!

After I watched this movie the first time I rated it a 6 as I found it mildly entertaining. I recently watched it again and couldn't help but notice cheap jump scare after cheap jump scare. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, they used the same type of unfulfilling shock tactic 3 times in succession. THREE TIMES! I am of course discussing how it seems to be totally possible for someone to be able to walk up to another character, stepping on all those woodsy twigs and leaves and wotnot, and not be heard AT ALL until said someone is practically on top of the other person. Cheap and nasty thrills for the sake of nothing... NOTHING! I've since reevaluated my rating to a 5.

Remember the first Blair witch movie? Yeah, then you don't need to see this. It's an updated version, but without the hype and sound design (oh, there are creepy sounds in this one too, so many in fact that they stop being creepy after a short while) that made the first one successful although not good, and slightly frightening. But sure, if you like to hear people scream names of people you don't really care about, and enjoy the tiresome jump-scares, and shaky cameras, and annoying frightened breathing noises, then you might enjoy this movie. I did not.

It's great that it is a direct sequel and helps with some closure and better understanding of the first film, as well as confirms some suspicions from BW2: The Book Of Shadows.

While the movie had some fake & silly jump scares, the main plot and twist were actually really good. Not as subtle as BWP, more like blatantly obvious at the very beginning and end, but some just don't get it, care to see it, or don't understand it.

When I put it together it definitely helped add more appreciation for the films overall, and would love to see more in the series or even some spin-offs more like BWP & BW, no to so much BW2.