Blair Witch review

Blair Witch

The Blair Witch Project was a genuinely groundbreaking film on release; after decades of blood, gore, and stupid effects, it showed how effective a horror film could be without ridiculous gimmicks, badly designed monsters and constant screaming jump scares. It was a simple premise, executed brilliantly. It was constantly about the unknown. A myth we wanted to believe in, as the audience, and a monster we never saw, which is always scarier. The way it was released and advertised was even better, and led to its iconic status.

Blair Witch, its (recognised) sequel, goes someway to reinvigorating the myth. Without going into too much detail, we are introduced to two big believers in the Blair Witch legend, who supposedly get footage of the Blair Witch in action. James, Heather's (the snotty girl from the first film) baby brother, eventually finds himself in the woods with a few friends, and the believers, who promised to show them where they found the footage on the proviso that they can go along with them to the woods.

GPS, ear-cameras and a drone are used, which should add a dimension to the scares, and quite often they do, but they are also so-called aids which are simply overcome by whatever lurks out in the woods.

The first 30 minutes or so is genuinely very good, in that it's essentially the same setup as the first film, though with more knowledge of the myths (in theory) and more people, which as in most horror films, tends to mean more deaths. Branches snap, wolves howl, and you've got great use of light and dark. The shaky cam effect is as effective as you'd want it to be.

The problem is the latter part of the film, which begins with the two believers eventually leaving the camp. This triggers a series of events and discoveries which suggest that the Blair Witch's powers are taking effect. This is all well and good, but then the film gets a bit silly, including various ailments affecting one of James' friends, something which doesn't really have any impact on scares, and is kind of pointless. One particular death directly suggests some sort of supernatural link between the wooden symbols left by the witch, and those trapped by its curse. That was merely one of the more bizarre parts of the film, nodding to where the rest of the film would head.

The idea I had, going into this film, was the nagging concern that it would have to end one of two ways. Either it stayed true to the original, and ended with an allusion to Josh standing in the corner (or something similar), or it confronted the myth and explored what the monster really was. For me, it was a lose-lose idea, because there was no way the film could really improve upon the ending of the original, given what it meant with regards to the myth. The notion of confronting the witch was also a bad idea for me, as this would likely involve some shitty monster design (beyond the likes of Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers, horror monsters are rarely well designed or executed). 

The best thing I can say about the final section of the film is how well it's edited. The camerawork is frantic, occasionally blurry and very busy, which is exactly what you want. There is one final nod to the original, and an updated approach to physically approaching the monster, which is surprisingly clever, but there's also a glimpse of 'Heather', which seemed so unnecessary that it was actually pretty baffling.

As a big fan of the original film, I was very skeptical about this. I didn't know, until a few days ago, whether it was a remake or a sequel, but it didn't really matter. What starts off as a familiar tale, with some solid jump scares, descends into farce, lazy generic scares and a formula which seems to appease those looking for a more entertaining and colourful experience, which stands in direct contrast to what made the original so great.

6/10