By Geno McGahee
Before I had the opportunity to view this follow up to the 1999 cult hit, I read a lot of people reviewing it without seeing it. They went in knowing that they were going to hate it, and they were quick to point out that the first one sucked. I strongly disagree. In 1999, the horror business was garbage. The year before, the people were suffering through HALLOWEEN H2O, URBAN LEGEND, BRIDE OF CHUCKY, and PHANTOMS. The SCREAM influence was still flowing through the veins of most horror releases and the fans were sick of it. Something new was in order and there was a fascination with indie film brewing. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was the right movie at the right time, bringing a new approach with the now badly overused found footage and utilizing the tools that were just coming into play like the internet. The film was a sensation and it has lost some of the luster over the years due to several factors including the found footage style being so badly overplayed, the younger generation that is only accustomed to high end productions and the missing “it may be real” factor that made it special. In the end, the 1999 THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was innovative, smart and as scary as you would allow it to be. In short, it was a classic.
The original was followed up by a sequel, BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2, in 2000, that went a completely different direction. It was not warmly received. Over the years, continual rumors of a third swarmed around and in 2016 it became a reality. The focus of this film, apparently, was to return to the first as much as possible, with ties to the original and with more of a payoff. It was a good idea, executed well, but this film was too little, too late. Timing was on the side of the original. This one was released about five years too late for it to be successful, but when it comes to found footage, it’s not a bad film.
James (James Allen McCune) is the younger brother of Heather, the girl that was missing from the original. He finds a video on YouTube that was put up by this guy, Lane (Wes Robinson), which was from the time that Heather disappeared and may just show her trapped in a house. This creates an opportunity for James to get closure and for his friend, Lisa (Callie Hernandez), to make a documentary about his hunt. They elect to go camping in the same woods with their friends, Peter (Brandon Scott) and Ashley (Corbin Reid) with Lane and his girl, Talia (Valorie Curry), as their guides. Immediately, I began to dislike this film because it was so full of that meaningless banter between characters. I know this is found footage and it’s supposed to reflect normal discussion, but it’s hard to watch. The PARANORMAL ACTIVITY films were 90 minutes of this shit every time. So, I was able to deal with the ten minutes of it before it got into structured storytelling.
There is plenty of skepticism within the group, especially from the combative Peter. Peter jumps down Lisa’s throat at a bar and then treats Lane like complete shit from jump, laughing at all of the stories he has about the Blair Witch. Lane wants desperately to prove that this is a real phenomenon and is willing to endure the hits to get this group to believe. On the first night of camping, they awake to the famous wood structures that the witch is known for, but it comes out that Lane and Talia set it up to help convince the group. Tempers flare and Lane and his gal are chased off, but when the group tries to leave, they discover that they are trapped in a never-ending loop. They walk for five hours and end up back at the campsite.
As time goes on, more unusual things happen and time stands still for some. When Lane and Talia reappear, they note that 86 hours have passed for them when almost no time went by for the group. Lane takes off and leaves Talia behind, but she’s a basket case and there is very little skepticism left. The only motive is to wait for the morning and escape, but the morning is never going to come. One of the best things about this film was delving more into the witch and flushing out her powers. The fact that she has control of time was quite cool.
James finds the house and so does Lisa and for the first time ever, we get to see the Blair Witch. I think that the filmmakers took notes and understood that many of the people screamed “where’s the money shot” at the end of the first. They weren’t going to listen to that noise this time. They also did the right thing. They didn’t overexpose the witch. You saw just enough to be scary and interesting.
BLAIR WITCH is a good follow up and tribute to the 1999 classic. It is really a love fest of the first and was highly enjoyable after the first few minutes of meaningless dialogue. The contrasting characters kept it fresh, there was enough old and new to the story, and the acting was very good across the board. The only thing that I would slight was the fake beard of Lane in this one. At the end, the beard screamed Halloween Depot, but other than that, this film made a tremendous effort to treat the fans of the first while winning new fans. In the end, the film made about 15 million in profit, but probably won’t have a follow up. I’m not sure that one’s in order, unless it’s in another direction and we saw what happened in 2000 when they tried that.
I highly recommend BLAIR WITCH unless you hate THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Then you will hate this too. Then you were probably right thinking you were going to hate this going in and I should just shut the fuck up from now on.
Rating: 7/10
