The Blair Witch (2016)

The Blair Witch...2016...rated R...89 minutes....starring James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid, and Brandon Scott...written by Simon Barrett...directed by Adam Wingard

Hello again after a while, my fellow horror fans. So let's talk about the new take on the Blair Witch legacy, shall we? As people who watch this genre with frequency know, protagonists get some dumb ideas. This movie starts with one of those bad decisions that viewers know will end in some terrible events happening. Heather's brother James (Heather being the filmmaker and head of the original Blair Witch Project) finds a Youtube video of footage found in the Black Hills Forest near the town of Burkittsville that shows a brief glimpse of a female wandering around an old structure. He assumes that this may in fact be Heather and decides to gather some friends and go look for her. As alluded to earlier, bad things ensue.

First of all, let me express one of my own biases. Mockumentary style films are old for me in the horror genre. The concept, kicked off with a bang by the original BWP, is now done to death and beyond. I can understand the interest in going back to this story, especially with the new technology that's available to people now. Drones, tiny cameras, Youtube...our toys have changed quite a bit since 1999. Since we're now on the other end of the spectrum with lots of found-footage horror movies out and about, I was hoping that this film would offer more than just another link in the chain.

What really disappointed me was that the story really didn't give us much that was new. I wanted to see more on the families of the original three and more of how the town was dealing with all the attention the first event caused. (A subject dealt with more in that thing referred to as Book Of Shadows...yeeeesh) I guess I was wanting a real sequel that actually furthered the first one's mythology and world.

Instead, I get supernatural hijinks that bend the laws of time and space with no real attempt at explanation on how this spirit got so strong. A very interesting plot point on this subject doesn't even get addressed. I get characters that I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for. Sure, I get a glimpse of the Witch herself...though I'm not sure that was a great decision. Basically, I felt like I got a modern redux of the story, not a real follow-up. And at least in this selection, I was not happy with what I got.

So, this one gets 2.5 piles of rocks out of 5. It's not really worth the stick figures.