Blair Witch (2016) review

In the 2016 movie  Blair Witch, Heather's brother, James, decides to find out what really happened to his sister and find closure as his friend Lisa puts it. As it turns out, not only he, but us the fans, who have waited for years to make sense of the ending of the original movie, now have a chance to do so. With the release of this new one we get more data, albeit still fragmentary, to piece together a clearer picture.

Stepping back a bit, this new installment retakes many of the elements of the original film and rehashes them, but in a less successful fashion as many other are left out. For one, the formula is now known to the viewer and the sense of being lost is less effective this time around which also makes the film rushed. The bewilderment of Heather, Mike and Josh at being lost is palpable in the original, but altogether different this time.

Another gripe that I have with the movie is the abuse of cheap scares. You know those. It is when out of nowhere someone or something jumps at the onscreen character and hence to the viewer. One cannot but react, alright, but I think it's better to keep  at a minimum and go for more sophisticated stuff. Now that I've brought this up, I'd mention the Paranormal Activity series as another big offender in this respect.

However, there are many things to like. The witch's still good with messing with technology and pulls out some new tricks from under her shawl. The mythology is furthered on a couple of instances. There's now another plausible reason for Mike's behavior in the original and we get to see more of the house and that corner from the basement. And, what makes the movie, are just a couple of seconds which show what we really wanted to see all these years. The events from the Book of Shadows are not alluded at all.

By itself, Blair Witch pales in comparison to the original, but as a follow-up, it does work. So I give my stamp of approval for those who have watched the first one. For the rest save this one for later.

For the fans

For the rest