Review of Blair Witch (2016) by Acebadger — 02 Nov 2020

For me this movie lies somewhere in the average category of horror. They definitely build on the lore established from the first movie, but it could've been done better. Perhaps the biggest glaring issue for me was the showing of the "Witch" or creatures at the end. One of the biggest benefits the first movie had was not showing anything, coupling that with the sound design added to the unnerving nature of that film. This one shows the creature as a lanky, bloody thing that for me resembled the creature from the live action Scooby Doo movie. I think the better decision would've been to showing fleeting glimpses of different parts of the monster/"Witch".

I do like the expansion of the Witches ability to manipulate both time and the physical nature of the forest as it creates a sense of dread and hopelessness. They played with this in a clever way with the characters of Lane and Talia as they part from the group and experience time in a different flow from the main group. However, I think it would've been great to see the main group experience that time distortion as well. It would've been super unnerving for the main group to wake up "the next day" and for the guys to show signs of the passage of time with facial hair becoming prominent. The movie had its moments to be sure, but overall just did not live up to the original for me.