Review of Blair Witch (2016) by April F — 17 Sep 2016

I'm perplexed by the negative reviews of this film... did you all not see the original film? Were you actually expecting Oscar-winning performances and billions of dollars worth of production value? This is a "found-footage" film; it accomplished exactly what it set out to accomplish: pay homage to the original film, and scare audiences while keeping them in suspense; if disappointing "horror" films like Paranormal Activity can sell tickets, then this movie is pure genius in comparison. I think that this film was better than the original- I've never seen The Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, so it does not factor into my opinion on Blair Witch.

The marketing campaign for this film was genius- they were calling it The Woods so that skeptics could reserve judgement for as long as possible (and obviously, to keep the production under wraps for as long as possible). I think that the initial overwhelmingly positive reviews following ComicCon raised viewer expectations to an unrealistic level, and thus, set them up for disappointment when Blair Witch opened.

If you have yet to see this film, but would still like to, GO. Go into the theater with the expectation that you're going to have fun and be scared/nervous for the entirety of the film, and NOTHING else.... You will enjoy the experience, I guarantee it.