Review of Blair Witch (2016) by Brandon W — 30 May 2017

When watching the original Blair Witch Project, what made it so engrossing was the visceral fear felt by the characters. The genre-defining filming method was used artistically, the performances and direction excellently captured the damning sense of absolute helplessness and desperation felt by the characters, and the threat was kept ambiguous.

Blair Witch doesn't even attempt to recreate any of this. It settles for lazy, cliche jump scares and single-frame sightings in an attempt to scare the audience. The filming method is not used to any artistic credit, the performances are weak, the lore is almost completely forgotten and hence the film fails to succeed as a spiritual successor in any way to the original.

Blair Witch is a temporarily-shocking monster film more than anything, whereas The Blair Witch Project was a tale that tapped into the visceral fear of being lost, desperate and haunted by an unknown, unseen threat. I know which I prefer.