Review of Blair Witch (2016) by Tyler L — 16 Sep 2016

I went to see this Thursday night. When the original came out, I was fourteen years old and remember waiting for it to be on VHS to rent it, and in the end I remember thinking "This must have been a lot scarier in the theaters" due to the hand held type of cinematography used.

Well, Here I am, 31 years old and having seen it in a theater, I can honestly say I wasn't impressed.

I'm a huge fan of horror as a genre. Not slasher films, not gore-porn, but real, genuine horror. This has plenty of elements in it that should be in a horror film, but I found myself walking out of the theater going "...meh.".

First off, I basically watched the exact same film, but now the cameras being used were "state of the art" for last year (as it was allegedly filmed in 2015.).

I did enjoy some of the more unnerving elements of the blair witch and it's powers used against the poor souls who ventured into the woods at night. I loved what happened with the tents, the element of perpetual night and complete shift in perception of time amongst the campers. The location of the house being revealed at the end was clever. I was certainly glad to see the a-hole best friend get it first when all the craziness went down in the third act. The reveal of the witch was genuinely creepy, however there's a moment that left my date and I both asking "so...she was an alien?" which was just confusing.

The film was basically built upon jump scares, which was a little disappointing. I didn't walk out with the feeling of "What if that happened to me..." like many great horror films do. Ultimately, it was disappointing, and I would recommend renting it, but not paying 12$ per person to see it in a theater. This feels like a larger budget film with a Direct-To-Video quality script. The actors did a great job, I can't deny that. The directors did a pretty good job as well, considering what they had to work with.

The old saying "It wasn't bad... but it wasn't good either." Fits this perfectly.