Review of Blair Witch (2016) by Shawn R — 07 May 2017

This is sort of a weird one. I've heard the critics, I know the flaws that are seen, and I can't really deny them. The thing is though, I guess they just didn't really bother me. Not that I didn't see them, I guess I just didn't see them as flaws. But let's back up a moment. The movies a sequel of sorts to the first movie (ignoring the second) about the brother of Heather from the first movie who thinks he sees her in some footage posted on YouTube. From there, really we have a pretty similar set up to the first movie. People go in the woods, get lost, get scared, and now we have our horror movie. And honestly, while it's not going to make as much of an impact as the first movie did, objectively speaking I may actually like it more. But there is still a sort of give and take.

The woods looks a lot better for one. I never found the woods in the first that scary, it was too open. This woods, is downright claustrophobic. That's the only thing though that is all around no contest better. Other than that, it's kind of a matter of preference. The first movie left some ambiguity on whether or not there was actually a witch in the woods, in this movie by the end there's no question. It delves much deeper into the mythology and power of the Blair Witch. As someone who's into that sorto of stuff though, I really got a kick out of it, and the implied explanations of the events of the first movie. The ideas presented here are, to me anyway, pretty godamn scary. In the first movie we didn't know anything. In this movie, there's still a lot we don't know, but we know a little more and while to some that will understandably take the fear away for me it actually made it stronger. Doesn't always work, but this time it did. It's also been critiqued as a slow movie. To a degree, I agree. The first half takes way too long to get moving. However, once things start going to hell, I was really into it. There are however long sequences of tension later in the movie and if you're not feeling the tension they're just going to be boring. I was feeling the tension though, so they really worked for me. The final climax also has some retread of the first movie, but it extends and embellishes what we saw in the first movie into something new and really creepy.

I can't really say whether or not you'll like this movie. I personally think the first one was scarier, but this one I still found scary enough and honestly I found it more entertaining. It still has some issues though, and if you hate it I totally understand. I guess the flaws just didn't seem that bad to me, and in some cases what others found to be flaws I actually really liked. It's a cool extension on the mythos of the grandfather of found footage, and I actually quite liked it.