Review of Blair Witch (2016) by Lovro H — 01 Oct 2016

Blair Witch is a sequel to the 1999's Blair Witch Project, not the Book of Shadows. Instead of saying 'the first movie' or 'the original', I'll just say "Project". The movie follows the brother of Heather, from the Project, who finds a video online that is, allegedly, shot by Heather back in the Project.

This intrigues James and he wants to go look for her. He contacts the uploader of the video and, along with 5 other people, he goes into the woods to find the house from the Project while also trying to find Heather, of course.

I'll do my best and try to not spoil the biggest scenes of the movie, but still, be wary. Blair Witch is basically a remaster of the Project, but it answers some questions Project asked us, while also asking some really intriguing questions that were not discussed in the original movie.

I honestly would say this movie is better than the Project. For a number of reasons. First of all, the direction. This movie looks way better than the original. The atmosphere is incredible! Every night sequence had me at the edge of my seat, as well as the fantastic ending.

I absolutely love the look of the movie. I'd go as far as to say that this is the best looking found-footage movie I've ever seen. Adam Wingard, who directed this movie, has done some great movies in this past, and it really shows he's a great director in this movie, although it's found-footage.

Secondly, the sound design. The ambience and sound effects were brilliant! Again, the night sequences are breathtaking when it comes to the sound design. The footsteps, the wind, the trees, everything.

It's a very immersive movie. And last, but certainly not the least, the scares. Blair Witch is a much scarier movie than the Project. I will admit that the Project looks more real, but that really doesn't matter if you're watching it for the first time now, in the 2010s.

The Project was only effective when it came out, because it had that eerie feeling that it could be real. Not everyone had internet back then, not everyone could google and check if what was in the movie was fake.

That was the beauty of the Project. Knowing everything's fake takes a lot of the horror away from the Project, though the ending still gives me the goosebumps when I think of it. Blair Witch, on the other hand, even knowing it's fake, is terrifying.

It's a truly scary movie. I will admit that the constant fake jump scares in the first 40 minutes of the movie (there's like 5 of them) were a bit annoying, but the movie makes up for it with amazing night sequences and and even scarier ending sequence which had my heart beating unusually fast and I was breathing very loudly.

It was a great experience. I have to note that I saw this movie in an almost empty cinema (4 people, including me). Watching it on your computer screen would probably take away from the experience. All in all, Blair Witch is a surprisingly great found-footage horror movie that managed to scare me more than I thought it would.

There are many plot twists that will intrigue you and will make for a great discussion once the movie is over. I highly recommend checking this movie out, despite bad critic reviews.