The Return of The Blair Witch

Let's face it you all knew that I was not going to pass this one up did you kiddies. 

This one was not about to get past me and I knew that someone was going to have to be a defender of not just the flick but the franchise and the subgenre as well. 

A couple of years ago I wrote an entry here on the Video Creep titled The Rise and Fall of The Blair Witch which had a great reaction. In said article I spoke about the media sensation on the flick as well as the sequel and the backlash that it received. 

In 2014 I had the honor of meeting the cast of the original 1999 film and thanked them for the influence and was able to record a QnA where they speak candidly about the events both during and after the film was produced.

I have stated many times the influence that the Blair Witch Project had on my own career and the times that I. Have tried to pay tribute. Especially with HauntShooter.

I even made it a point to tell this to Heather, Joshua and Michael, to which Heather apologized which I have to admit that I am in a state of confusion as to weather she was joking or if she was truly bitter about the direction that everything had gone for her after the film. 

I have to admit that I thought that it was all over for this franchise but I was wrong. It seems with the recent trends in the genre we have the return of myths and legends in the main stream as well as the technology which has led to "Found Footage" becoming a mainstay in theaters and home media it was inevitable that The Blair Witch would make a curtain call.

It was announced at Comic Con this year that a film titled The Woods was actually a Blair Witch Sequel and the reaction was instant with fans rejoicing at the return. This is the time for a film like this and while the 2000 sequel focused on the hype surrounding the 1999 ground breaker this flick is a direct sequel. 

Naturally on opening weekend I was off to The Alamo where they were all ready with the themes and photo pops and a few Stick figures for us all to see. However would the film live up to this. 

I have to say that I am surprised about the direction of this flick and Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez are back as producers however the flick is helmed by You're Next's Adam Wingard and  written by frequent collaborator Simon Barrett. 

Returning to the Found Footage format the flick follows James Donahue, the brother of Heather from the first flick who after viewing a online video of an encounter with The Blair Witch thinks that he sees his sister 15 years after her disappearance and gathers a small group of friends and naturally they decide to film the entire event using as much of the modern technology as they can. 

Soon hooking up with the couple that made the video of Heather they are off to the Woods to investigate and the group's inexperience begins to show it's self and soon they find themselves not only having to deal with each other but strange developments with the woods as well. 

I felt that the flick was missing a few elements. While covering events in the Blair Witch Mythos that was explored in the special features of the original flick I felt that this flick could have explored them for more but failed to do so to which is.a disappointment for me. 

I liked the time displacement in this entry and the more references to Rustin Parr and other areas that were not explored in previous films but in Special features like Curse of the Blair Witch on The Sci-Fi Channel which allows them to remain as canon for the franchise. 

Now while I like some elements I however also feel that more could have been done with the filmmaking techniques. It was nice to have the actors all wearing cameras to explain the cutaways which is explained today with GoPros but I feel that more could have been done with the Drone camera that was highly Hyped in the film but I felt was not utilized to it's full potential. 

Like the original film the film features much "Shaky footage" which leaves many audience members with the strong nausea and some were leaving the theater due to this but there is also much loudness which adds t the disorientation and I have to ask weather this was deliberate and I have to think that it was and while audience members were complaining I felt that it added to the film. 

I felt that the film could have done more as the franchise was one of the pioneers of this subgenre and had the potential to add to it, comes across as nothing more than following the trends that it started.  

For Blair Witch and Found Footage fans it is worth a look... For those of you that aren't videographers take your nausea mess. 

6 Dead Bodies

0 Breasts

0 Beasts

8 Stick Figures

4 Broken Bones

1 Claustrophobic tunnel

Lens striking 

Camper Fu

Woods Fu

2 1/2 Stars 

Check it out