Blair Witch (15.)
Directed by Adam Wingard.
Starring James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid, Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry and Brandon Scott. 89 mins
After 17 years in which the found footage/ shaky cam horror gimmick has been done to death, the director of the much admired The Guest, has decided to go back to the source. In doing so, he and scriptwriter Simon Barrett have had to try to second guess the audience's answer to the question, “And how would you like your new Blair Witch film?” The answer they've come up with is, “Same again with bells on, please.”
So here we have the brother of Heather from the first film, leading a three tent, three couple expedition back into the same woods to try and find that house and get “closure.” This time they go tooled up with all the latest recording kit, wandering around the woods with their bluetooth headsets on, like a team of P.R. people trying to marshal their exposure to the supernatural. Unfortunately for them the intervening years have been good to entities named Blair; just as with Tony, the witch's power and influence has grown exponentially.
Now it could be argued that this is superior to the first one simply because it is the same thing done with more technical skill and much greater intensity. The original wasn't any great shakes really, but it had novelty and invention and a genuinely unsettling ending. Plus there was something poignant in the way they couldn't escape their fate, even though all that was scaring them were broken twigs and bumps in the night. There is none of that here; this is just an overblown machine for making you jump, frenetic and intense, but with little finesse or imagination. When they revealed that they were taking along a drone camera I was rubbing my hands in anticipation at what they could do with that. Likewise when they fix a camera to a tree, to monitor what happens at the camp during the night – it seemed to offer a great contrast to all the on-the-move footage. But neither of these are used to any effect – the drone gets stuck in a tree and the other gets disconnected. Why even bother introducing them? Rather too much of the tension and menace is produced by noisy abrupt edits.
You do though get to briefly see the gal herself. To paraphrase the late great Gene Wilder (and the even later, just as great Marty Feldman) Blair Witch. There, Witch.
Directed by Adam Wingard.
Starring James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid, Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry and Brandon Scott. 89 mins
After 17 years in which the found footage/ shaky cam horror gimmick has been done to death, the director of the much admired The Guest, has decided to go back to the source. In doing so, he and scriptwriter Simon Barrett have had to try to second guess the audience's answer to the question, “And how would you like your new Blair Witch film?” The answer they've come up with is, “Same again with bells on, please.”
So here we have the brother of Heather from the first film, leading a three tent, three couple expedition back into the same woods to try and find that house and get “closure.” This time they go tooled up with all the latest recording kit, wandering around the woods with their bluetooth headsets on, like a team of P.R. people trying to marshal their exposure to the supernatural. Unfortunately for them the intervening years have been good to entities named Blair; just as with Tony, the witch's power and influence has grown exponentially.
Now it could be argued that this is superior to the first one simply because it is the same thing done with more technical skill and much greater intensity. The original wasn't any great shakes really, but it had novelty and invention and a genuinely unsettling ending. Plus there was something poignant in the way they couldn't escape their fate, even though all that was scaring them were broken twigs and bumps in the night. There is none of that here; this is just an overblown machine for making you jump, frenetic and intense, but with little finesse or imagination. When they revealed that they were taking along a drone camera I was rubbing my hands in anticipation at what they could do with that. Likewise when they fix a camera to a tree, to monitor what happens at the camp during the night – it seemed to offer a great contrast to all the on-the-move footage. But neither of these are used to any effect – the drone gets stuck in a tree and the other gets disconnected. Why even bother introducing them? Rather too much of the tension and menace is produced by noisy abrupt edits.
You do though get to briefly see the gal herself. To paraphrase the late great Gene Wilder (and the even later, just as great Marty Feldman) Blair Witch. There, Witch.
