By: Ashton Newton Entertainment Editor
When “The Blair Witch Project” was released in 1999, it was met with good reviews. The film created an entirely new genre of horror with documentary style filmmaking which is still used in today’s film making industry.
The new “Blair Witch” follows the events of the original, as main character Heather Donahue’s brother reenters the forest with three friends to search for his sister after revealing new footage showing her alive 20 years later.
At its core, the film is extremely similar to the original; a group of young adults searching the woods with video cameras are haunted by some unknown entity. In plot, it feels like “The Blair Witch Project” 2.0, with fancier cameras and jump scares.
“Blair Witch” relies heavily on cheap jump scares while the original didn’t have to. The jump scares were both predictable and never used anything truly terrifying. This cheap tactic was overused and had very few successful payoffs.
However, the film shines in its distortion of space-time and isolation horror. Like the original, the group seemed to break free of time and space, going in circles, making five or six days feel like a couple of hours. They were powerless, and that was extremely unnerving and anxiety inducing.
“Blair Witch” is a must see for any fan of the original. Not only is the story directly influenced by it, the folklore behind the Blair Witch, herself, is expanded upon. Story wise, “Blair Witch” succeeds at making the “lost in the woods” trope believable.
While not a terrible movie, “Blair Witch” fails to capture what made the original so memorable. The film is brought down by its predictable jump scares and familiar plot. “Blair Witch” is at its best when the mainstream jumpy horror is replaced with the isolationist horror of the original.
Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu
