Review! Blair Witch (2016) Directed by Adam Wingard. Starring: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid. IMDB says “After discovering a video showing what he believes to be his sister’s experiences in the demonic woods of the Blair Witch, James and a group of friends head to the forest in search of his lost sibling.”

It’s been 17 years since The Blair Witch Project first debuted in theatres nationwide. When the first film was released I was only 13 years old and it was the summer before I entered high school. I had seen a trailer for the film and kept hearing about this crazy legend about a witch in the woods that happened to take place in my home state. Needless to say, I was intrigued. At the time I was living in the UK, so the film wasn’t released there until October, as opposed to the end of July in the US. I wasn’t really old enough to see it at the time but come fall, once school started and the movie finally premiered, it was all the older kids could talk about. It was being dubbed “the scariest movie of all time”, and everyone thought it was real footage. This was officially the start of the “found-footage” trend, and the film had a viral marketing campaign that had never been seen before. They were able to convince everyone that this wasn’t just a movie.

Once I finally viewed the movie, I enjoyed it just like most did, but it was for sure over-hyped. The creators had successfully created one of the best marketing campaigns for a movie of all time, and delivered a pretty decent flick about a group of kids getting lost in the woods, hearing noises and then mysteriously dying in various ways while never really revealing anything to the viewer. That is the one major downfall, which leaves the viewer feeling a little jipped, and it’s replay value is almost non-existent. However, the film was a box office success. A year later, the studio tried to strike gold again with a sequel, Book of Shadows, but unfortunately the movie was a dud and the franchise has sat dormant…until now.
Fast forward to 2016 where fans of director Adam Wingard are teased a movie titled The Woods. The original teaser was short and sweet and showed creepy happenings taking place in the woods, and I for one was intrigued. I have been a fan of Wingard ever since discovering him while watching the first V/H/S (2012).

Wingard’s wrap-around segment for the feature was super creepy and effective in holding this gem together. A year later we once again got a second round of V/H/S and this time Wingard directed the first tape in the anthology instead of the wrap-around. This was two things I had seen from this new director and I was pleased. His first feature that I finally sought out and watched was A Horrible Way to Die (2010), after which I decided I really dug what Wingard was doing and his style of directing and storytelling. Wingard’s first feature to get a wide release was You’re Next (2013), which put the 33-year old director into the mainstream spotlight. A year later he would release the thriller The Guest starring Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) and Maika Monroe (It Follows). After this, not much was heard from Wingard until the teaser for The Woods was released earlier this May. It wasn’t until a surprise announcement at the 2016 San Diego Comic-con that it was revealed that The Woods was in fact a fake title and that he had secretly filmed a Blair Witch sequel. After months of waiting the day has finally arrived. Will Wingard step up and deliver the Blair Witch movie we’ve always wanted or will it wither away like the last time they tried making a sequel?

It’s with great pleasure that I report to you that Wingard has delivered the ultimate Blair Witch experience. There’s a lot more to the movie and you can tell Wingard wanted to explore the story more and give the movie a little more backbone and create even more lore. The film follows a new group of young adults headed back into the woods led by Heather’s younger brother James (James McCune). He receives new footage and he believes that after all these years, his sister could still be out there. So James heads out to Burkittsville, MD, with filmmaker friends Lisa (Callie Hernandez), his best friend Peter (Brandon Scott) and Peter’s girlfriend Ashley (Corbin Reid). They meet up with the couple who found the tape, Lane (Wes Robinson) and Talia (Valorie Curry) and soon the group head into the woods to search for Heather. It doesn’t take long once in the woods for things to start going awry. Wingard has stated that while the first film is about being lost in the woods, this film is about being chased, which I think perfectly encompasses the tone of the film overall.

The story that Simon Barrett came up with is fantastic. In this script, they expand on the already existing mythology of the Blair Witch and add so much more, giving the viewer a few new stories about the witch and giving a little clearer picture about why nobody enters (or exits?) the woods. I don’t want to go into specifics about story, but about halfway in, there is a slight twist which cause the group to go their separate ways from Lane and Talia. After this mid-point, the film starts to build and does so in the creepiest and most horrifying fashion. By the third act, shit gets real and you realize that there really is something in the woods and it’s hunting the group. The final act is extremely intense and I could feel my heart pounding as I witnessed the chaos that was happening on screen. In the end, the movie left me extremely satisfied with the film that Wingard and Barrett have presented us with.

To get to the characters, they are actually all pretty likeable and relatable. James is just your average guy who had something terrible happen to a family member, and feels there’s a chance he could be reunited after all this time. That’s one thing I think really works for the movie, having a family ordeal always gives horror movies a little more heart and reality. It’s the same reason the first Friday the 13th works so well, you have a grieving mother seeking out revenge for her son’s death. Even if you wouldn’t go on a killing spree, you can relate to her wanting those responsible to get what’s coming to them. Same with this movie, if you were put into the same situation you’d go back into those woods to find your sister despite the legends and possible danger that surround the woods. The rest of the cast provide a good backup and are all relatable and smarter than your average horror film characters in many aspects. They do attempt to leave after things start getting weird, unfortunately for them the woods have other plans. This brings us to our other uncredited character, the woods. This time around the woods themselves have just as much character as the on-screen cast. As mentioned in the film, the Blair Witch put a curse on the woods themselves, and man are they unrelenting to the cast. The woods is a dangerous, vengeful and even mind-fuck of a character throughout the film, giving the unsuspecting characters more than they bargained for. Oh yeah, and those creepy stick figures…Barrett gives them a purpose other than just being creepy stick figures and further expands on the witchcraft lore of the woods.

The score for the film, created by Wingard as well, was a nice addition to the experience. The music is creepy and a great tension-builder as things start to go wrong. I will for sure be purchasing the score once it releases this Friday with the film. The film also looks phenomenal for a found-footage flick. There are some scenes towards the end when our characters find “the house” that I almost forgot it was found footage because everything looked so daunting and horrific. Visually Wingard and his DP Robby Baumgartner really brought the woods to life and created a feeling of tension and intense fear with their visual stylings. The final act is some of the best looking -found footage I have ever seen and it really adds to the overall atmosphere they have created.
In the end, I would like to sum up by saying this is the Blair Witch movie that we’ve all been waiting for. There’s more substance and Wingard takes the universe and mythology that Eduardo Sanchez created 17 years ago and goes bat shit crazy with it. Even for those who despised the first film, I really do believe in the end Wingard will win you over with his take on the legend of the Blair Witch. He has successfully breathed a new life into a series we all thought was dead, and created an actual Blair Witch for a new generation that far exceeds its predecessor. I highly recommend catching this one in cinemas to get the full experience, you won’t regret it!