‘There’s something evil hiding in the woods’
Blair Witch – secretly filmed as The Woods – is a 2016 American horror film directed by Adam Wingard (Death Note; A Horrible Way to Die; You’re Next; The Guest; V/H/S segment “Tape 56”); V/H/S/2 (segment “Phase I Clinical Trials”) from a screenplay by Simon Barrett.
The second sequel to The Blair Witch Project (1999), the film’s real title was revealed at the 2016 ComicCon.
The film is released on September 16, 2016 by Lionsgate.
Main cast:
Callie Hernandez (Alien: Covenant; From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series), James Allen McCune (The Walking Dead), Brandon Scott, Wes Robinson, Corbin Reid, Valorie Curry (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2).
Reviews:
“Blair Witch is a terrific sequel that stays true to the spirit of the original while at the same time developing and expanding upon the legend. The film fills in multiple blanks that those who loved the mystery and ambiguity of the original might not appreciate, but if you want more of what made the first film work, Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett deliver, in deeply distressing and genuinely frightening fashion.” Chris Tully, IGN
“The slow-burn and entirely gore-free scares of the original have been replaced with frequently annoying jump scares, really loud random noises and an unnecessary rise in gratuitous violence. It’s the brash twin to the subdued original and while it might help to make the film sell to horror-saturated youths, for genuine genre fans, it’s a regretful example of what’s considered scary in 2016.” Benjamin Lee, The Guardian
“Blair Witch is a less repetitive, faster paced and more thrilling experience overall, though at the expense of character development. This is further compensated for by a wide variety of locations, impressive myth building and a constant sense of dread … terrifying, a welcome surprise and an excellent continuation of the lore established in the original…” Mark Bartlett, Flickering Myth
“Blair Witch ups the action, less insidiously creepy, more out-and-out grip-the-arms-of-your-chair petrifying, with a final act so soaked with dread, shocks and wee-inducing imagery it’s almost unbearable … Blair Witch is an intelligent and effective return to a beloved genre game-changer that doesn’t sully the original and is almost certainly setting up for further sequels to come.” Rosie Fletcher, Digital Spy
“There’s something about the endless blurring trees that forces you to search for faces that aren’t there, and when things eventually kick off (call it the witch hitting the fans), a few of the scares almost match [REC] and Lake Mungo for being the genre’s most alarming … It can’t top the original, but doesn’t ruin it either. It’s a contradiction: both an excellent sequel, and a reminder that, however well you conduct it, lightning never strikes twice.” Matt Glasby, Games Radar
“The cast plays their victimized roles well enough for Adam Wingard to work his traumatizing magic, as his take on the Blair Witch mythology transports us into an edgier version of a world Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale made legendary. Gone are VHS visions, replaced with high-flying drones and crisper, more visible framings of a beast we might rather not see. Wingard plays around with expected tropes – 100% using them to his advantage – while nonetheless executing a haunted house finale that’s piss-your-pants scary.” Matt Donato, We Got This Covered
“The new cast are fine, with Robinson and Curry the most eccentric and interesting, but the scripted, conventional character interplay lacks the uneasy conviction of the improvising cast of the earlier film … It’s a solid job of playing safe, which extends the creepiness of the concept, and comes up with new unnerving situations – but this is very much a product picture…” Kim Newman, Screen Daily
“So while not quite in the same league, and struggling from a distinctive lack of subtlety, not leaving anywhere near enough to the imagination as you may have hoped it to, all criticisms derive only when compared to what came before, when analysing this feature on the terms the franchise has set. But as a standalone production there is little to be underwhelmed with, as Blair Witch undoubtedly passes the scare test, as for any apprehensions that may exist, what isn’t in question is the sheer consistency of the scares.” Stefan Pape, HeyUGuys.com
“Blair Witch is breathtakingly terrifying. It’s a lean, mean, dread-filled machine that never abates for even a second. You’re strapped in for 88 minutes of gruelling terror with little space to get your bearings or have a quick ciggy. This brief run-time ensures its fleet-footedness, dispensing its foreshadowing efficiently in a similar fashion to the original, where if you don’t catch certain clues then the eventual scares may not have the same impact.” Christopher Ratcliff, Methods Unsound
“Blair Witch is truly a missed opportunity for Wingard and Barrett, who had a chance to play with a mythology that, whether you like it or not, was ripe for reinvention. Unfortunately, they play it too safe and rely too much on the film’s impressive sound design to do the heavy lifting. Even Wingard seems to grow tired of his own jump scares, having a character say “stop doing that!” after one of them. ” Jeff Sneider, Mashable
“Wingard and Barrett delight in cramming nearly every type of scare scene in the rollercoaster second half of their Blair Witch flick. Jump scares, gore, claustrophobia, monsters, surrealism, you name it and they do it (with liberal doses of those creepy wooden statues, naturally). The results are relentless, yet just as playful and self-aware as the filmmakers tend to be … See it immediately and with as many impressionable screaming audience members as possible.” Phil Brown, Dork Shelf
“When the pandemonium sets in, Wingard and his crew conduct it with aggressive aplomb, shooting, cutting and scoring proceedings in quick, blunt strokes to work up a full horror-movie sweat while preserving just enough raw, haphazard found-footage flavor to honor the original conceit.” Guy Lodge, Variety
” … by sticking so slavishly to the original Blair Witch film’s template, the result is a dull retread rather than a full-on reinvention, enlarging the cast numbers this time but sticking to the same basic beats … Unfortunately, despite all the similarities to its predecessor, the most glaring missing element is that sense of spontaneity that made the first film so effective…” Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter
“It’s hard to say that the first film was “subtle,” but I’m surprised at how much Wingard goes for shock and awe this time in terms of sound design. It sounds like a bulldozer is going through the woods and knocking over trees. There’s nothing relatably creepy about that. The original built tension off sounds in the distance and that general fear that comes from being in the middle of nowhere. This one seeks to numb you with booming noises while someone plays catch with a GoPro.” Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
Filming locations:
British Columbia, Canada
Buy: Amazon.com
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