BurtonReviews Blair Witch: So I’m Never Going Camping Again
Originally
known as ‘The Woods’, this secret sequel to the revolutionary The Blair Witch Project,
that was pretty much the catalyst for the popularity and for better or worse
volume of found footage movies, has a lot on its shoulders, being the true
sequel to a horror film that rocked, terrified and inspired the industry and it’s
audiences alike you’ve got a pretty big shadow cast down onto you. But with
some great talent behind it, most notably the director of The Guest being at
the helm, Adam Wingard, the movie had some safe and sturdy hands to lead the
audience’s quivering ones through this camping trip from hell.
The story of
Blair with sees the James and his friends enter those foreboding woods for his
long lost sister Hannah, one of the people who went missing after the events of
the first Blair Witch. With 6 new victims to play with, the Blair Witch gets up
to her old tricks of tormenting and terrifying not only these misfortunate
campers on a mission, but also her favourite victims, the audience watching the
movie.
Admittedly I
have not seen The Blair Witch Project, but after seeing this movie I am very intrigued
to go back and experience this genre defining classic as The Blair Witch does a
great job of expanding and adding to the base mythos created in the first one
in not only interesting ways but also natural ones that don’t seem forced just
in service of making a sequel.
The pacing
in this movie is also great. In all great horror films the pacing rises the
tension slowly, precisely and unbearably until a finale of pure fear and gasped
anticipation has gripped every single member of the audience into a panicked
silence. While the beginning 3rd felt abit boring, what it lacked in
excitement it made up for in laying the ground work for some eye popping revelations
later and it also added juicy depth to the Blair Witch mythos, one which fans have
been clambering at for more information from since the end credits of this
myths first vague film.
But when
this movie hits high gear, it does so with a vengeance. Even as I am writing
about this, going through the spine shivering moments in my head I have to keep
looking around my surroundings, just making sure nothing is about to go bump in
the mid-day. And I got all that from a viewing where I was forced to look down
from the screen to the cinema stairs because I just couldn’t take another
second of how intensely terrifying this film was becoming. From the haunting
and shocking sound design of this film that packs the audible wallop to the
unforgettable second flashes of haunting imagery that if you blink you could
miss but makes it all the more worse as you go home now checking every corner
of your house to make sure no blink and you miss it horrors are lurking around
your kitchen sink, to the all too engrossing points of view this movie forces
you into, dragging you into the forest from hell with these curious campers has
not only left me mentally scarred but after the cinema left me hunched over in
a corner fixated on the horror I had just witnessed.
One of the
greatest tools that Blair Witch has is its vague and pen ended nature, never
holding the audiences hands through what is happening and leaving it to their
imagination to conjure up the worst and forget what the best even looked like. And
while I have said this movie adds some great depth to the Blair Witch mythos, that
in no way means that they have fully explained or cleared up most of the
lingering questions about the myth. In-fact it raises more questions than it
answers and left my mind swirling in theories as to explain what they hell I had
just seen for many days after the viewing. Which to be fair is an awful thing
because now I can’t get this movie out of my head, even when I’m in bed trying
to remember what a peaceful sleep felt like.
(Image sourced from http://www.craveonline.com/entertainment/1012837-comic-con-2016-review-blair-witch-back)
Another
great tool this line of movies has and well helped define is its use of ‘real
world cameras’ to help present the events of this movie. While not as
innovative or unique as the first movie, this movies hyper awareness of the
leaps in technology the gap of time between the films has afforded us leads to
a great evolution of the way this movie utilises many different forms of
recording equipment. From drones camera ear pieces that puts us unsettlingly in
the boots of our main protagonists, while these aren’t new and genre defining
traits like the methods used in the first film was, we have never seen them
being utilised as effectively and terrifyingly. The claustrophobic feeling of
having the cameras so close to the character made every scare, every wrench up
in tension that bit too close to home making this film way too good at its
cruel job.
However there
is one aspect of this film that isn’t as effective as the rest of this film
sharp tool set, and that is the characters of this film. The six victi – I mean
protagonists of this film are your stereotypical, vanilla, cookie cutter
characters that don’t bring anything new or interesting, not only to the film
or to the genre. The acting in the first 3rd f this movie is serviceable
at best and some of the characters are strangely really difficult to like and
never lose their annoying edge. However, when the £$*% hits the fan you can’t
help but strongly empathise and root for most of these characters. Hell when
tears were flying and screams were echoing through the trees I couldn’t help
but completely buy into their dynamics and pray for their successes at all
times. And really I think that is a huge compliment and evidence how damn good
this movie is at scaring the pants off you. In most movies if you don’t like
the characters, when the parade of murder sounds its first trumpet you normally
can’t wait for irritating Irene to get the cut, but in Blair Witch the scenarios
are so terrifying you don’t want anyone to have to go through this and will
their survival and to me that speaks volumes about this movies high quality,
£$*% your pants horror.
So if you couldn’t
tell, this movie screwed me up. If you’re in the mood for major paranoia in the
light or dark, haunting images that won’t scrub out of your mind, and what the
hell moments that will leave you theorising with your friends on who that
actually was in the corner of your eye, then this terrorising ride of a horror
film is the one for you, good luck.
Blair Witch
= 8/10
Why not check out my YouTube channel, BurtonReviews,
where I upload awesome gaming montages put to badass songs or scores every
Sunday. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbUfnyezvQsVsDgN3TGRh1Q
Thanks for
reading and I hope you enjoyed.
Comments
Post a Comment