Blair Witch – 2016 – An effective sequel

Do you remember when The Blair Witch Project came out? I think it was back in 1999 or something. It was really hyped and I think that almost everyone who saw it did that because of the hype. It had a very effective promotion to support it. In fact, I think that was the main thing about its success. What they did was to create a mythology and post is as real on different platforms. In that aspect, there really was a legend about this Blair Witch. Of course, there really never was, the whole background of the myth was created for the movie’s release.

Then came a sequel a couple of years later. Blair Witch 2. I can’t remember anything from it besides that it wasn’t anywhere near as good as the first movie. Yes, I really liked the initial one! It featured only “found footage” of the expedition looking for the Blair With and it did so well. It wasn’t the first film to explore this theme and it sure wasn’t the last. I think that the Blair Witch Project really launched a renaissance in that perspective. There were loads of movies coming out sharing the same technique. That of found footage. Some were pretty good and others were plain awful, to be frank.

But never mind all that now. Here is the next sequel to the franchise. This thing it’s called Blair Witch, short and simple. It takes place sometime after the first movie. Since I can’t remember anything about the second movie I can’t say if there are some connections there. I’d go for that there’s not though. Here we have the brother of one of the original characters. I think they claim that he was four years old when his sister disappeared. Well, he’s grown up now.

But it’s not just like he goes looking for his sister. There is also the documentary filmer who is the real force behind the expedition. They go to the exact same woods where the sister disappeared. At first, they find nothing but soon some strange things happen. Time behaves in a strange way and soon the confusing is total. It seems that the forest won’t release them and they move around in circles. Eventually, they find the old house. Maybe that will bring them some answers?

The difference between this and the original isn’t that big. They both feature pretty awesome found footage sequences. The difference is that the quality of the film is often better here. After all, there are other techniques than analog taped to use for filming. There are full HD drones to give an overview of the area and there are very small digital cameras that can be attached to the participants of the expedition.

Apart from that, there’s kinda the same terror that was in the original film. But you’ll have to remember that nothing ever was shown in the Blair Witch Project. Things are different now. Not that we will be able to understand what is going on, but we get to see some glimpses of ‘something’.

In my mind, this is a more effective film than the original film ever was. Sure, the managed to scare people by only show the actors reactions to forest sounds. But this editing is so good. I wouldn’t say that I’m afraid or scared, but it sure kept me awake during the whole film, a task that is hard to achieve these days. You need to see this sequel. It’s that good!