Blair Witch - Movie Review

Blair Witch
Director: Adam Wingard, Writer: Simon Barrett

What is it about:
After discovering a video showing what he believes to be his vanished sister Heather, James and a group of friends head to the forest believed to be inhabited by the Blair Witch.

What did I think of it:
I remember how people raved about The Blair Witch Project back in 1999. It was so scary and so intense, I was told. Just one person who saw the movie told me he thought it sucked. I should have listened to that one person, because when I saw the movie I was bored and slightly queasy from the shaky camera work.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) wasn't pretending to be anything more than a bad horror movie, and I actually enjoyed that one.

So when a friend invited me to go to Blair Witch (2016) I came along, expecting something bad, but thinking it couldn't possibly be worse than the original The Blair Witch Project.

Well.....

Think again!

Blair Witch is trying hard to be like its predecessor The Blair Witch Project, including shaky camera work. Now I can understand a camera is shaking when you're running for your life, but it's practically shaking all the time! As my friend said: no one is that unsteady with a camera these days!

Then there's the sound. For a movie that's trying to pretend it's an actual documentary it's surprising how at "scary" moments the sound suddenly is louder to make sure to add to the scare effect.

As for scary: again I was pretty bored by what was supposed to be scary. There was one scene where someone is trapped in a dank tunnel and that's where my sympathetic claustrophobia kicked in, but otherwise this movie would have been a snooze-fest if it wasn't for the erratic noisy sound effects.

All in all it's practically a tie which is the worst movie: The Blair Witch Project or Blair Witch. As another friend said: at least The Blair Witch Project was trying something new back in the day, so it's with this in mind that I have to say that Blair Witch is even worse than The Blair Witch Project.

So if you're looking for a scary movie and just have to have the Blair Witch involved: track down Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, that movie at least won't make you queasy with its camera work.