“We’ve been walking in a circle.”
A film five years in the making, Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch wasn’t even known to have existed until two months ago. Brought out of complete oblivion, the film takes us back to the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland where Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard disappeared. But unlike that film, which many viewers mistook for an actual documentary, this one abandons the “lost in the woods” formula as Wingard opts for a more chase-centric chapter.
Taking place on May 15, 2014 Blair Witch centers around James, Heather Donahue’s brother, who has been constantly searching for clues that would help piece together the mysterious disappearance of his sister. When his friend Lisa opts to focus on him for a school documentary project, the story behind the footage comes to light.
While the original film opted to keep things subtle, relying on the slow burn as your psyche terrifies your mind, this time around things are a bit more complicated and straightforward. Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett work laboriously to breathe new life into the franchise, offering up a few new tricks, though predominately sticking to the same old formula.
The main shift centers on the scare tactics. While the 1999 original excelled through the art of misdirection and the possibility that laid just beyond the line of sight, Blair Witch focuses on deliberate scares, utilizing the found-footage model to place its characters in unfortunate situations, capturing things at just the right angle as it integrates advances in technology that enhance the overall experience.
The dialogue, though lackluster, is fine, and the acting doesn’t hinder the story. Let’s face it, those who opt in for a film like this are there for one reason: the scares. They get them in droves.
Employing a haunting score and strategic lighting, audiences are treated to the nightmare of all nightmares. As the group of naive campers wander deeper into the woods, surviving a false alarm and successfully obtaining a distorted sense of security, the witch decides to come out and play - and her game isn’t fun.
A steady sequence of events keep the adrenaline pumping as you bear witness as chaos and destruction take over. But unlike other horror films where the blood takes president, this time around we get a good amount of terror that stems from our minds. From the infamous twig figures to the lack of direction, Wingard works to answer your questions regarding telecommunications as he keeps our subjects away from their car and civilization; all while paying homage to the original.
When the final setting becomes known, and our remaining survivors tempt fate once again, we find ourselves in the most uncomfortable (though brilliantly shot) scenes of the film as someone struggles to maneuver their body through a tight, dark tunnel. The scene is intense and fucking terrifying, causing me to squirm in my seat with discomfort.
Blair Witch never mentions the events of Book of Shadows, and that’s a good thing. While horrid beyond words and easily one of the best found footage films ever made , the film fails to reach the original’s pedestal of greatness as it falls victim to the genre’s formulaic conclusion. However, I’m beginning to think that no film will ever recreate the excitement that genre fans experienced in 1999 - and for what its worth, Wingard came about as close as humanly possible.
*This review was originally posted as part of our 2016 Toronto International Film Festival coverage.
