Blair Witch Project: The horror film that had audiences raging
After the 1999 box office hit, “The Blair Witch Project”, audiences were anticipating a rebooted version of the franchise for years. On Sept. 16 of this year, fans received just that with the release of the movie, “Blair Witch.” However, despite the hype, the remake was extremely underwhelming.
Throughout the one hour and twenty-nine minute movie, directed by Adam Wingard, a young man named James (James Mccune), accompanied by friends Ashley (Corbin Reid), Peter (Brandon Scott), and Lisa (Callie Hernandez), venture into the Black Hills Forest of Maryland, led by locals Lane (Wes Robinson) and Talia (Valorie Curry), in order to investigate the disappearance of James’s sister, who had mysteriously vanished years prior in this forest. Lisa decides to record their experience and make it into a movie in order to fulfill her filmmaking dreams, thus revealing the film’s focus on lost footage.
As a remake movie, it lacks any kind of originality, containing many horror movie cliches including the classic flashlight battery dying at the worst time, and the all too predictable jump scares.
The film does not provide any blood curdling suspense until the predictable ending that anyone could have guessed five minutes into the movie. The film also contained a copious amount of faulty ‘movie logic’, with many plot details not adding up. Seriously, how did that camera never run out of battery?
The characters are underdeveloped as they are extremely one sided and flat. James took the role of the grief stricken younger brother, Lisa was the aspiring filmmaker, and Ashley and Peter the oblivious couple. As a result, it is easy to not become attached to the characters due to the fact that they lack any kind of personality. The actors also delivered an overall disappointing performance with no on-screen chemistry between them as they performed the yawn worthy dialogue. All things considered, the soundtrack goes well with the scenes in the film where the audience is engaged with the moods. As with the original film, “Blair Witch Project”, the general idea of the film, mystery surrounding lost footage, is noteworthy, however, the way it was executed downplays how novel the initial concept was.
For those who are disappointed when a remake is completely different from the original, it will not be an issue as this movie has a strong correlation with “Blair Witch Project”. The cinematography, characters, and general storyline are similar to the original.
With numerous holes in the plot and one-dimensional characters, it is clear that whether you are an average movie goer or a horror movie fanatic, you should save your money and skip out on the Blair Witch.
