Movie Review: Blair Witch

Have you ever seen 1999’s “ The Blair Witch Project?” Congratulations: you’ve already saved yourself ten dollars and 90 minutes. Adam Wingard’s “Blair Witch” is essentially the same film rehashed and resprayed with modern technology, while managing to lack the originality and suspense that made the original so popular.

The film follows James (James Allen McCune), the now-adult brother of the main character from the original “Blair Witch Project,” along with documentarian Lisa and friends Peter and Ashley. Together, they embark on a journey to find James’ missing sister, believing her to still be alive after finding an online video supposedly found on a tape in the woods where she went missing. After teaming up with the locals who uploaded the video, Lane and Talia, they hike into the woods and set up camp. And then it starts gets weird.

They hear random noises in the woods. They find odd stick figures around the camp. People start going missing one by one. They can’t find their way out of the woods. They start being chased by an unseen force that leads them to an abandoned house. Sound familiar? Sound like an exact scene-by-scene retelling of the original film? That’s exactly the problem. Even people slightly familiar with “Blair Witch Project” will recognize the obvious cut-and-pasted scenes.

To be fair, the new film lacks the iconic “tearful apology” scene, and we actually get to see the witch, if only briefly, but while the ending showed some promise in being different, it ended being the exact same because of one character’s stupid and obvious actions. If you’re looking for some good found footage this Halloween, do yourself a favor and watch the original “Blair Witch Project.” It’s essentially the same as its contemporary counterpart, except more authentic and more effective.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Review by Truman Templeton