MOLLY VANDENBERG
Special to The Leader
With temperatures beginning to slightly drop (finally) and September coming to an end, Halloween will be here before we know it. With scary movie marathons and leaves changing on the trees, horror fans are in their glory during this time of the year. While it’s always fun watching old favorites, you might be looking for a new horror film to check out this fall. Look no further than “Blair Witch,” which was released Sept. 16 and is in theaters now.
Blair Witch is the official sequel to the original “Blair Witch Project,” which was released in 1999. In the original, three student filmmakers go missing in the Black Hills Forest in Maryland. The original is renowned for popularizing the found footage genre and for being one of the scariest movies of its time due to how believable the legend of the Blair Witch was. The film is presented as if viewers were actually watching a documentary that had gone horribly wrong. At that point in time, there was no other mainstream horror movie comparable.
In the new “Blair Witch,” a younger brother to Heather Donahue, who is one of the missing students in the original film, sets out with a group of five others into the same forest in Maryland, believing that his missing sister is still alive out there.
“In the years since [the original], technology has advanced, but the basic grammar of the genre remains the same. Unexpected sounds, sudden cuts and things jumping into the frame are guaranteed to startle the audience,” said A. O. Scott in the New York Times. The film’s plot doesn’t stray too far from the original; however, the better special effects definitely make for a scarier experience.
“‘Blair Witch’ is what the “Blair Witch Project” would be if the original was made today — which is both a compliment and a concussion,” said another review by Screen Rant. While some believe that this sequel does little for the found footage genre, it stays true to the original director’s style and approach. Viewers will begin to gain a clearer understanding of the Blair Witch and what she is capable of. However, this comes at the “expense of established plot lines and relationships that go next to nowhere.”
Colton Butler, a sophomore computer science major at Fredonia, offered praise for the film.
“I believe the new “Blair Witch” is in very capable hands. The work that director Adam Wingard has done in the past has demonstrated that he knows how to do both found-footage and horror, and do them well,” Butler said.
There are mixed reviews about the film, and it isn’t doing as well in the box office as originally estimated. However, if you are a fan of the original “Blair Witch Project,” then “Blair Witch” is worth checking out for yourself.