There is a moment in “Blair Witch” in which Lisa (Callie Hernandez) is crawling through a tunnel underneath the ominous Blair Witch house to escape. It’s as tight as an air duct and much filthier, with the dirt and muddied water obscuring her vision and impairing her breathing. The further she crawls, the tighter it gets and her chances of survival diminish. Following her are the blood-curdling screams of the witch, always hot on the trail without visibly being seen. The claustrophobia in me was in hyper drive!
There is another moment in which Ashley (Corbin Reid), having lacerated her leg earlier, is limping through the darkened woods. She feels a crunch and plummets to the ground, immediately clutching her leg. The light and camera on her GoPro show the wound open and puss oozing out. The mysterious pulsation from earlier, which strongly resembled a bug crawling around, returns. She valiantly digs through her skin to find out what (if anything) is crawling around inside of her leg. The squeamishness in me was boiling over!
These are but two creepy moments in “Blair Witch” and are unfortunately the only two that truly affected me. The rest of the film suffers from the Law of Familiarity: the notion that growing accustomed to something makes it lose its edge and impact. In this case, familiarity with “The Blair Witch Project,” the 1999 found footage horror film that took the world by storm, prevents this sequel from ever fully taking off. Despite Adam Wingard’s best intentions, he’s never able to find his own vision. Instead, he’s relegated to regurgitating habitual tropes to pay service to the series’ mythos.
“The Blair Witch Project” was frightening because of its uncertainty! One didn’t know what to expect going in, with only viral marketing providing clues (in the limited dial-up days, no less). As the trio of film students embarked into the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland, tension grew as noises crackled in the distance. The appearance of the Blair Witch symbol sent chills up one’s spine as it spelled possible doom. What that doom entailed was anyone’s guess. All we and the students had prior knowledge of were the urban legends discussed in interviews. We knew very little, with each new revelation all the more startling and puzzling. The house was a mystery, its decrepit state unsettling. The finale was confusing but frightening! To watch it now may seem mundane, but at the time, with the hype surrounding it, it was nothing short of terrifying!
When the symbols appear in “Blair Witch,” they’re expected. They don’t elicit fear, but a confirmation of expectancy. I expected to see the symbols show up eventually, just as I expected the characters to stumble upon the mysterious house (now no longer much of a mystery). I knew full well they’d get lost in the woods, that they’d hear screams in the distance, and that rocks and stones would form as they did in the original. Because of this expectancy, the thrills didn’t work. They felt more like mundane beats being ticked off a checklist. These sequences exist because they have to, not because they should.
The same goes for the characters: they exist because they have to, not because they should. Their reasoning for entering the woods, to find the long-lost sister of James (James Allen McCune), is slight. It’s an attempt to tie the film directly to the original, though one immediately questions how a person, no matter how heartbroken, could honestly believe his sister would still be alive in the woods seventeen years after her disappearance. Pete wasn’t loaning out his dragon, so she wouldn’t have had protection. One just has to go with this in order for the film to work (which I was willing to do, my petty complaints aside).
James is assisted by the aforementioned Lisa, a film student making a documentary on the Blair Witch (go figure), the aforementioned Ashley and her boyfriend, Peter (Brandon Scott), and two crazed locals, Lane & Talia (Wes Robinson & Valorie Curry). The latter found the tape in which James believe he saw his sister in and coerce the makeshift documentary crew in allowing them to tag along. This is used both to add more victims to the proceedings and allow the insanity of the wacked-out duo to carry the film along when it needs padded. In the interest of fairness, these characters are engaging and rather smart. Once the symbols surround their tents, they all agree to hightail it out of the woods for their own safety, only falling prey to the curse in their attempt. Even the lust for evidence in Lane & Talia is downplayed once the shit hits the fan.
To play devil’s advocate, the entire film is structured well. The first half hour is a slow build, developing the characters and atmosphere. The middle is comprised of the curse surfacing, causing the characters to wonder if it’s actually real or if they’re making monsters out of their anxiety. The final act is insanity, with the curse escalating and picking them off one by one. Wingard refrains from showing the witch thankfully, though there are a few glimpses of what could be her. If this weren’t found footage, I’d chalk it up to the nightmarish imagination of the protagonists, but that wouldn’t manifest itself on the digital footage. What I can chalk it up to is brief glimpses of the characters made to look threatening by the immediacy of the situation. Or it could very well be a quick shot of the witch. If that’s the case, the rapid motion of it doesn’t tarnish the belief that, by not showing her, she’s infinitely more frightening, as we never fully get to see her anyway. I would be curious to see the film fanatics of the internet take to this film like a hawk upon its video release, capturing every still frame to find anything of significance. It’s quite possible there’s something hidden in the distortion when the camera glitches.
Despite the smooth structure and clever manipulation of technology, “Blair Witch” never commanded me. The first film had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up throughout its duration. This sequel never had me in that state of unease. Even the moments that got under my skin went by in a flash, only causing slight discomfort. I found myself predicting each sequence as opposed to getting lost in the film. The first film made me feel like I was lost in the woods, as to where this one constantly reminded me I was just watching people lost in the woods.
“The Blair Witch Project” is the film equivalent of the “You Had To Be There” story. It was a whirlwind of hype and enigma that engulfed the viewer. The mass hysteria elevated the material, drawing the viewer in. Nobody knew what to expect and that was part of the excitement. “Blair Witch” is the film equivalent of somebody trying to retell that story, only to constantly stumble over the details and lose sight of what made it so scary. It’s not scary if you retell it, no matter how hard you try to inject it with fear. You had to be there.
Final Rating: C+