Recently, at the urging of a friend who loves Halloween, I went ahead and watched the three Blair Witch Project movies. I decided to review each of them, but to do so in order of worst to best.
That should tell you something, right off the bat.
This one was awful. It somehow felt like a big budget movie, at least in comparison to the very small budget of the first Blair Witch movie. And yet, it also felt somehow cheaply done, and almost rushed. What I mean by that is that there was little in the way of delivery of what might - and only might - have been a decent idea for a horror movie. To me, it felt like this movie was put out there as quickly as possible after the original Blair Witch movie in order to cash in on it.
But this one was awful.
I guess that I should give credit in one aspect. Repeating the original movie's shots done from hand held cameras, here they did not even bother pretending to do that. I mean, again, I guess that you can give them points for originality for that? Not sure.
However, the movie itself offers nothing interesting. If the first movie felt like a stroke of genius, and thus became a cultural phenomenon and an instant cult classic, this one was instantly forgettable and, frankly, regrettable. If anything, the association with the original Blair Witch movie would almost feel like it detracts from that movie. They do mention it, yet they do so by keeping a respectful distance. There is no pretense of being related to it, or anything. In fact, it is made clear that the original Blair Witch Project movie was indeed a huge success, and that woods around the former town of Blair, Maryland, had attracted a sort of tourist industry in the couple of years following the release of the original film.
After that, the movie deteriorates. The characters felt more like caricatures than anything else. Some of them felt too cliché, while others just felt...well, tiresome. Boring. There was really wonderful chemistry in the original movie (even if it does come in the form of endless arguments) which helps to build clear tensions. But there is no chemistry between any of the characters in this movie, and there is little to no serious tension. If the original felt unsettling to watch (as it is intended to make you feel) from the very beginning, and that this tension builds and builds with that first movie, than this one, by contrast, felt more like a straight line, where the movie makers were simply trying to create anything that could pass as a story in order to make a movie and make some money from it. Perhaps straight line is not the way to describe it, however. Flat line would be better, because it never came to life. There was simply nothing believable about it. Frankly, it felt like there was nothing original or even interesting about it, either.
My friend kind of liked it. But after viewing this, I had to wonder why. It felt like a bit of an effort to watch it, and certainly not because it was too scary, or anything remotely like that. This movie just does not feel worth it. Sorry, just the way that I feel.
Not recommended at all.
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