Blair Witch is the latest horror film to appear in the cinemas in 2016 and it comes from director Adam Wingard and stars James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez and Corbin Reid. The film follows the character of James who finds a video of what he believes is his sisters experience of when she went into the dangerous woods near where they live. James and a group of friends decide to go in and stay the night there, but will they be safe?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j28SoZ8haM
It was only recently when I was writing about Don’t Breathe and how I was really loving what we’ve been getting from the horror genre so far this year, that after it, I found myself to be really looking forward to Blair Witch. Another horror film would be great I thought! But sadly I was left a bit disappointed with this one. Sure it does have its fair share of jump scares and the last act of the film is the most entertaining and scary of it all, but for some reason or another the film just didn’t impress.
Most of the first part of Blair Witch sees you follow a group of friends into the forest. Nothing much happens there except they set up camp and the place is kind of creepy. It’s meant to be a time for you to get to know and care for the characters and for something that was so drawn out, I feel I really should have felt something for them. But you know what?? I felt nothing! As soon as the scary stuff started happening and these characters started getting in danger, I just didn’t care at all what happened to them.
There’s a slight problem with the storyline in that the characters are just not well developed. But also with the directing, the pacing is a bit of a mess. It’s really slow at the start, we’re just watching people in the forest. But then when things start going wrong, the pacing really picks up and things feel rushed. It’s okay, the end parts do have some good scares, but it’s just not great or what I was looking for here.
The actors are all okay, they did their best with what they had to work with. Most of them are unknown names but they get the job done in the end. Special effects are okay, but not anything super special, the music is a little intense though.
Overall Blair Witch is a really average horror film that suffers from some bad pacing and lacks any well developed characters you can care for. It does have some decent scares towards the end, but it’s not enough in my view to make it a great experience. If you’re going in to see it, you might have an okay time with it and I do hope you enjoy it more than I did. If not though and you haven’t seen Don’t Breathe, I would recommend watching that this weekend instead as it’s the better film of the two.
