Writer: Simon Barrett
Director: Adam Wingard
After viewing footage which may show the events leading to his sister's disappearance, possibly at the hands of local Burkitsville legend the Blair Witch, James (McCune) and his friends head to those infamous woods in the hope of solving the mystery and locating his long lost sibling...
It would seem to be something of a gamble, artistically if not commercially, to take on another sequel to Blair Witch especially considering the high esteem in which the original is held and with the critical (and audience) mauling given to the second movie Book of Shadows. However, writer Barrett and director Wingard are no strangers to the genre and if anyone was going to make a decent stab at this it's these guys. Even with their previous pedigree (The Guest is a firm favourite of mine), having spent the weekend examining the reaction to this film on social media, it appears that there's not a huge amount of love out there for their latest collaboration.
Me? I'm going to be contrary (what's new?) by saying that I thought it was pretty decent.
Does it work? On the whole I think it does, taking the map of the original movie and using many of its main signposts but amping up the suspense and scares while throwing in a couple of plausible explanations about exactly what the hell was going on all the way back in Myrick and Sanchez's lo-fi, Heather Donahue snot-laced phenomenon. The film doesn't allow itself to get too bogged down in expository dialogue though. It's more concerned with putting its characters through the wringer, progressing from the initial eerie noises in the distance to...ah, but I'm risking giving too much away here.
So, is it scary? That, of course, is a subjective thing but Blair Witch attempts to give the audience both chills and jumps. There's A LOT of jump scares (several being of the "suddenly bumping into one of your camping buddies" variety) for which I don't especially care but I'll admit that these moments delivered the goods judging by the reaction of many of my fellow viewers. For people like me there's plenty of psychological horror going on too, playing on the fact that it's what you don't see which scares you the most.
Once the action really gets going the tension rarely lets up and the last twenty minutes is pretty unrelenting in terms of piling on the terror. Also, I should warn you that if you're claustrophobic there's a sequence about 75 minutes in that's probably going to make you want to leave the cinema. Unlike the original, I think this one benefits from seeing it on a big screen with a willing audience as its frights are more finely tuned to that environment. The Blair Witch Project's more intimate shudders, for me in any case, worked so much better watching it at home and that's probably why it took me a few screenings to appreciate what a fine piece of work it is
So, is Wingard and Barrett's take on Blair Witch "a new beginning for horror films" as is mentioned on the poster? That would be a bold claim to stake on behalf of any film in any genre and this certainly doesn't herald a blindingly original new direction for fright flicks but it does set out to scare and it often succeeds in doing so. Yes, the potential for deeper characterisation is jettisoned in favour of more spooky "things that go bump in the woods" action but would it have benefitted from more dialogue about how the four characters came to be together? Personally, I'm not sure it would have but it's just one of many things about this film that appears to be dividing the opinions of moviegoers everywhere.
At least Wingard isn't concerned with dialling down the shocks in order to make a horror movie with the broadest appeal possible. When Blair Witch is firing on all cylinders its clammy, grimy (literally), taut sequences are thoroughly enjoyable even though you're sinking into your seat. It may over-egg the pudding by giving its audience so little time to breathe, particularly in the last third, but the intent to terrify the living crap out of everyone is clearly there to see.
To recap: I enjoyed it, okay? I know a lot of you didn't. Things would all be so much duller if we were the same. That's my way of saying please don't send me abuse on Twitter...
No comments:
Post a Comment