![]() ![]() There are two types of enemies: those that burst into dust when you shine your flashlight on them, and those that you can't kill at all and have to avoid instead. This doesn't persist all the way through, and it's Blair Witch's more surreal elements that don't quite stick. Blair Witch achieves its most tense moments when seemingly nothing is happening at all, letting your imagination get the better of you just as Ellis begins to question his own sanity. The general, overwhelming silence of the woods is undercut delicately with reverberating environmental sounds that heighten your sensory tension, making you jump at every little noise. It makes it difficult to ever feel safe in any spot, since you don't know where to run should you need to. The woods themselves twist and turn, with trees overlapping each other to trap you in looping pathways or rearrange your understanding of where landmarks are. In a way, Bullet's job is to escort you throughout most of Blair Witch's runtime, and it's truly disconcerting when he's not by your side.Įllis' vivid and violent panic attacks are just one side effect of Bullet's absence, letting the horrors of Black Hills flood his reality and warp it. Bullet is also great at alerting you to imminent dangers nearby, barking at enemies lurking in the trees and unseen foes buried in a thick fog. ![]() Bullet will sniff out clues for you to inspect and trails for you to follow, making the labyrinthine forest easier to navigate. Sticking close to Bullet keeps you calm and also lets you follow his helpful hints. To keep you from succumbing to stress and anxiety, you have Bullet-a gorgeous and loyal police dog given to you by your former sheriff–to keep you on track. Ellis is the perfect candidate for the persuasions of Black Hills Forest, making his ventures deeper into the woods more perilous with each passing second. Ellis is troubled he suffers frequent panic attacks that allude to post-traumatic stress from his time in the military and the police force, and he's pushed away everyone who cares for him as a result. You play as Ellis, a former police officer that takes it upon himself to head into the infamous Black Hills Forest in Burkittsville, Maryland to investigate yet another child disappearance during 1996. At its best, Blair Witch does a lot with very little to instill a strong sense of paranoia and dread, but it struggles to maintain that atmosphere throughout. Each cracking branch underneath your feet will startle you, every bit of movement in the distance trying to trick your senses into believing something is there. In Blair Witch, the woods are a character you have to fight against at every turn. It's difficult to reorient yourself if you get lost, with each passing moment bringing night closer and making an already unsettling wrong turn seem life-threatening. “Blair Witch” is at its best when the mainstream jumpy horror is replaced with the isolationist horror of the original.The woods are easy to be scared of. The film is brought down by its predictable jump scares and familiar plot. While not a terrible movie, “Blair Witch” fails to capture what made the original so memorable. Story wise, “Blair Witch” succeeds at making the “lost in the woods” trope believable. ![]() Not only is the story directly influenced by it, the folklore behind the Blair Witch, herself, is expanded upon. ![]() “Blair Witch” is a must see for any fan of the original. They were powerless, and that was extremely unnerving and anxiety inducing. Like the original, the group seemed to break free of time and space, going in circles, making five or six days feel like a couple of hours. However, the film shines in its distortion of space-time and isolation horror. This cheap tactic was overused and had very few successful payoffs. The jump scares were both predictable and never used anything truly terrifying. “Blair Witch” relies heavily on cheap jump scares while the original didn’t have to. In plot, it feels like “The Blair Witch Project” 2.0, with fancier cameras and jump scares. The new “Blair Witch” follows the events of the original, as main character Heather Donahue’s brother reenters the forest with three friends to search for his sister after revealing new footage showing her alive 20 years later.Īt its core, the film is extremely similar to the original a group of young adults searching the woods with video cameras are haunted by some unknown entity. The film created an entirely new genre of horror with documentary style filmmaking which is still used in today’s film making industry. When “The Blair Witch Project” was released in 1999, it was met with good reviews. ![]()
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