The much anticipated sequel to the 1999 breakout horror hit “The Blair Witch Project”, takes place with a new group of eager young adults in “Blair Witch”. Directed by Adam Wingard, the movie place years after the first film, with a group of college students venturing into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of James (James Allen McCune)’ sister Heather (from the original film) who many believe is connected to the legend of the Blair Witch. At first the group is hopeful, especially when a pair of locals offer to act as guides through the dark and winding woods, but as the endless night wears on, the group is visited by a menacing presence. Slowly, they begin to realize the legend is all too real and more sinister than they could have imagined, while picking them apart one by one on an endurance test of psychological terror. “Blair Witch” is rated R for adult language, terror and disturbing situations involving imagery.

Seventeen years has passed since the original “The Blair Witch Project” startled a nation of people, taking in the highest success rate that any independent film has ever received. Whether you like or hate it, that film changed the game for horror, and ushered in a new era of movies that embrace the unorthodox methods of shooting a film. With the third movie in this series, the writers decided to embrace the advancements of technology. That is where “Blair Witch” gets what little charms it has, but ultimately the movie feels overall like a retread reboot that doesn’t take enough chances to find a terrifying voice of its own. The movie is arguably a shot-for-shot remake of the 1999 smash hit, and this movie felt that it could get away with a lot of the same ordeals without suffering the nasty word of mouth that most remakes get in 2016. Considering the movie is two decades later, there isn’t anything praise-worthy that anyone can point to when it comes to what this movie does better than something that was produced on such a cheap budget. It’s ultimately humiliating what little originality that this movie has going for it, and I’m not so sure that we deserved this more than “The Woods”, the original title that this movie took place under. There’s not a lot here that ever feels like it justifies that popular character in horror, and is just a rewrite away from being just another haunted woods tale.

Going back to the technology, the movie embraces the idea to bring on board some head-cams, GPS trackers to track their every movement into the immense woods, and a sky drone that can capture a view for our protagonists for miles away. These are all smart ways of addressing an advancement in technology that wouldn’t have the same problems that Heather, Josh and Mike suffered through in the original movie. The problem though, is that nothing is ever used to the utmost potential. The sky drone is shown in three scenes in the movie. Two of which take place on the EXACT SAME GROUND that the characters slept on the night before. What is the point in doing this? Will they see something different the second time around? Then there’s the GPS trackers, which never work and are barely ever mentioned again after their signals are lost. These feel like a cheap plot ploy to point to the audience who snickered at how easy it would be to get out of the woods, without ever actually proving what their purpose is in being introduced to this group who lack even the smallest increments of intelligence. More on that later.

Then there’s the production design of the movie. The one thing that I will give this film is that it embraces the concept of a movie shot in the woods. For the first time that I can remember, a movie shot in the woods actually looks like it with the foreboding darkness and lack of visibility around our cast and crew. This might make the visual clarity a little foggy, but it goes further in embracing the logic behind shooting cameras in the dark. I also enjoyed some of beautiful shots of the endless woods that really communicate to the audience the distance in such a mission, even more so than the original film did. For a movie that takes place on only a few areas, this movie certainly made the most of their secluded areas, and this movie’s location perhaps re-creates the only natural scare in this movie. The camera work though is another story. Even if you want to see this movie, I have to suggest you wait until DVD. This movie’s visual presentation is one of the ugliest messes that I have seen this year. Yes it’s a POV style concept. Yes there’s a lot of movement from our characters. The difference in all of that though is the first movie knew when a stabilizer was important in framing the terror that each person is going through. Here, I barely had the faintest idea of what was going on before my very eyes. Flashlights are flashed back in forth, inducing me into pre-seizure mode, the personal camera are zoomed in far too close to ever establish what transpires, and the editing is downright offensive. On the latter, I’m not even talking about the scene-to-scene transitions. I am talking about the sounds that the camera makes every time it cuts off. For some reason, the producers of this movie seem to think a camera makes a punching sound every time it cuts from one scene. By ten minutes in, you wish the camera would be left on for years, so not to hear that awful sound that feels like you’ve been punched in the ear.

As for the outline of the script, not much has changed from the important aspects of the first movie. Blair Witch models hung around them…CHECK. A running sequence after their tents have been poked….CHECK. Campire scene with the cast eating Vienna sausages….CHECK. I could go into so much more, but I would be approaching spoiler territory. This movie rarely takes chances to build the suspense or even build character exposition that differs one person from another. In the original movie, I felt empathy for the trio of characters because we see them grow as a team of friends. The characters in this movie are just kind of pushed along on this journey that nobody minus James has any faith in. And what do we substitute well-timely drawn out scares from the first movie with? mindless jump scares of course. This movie has plenty of them. I find it funny how a character can hear people approaching and agitating his tent, but can’t hear his friends walk up on him before scaring him. One of my favorite aspects of the woods is that you can’t hear anyone crunching on the leaves or branches that are literally everywhere in a place this deserted. This is what I mean when I say pointless jump scares. Nothing is scary, and it’s all just played for sound manipulation.

A film’s story also can’t grow if the acting isn’t there, and this cast doesn’t have 1/8 the acting range that Heather Donohue had from the first movie. By the third act (If you can call it that), everything is so rushed along that we never have a scene as memorable as Heather’s tearful confession citing her motivations for such a project. These are stupid characters who do the dumbest things, so none of their motivations feel human or worth any kind of investment that you have for their well-being. These are simply just people who are molded to fit character stereotypes. The prick, the film student, the victim brother. All of this is played pretty close to the ground, and nothing is ever slightly memorable from one of their performances. The character I enjoyed the most was intended to be the biggest jerk of the group. I invested in him the most because what he was saying rang true to what I myself would do under those predicaments. The dumbest character in “The Blair Witch Project” makes the smartest character in “Blair Witch” look like a failing math student by comparison, but that’s the kind of people you’re stuck with for 84 minutes.

“Blair Witch” is another trip back to the same woods that haven’t changed one bit. Like any trail, the patterns and directions are all the same from the first time you took it on, and not even the slightest difference can change the predictable angles that feel all too familiar. It’s a lazy remake without the actual designation of being a remake. Only appealing to those who haven’t seen the far superior original. “The Blair Witch Project” was a product of its time. “Blair Witch” is a product of a tired genre whose best days are far behind it.

4/10