4.5 Out of 5 Stars
Blair Witch is proof the studios have become savvy to the toxicity of certain fandoms on the internet. The film’s surprise unveiling at Comic Con was a smart tactic to circumvent the hivemind that’s grown accustomed to critiquing everything with some nostalgic value to pieces simply from a trailer. When the project known as The Woods was found to be the long in gestation Blair Witch 3 the cynics found it hard to argue with the positive reactions already flooding the net when it was finally reveled at Comic Con. Those reactions probably have a lot to do with the duo behind the film Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett who brought the found footage genre back with the V/H/S series. (At least the first two good ones they helmed.)

Blair Witch is not a reboot, but a sequel that sadly ignores Book of Shadows and picks up in 2014 as James, the brother of Heather Donahue discovers a clip on the internet that appears to show the same house shown in The Blair Witch Project. When the original trio was lost and the footage was found as search parties combed the forest of Burkittsville for months, they couldn’t find the filmmakers or the mysterious house seen in their footage. In a meta stroke of genius, this film is cobbled together from a documentary about James and his friends as he looks for answers to what happened to his sister while also examining the phenomena that is still going strong around his her disappearance 15 years later.



As this new group of led by a local couple venture deep into the woods to find where the tape containing the footage was found they begin to experience the same mysterious phenomena that we saw in the original film. Blair Witch effortlessly captures the paranoia of the first film as it piles on the scares as the group of friends struggle to discern what is real as we also find some of the things they discover were possibly planted to scare the expedition. It’s a solid follow up to the original film that while using a lot of the same plot devices still feels like its own entity.

For those familiar with the mythology of the Blair Witch, this film is very reverent to the original while expanding on the material. Somehow it manages to do so in a way that only adds to the original film while introducing one element that really elevates what was already an intriguing take on the property. Its easy to imagine Wingard and Barrett really tearing apart what happened in the first film and reverse engineering that to not only make definitive sense of what happened in the final moments of the first film, but how that would apply to the rules and world building of this film.


Much like their segments in V/H/S Wingard crafts technology around the narrative to make sure every nook and cranny that could have a camera does. It does so while not triggering the ‘why is he filming and not running?’ argument with most found footage films. What you have a is a very effective film that thanks to an engaging script and cast of unknowns up to the task finally gives fans a worthy sequel to one of my favorite horror films. The film while answering enough questions also still leaves enough unanswered to keep fans coming back and forcing them to re-watch the film for clues.

The Blu-ray which streets today, comes with not only an audio commentary, but also a 6-Part documentary titled Never Ending Night: The Making of Blair Witch clocking in at a hefty 1 hour and 46 minutes (Which is longer than the film itself!!). For fans like myself that had questions, this answers quite a few of them while still keeping some things about the film ambiguous. Taken as a whole the doc is an exhaustive look at almost every piece of production from shooting the film, the scoring and the super secretive production. To please purists, the directors of the original film Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez make an appearance in the doc and discuss their involvement in the film and how much input they had in the final product.


Blair Witch exceeded my expectations and watching it again only solidifies that it raised the bar for the series going forward. Needless to say if you dug the film, you should definitely pick up this disc. The presentation here is flawless, and if you have a good surround sound setup definitely watch this one in the dark, thanks to a super creepy Dolby Atmos track that shows exactly what the format can do in the right hands. For those that missed this the first time around and dug the original, its worth checking out, but please do so with the lights out. Blair Witch was easily one of my favorite films this year, it was relentless and brutal and for a studio sequel to an indie film that is more than any fan could ask for.