Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

Blair Witch Blu-ray Movie Review

The Blair Witch Reject.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 29, 2016

One of my snarkier friends, knowing I had reviewed the original The Blair Witch Project and was slated to review this 2016 sequel, summed up the situation rather piquantly with the comment, “That must have been one hell of a former life you’re having to atone for.” While I confessed in my The Blair Witch Project Blu-ray review that I frankly didn’t really get what all the fuss was about with regard to the 1999 opus, I at least did get that the film managed to offer its tale in a unique fashion while also almost completely eschewing what is traditionally the focus of many, maybe even most, horror films: blood, guts, and on screen depictions of horrifying phenomena (supernatural or otherwise). But as I discussed in my now long ago review, I simply wasn’t that scared by The Blair Witch Project and therefore found it an occasionally interesting intellectual exercise that nonetheless failed pretty spectacularly (in my case, anyway) to get the adrenaline pumping in any reasonable fashion. Seemingly everyone associated with either the first film or this sequel seems to realize that the less said about Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 , the better, and in fact in the kind of enjoyably self-deprecating commentary by Adam Windgard and Simon Barrett as well as an exhaustive making of documentary on this new Blu-ray, they repeatedly mention that one of their main goals was to get the franchise “back on the rails” and/or in the woods (so to speak). The problem with Blair Witch is that it’s less of a sequel than a kind of modernist-revisionist remake of the first film, perhaps just a little like Gus Van Sant’s version of Psycho. Blair Witch wants to pretend its updating and/or revisiting the story of the first film, courtesy of a linking device which has a character named James Donahue (James Allen McHune) trying to uncover what happened to his sister Heather (the real life Heather Donahue from the first film, since part of The Blair Witch Project’s faux verité conceit was to feature actors playing versions of themselves). That’s merely the gambit Blair Witch utilizes to get this film’s aggregation of boneheaded young ‘un’s out in those dastardly woods where all sorts of things start going bump in the night. Though it’s arguable as to whether this film is more or less patently ridiculous than its progenitors, Blair Witch still won’t provide a ton of shocks for those used to more overt hair rising spectacles.

It’s almost pointless to get into the plot dynamics of Blair Witch, since they so relentlessly mimic those in The Blair Witch Project. What’s kind of disappointing about all of this is Blair Witch seems in its early going to be attempting at least to develop some honest human emotion for James, a guy who has spent much of his childhood and now nascent adulthood trying to come to grips with whatever happened to his long lost sister Heather. James wants to believe she’s still alive, and that gives the film a kind of disturbing undercurrent that could have been utilized much more effectively than it turns out to be. Instead screenwriter Simon Barrett and director Adam Windgard, collaborators responsible for the often viscerally unsettling You're Next, seem content to merely plop down an assortment of types in the woods and then watch as their social structure disintegrates under the watchful eye of whatever supernatural force is lurking there.

Kind of interestingly, Blair Witch is much more overt in its depiction of those supposedly inexplicable occurrences, something that would seem to anchor the film in a more unsettling “reality” (since the original film only hinted at the horrors). Oddly, then, the opposite ends up occurring, with the now completely obvious intrusions by the witch playing almost like a parlor game where the hapless kids are toyed with for a while before they’re ultimately disposed of. Part of what gave The Blair Witch Project whatever weird force it had was its very ambiguity— was this stuff really happening, or were the kids simply giving in to some kind of atavistic fears which therefore clouded their judgment and responses? There’s no really similar uncertainty at play in Blair Witch, and rather weirdly the film is decidedly less scary as a result.

All of this said, there are some moments of tension in Blair Witch, especially once the “campers” realize they’ve passed into something resembling The Twilight Zone. Some of the most effective spookifying (I’m going to insist that’s a word) comes courtesy of some really effective sound design, with ominous low frequency hums and occasional startle effects that help to juice up the proceedings, if only fitfully. But the bottom line is, if you've seen The Blair Witch Project, you've (more or less, anyway) seen Blair Witch, and despite an uptick in tech in this film (hey, they use drones this time!), there's unfortunately not a simultaneous uptick in any fear factor.

Blair Witch Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blair Witch is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The "found footage" aspect of this film benefits from the better resolutions of contemporary cameras as opposed to the gritty, grainy and often undetailed appearance of The Blair Witch Project, but this outing is decidedly more heterogeneous looking than the first film, as can clearly be seen in the screenshots accompanying this review. Blair Witch has a somewhat patchwork quilt look going for it, with some elements that look like they were captured at decent resolutions looking sharp and relatively well detailed (see screenshot 3), but others looking fairly ragged either due to source capture resolution or tweaking in post (see a number of screenshots, including numbers 4, 5 and 10). The film pretty relentlessly resorts to "jiggly cam", adding a perceived layer of softness since the frame is so malleable and it's hard to focus on any given element. As with the first film, things start to get dark and murky once the group enters the forest, and detail levels drop pretty precipitously once it turns to (eternal?) night. Because of the widely variant looks of the footage, it's a little hard to discern whether some anomalies are source related or compression related, but there are moments of noise and splotchiness, especially once things get extremely dark.

Blair Witch Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

From a technical standpoint, perhaps the single biggest selling point of this Blair Witch Blu-ray is its extremely effective Dolby Atmos track (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core). This is an involving and immersive track that regularly utilizes some rumbling low frequency effects while also offering pinpoint placement of eerie sound effects once the group is exploring in the woods. Very inventive sound design keeps things feeling increasingly claustrophobic, with regular discrete channelization of individual effects. Dialogue (and/or screams) is presented cleanly and clearly with generally excellent prioritization (once things get increasingly chaotic, it can be challenging at a few isolated moments to make out individual lines in the cacophony). Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range extremely wide in this very enjoyable track.

Blair Witch Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Adam Wingard and Writer Simon Barrett may actually appeal to some more than the actual film, as the two are in a rather humorously morose mood two weeks after the film's opening to blistering reviews and disappointing box office.


• Neverending Night: The Making of Blair Witch (1080p; 1:46:38) is a multi-part set of featurettes that have some rather interesting interviews, including with the creative team behind The Blair Witch Project.


• House of Horrors: Exploring the Set (1080p; 15:50) is a fun behind the scenes tour of the "haunted house".

Blair Witch Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

After listening to the somewhat depressive commentary by Wingard and Barrett included on this Blu-ray, I kind of started wishing someone would make a found footage film detailing the "adventures" of filmmakers realizing their cinematic baby has just gone down in flames. Blair Witch had the potential to reinvent the franchise, but it settled for simply remaking the first film. Video is occasionally problematic, but audio is superb on this release, one which also provides a long and exhaustive making of documentary which may interest some fans.