Blair Witch Movie Review

Blair Witch is the third in the series from The Blair Witch Project. This installment takes place over 20 years after the disappearance of Heather Donahue. The story begins with Heather’s younger brother James, who was around the age of four at the time she disappeared. James believes that there’s possibly a chance Heather could still be alive.

James (James Allen McCune) is accompanied by his best friend Peter (Brandon Scott) and Peter’s girlfriend Ashley (Corbin Reid). Their friend Lisa (Callie Hernandez) has decided that she wants to document James search for his sister. The foursome travel to Burkittsville Maryland to meet up with Lane (Wes Robinson) and his girlfriend Talia (Valorie Curry). Lane tells James he found a video in the same area where Heather had gone missing. This helps to validate James theory that the search party looking for his sister could have been focused in the wrong area. Lane and Talia talk the group into allowing them to help locate the house James believes holds the key to finding his long-lost sister.

Theres a slow boil to the action. The movie begins with more of a focus on the latest tech gadgets. Lisa equips each of the group with GPS everything. They have every POV covered from body cams to a Drone ready to be used to survey the forest around them. Lisa seems to have made sure they can not only record everything for her documentary but also to make sure no one disappears. Makes you believe that Lisa went into this afraid that the Blair Witch stories just might be true.

Lane and Talia seem to serve the main purpose of explaining a little bit more about the Blair Witch Legend and the disappearances that haunt the Burkittsville area. They guide the group into the Black Hills forest.

Writer Simon Barrett gives the characters the most organic dialogue I have ever witnessed in a horror type film. A lot of the lines delivered by the characters were simultaneously being echoed by the audience. Director Adam Wingard brings the Black Hills Forest to life. He pulls you into feeling like you are running through the woods with the characters. A few times I caught myself ready to scream “NO!!!! DONT DO IT”. He also did an amazing job of building up the suspense then cutting video just to build the suspense back up again. Effectively, giving the view a thrilling haunted house type fright.

Once the action picks up a lot of information is given to you however, before you can process it to figure out what’s really going on you are quickly distracted and pointed into another direction. By the time the movie ends and you’re dealt a huge bait and switch, you get a chance to process all the information that you were given and then suddenly everything makes sense.

Rated R

Horror/Thriller

Special thanks to Allied for Advance Screening.

Rating this 5 missing friends out of 5