Blair Witch: "There's Something Out There"

Director: Adam Wingard
Writer:     Simon Barrett
Starring: James Allen McCune
                Callie Hernandez
                Brandon Scott
                Corbin Reid
                Wes Robinson
                Valorie Curry
Rating:    **

Release Date: Out Now 

17 years after the original Blair Witch Project scared the world, shocked audiences and changed the face of horror forever, Blair Witch ( a secret sequel) has arrived. Sadly for fans of the original and horror in general, Blair Witch does little to keep up the tension, and saves the big scares for the last fifteen minutes.

After he discovers a video showing what he seems to believe is his missing sister Heather, who we met in the original film, James (McCune) and a group of far too trusting friends head into the forest believed to be the home of the Blair Witch. Things soon go downhill for the group, and as they are plummeted into eternal darkness, cracks begins to form, and they soon come face to face with the same fate as James' sister and her friends.

Valorie Curry

The cast aren't really that exciting and struggled to get me to feel anything for them. A big part of a successful horror movie, is that you have to feel for you protagonist. Sydney Prescott, Laurie Strode and Nancy Thompson, all horror movie leads, all cinema legends, all fan favourites. Why is that? Because the audience instantly connected with them and wanted a happy ending for them. Films like Blair Witch, which feel more realistic due to the fund-footage style, need their stars to have this effect on an audience even more, and in this film, I just didn't care.

The story is basically the first film again, but with more people. The same things that happened to the original trio start to happen to them, the stick men, the missing friend, the spooky house; it should have been called Blair Witch: Deja Vu. It isn't until the final act where I really felt any dread or tension, and there were some genuine scares in those final scenes; it is just a shame that I had to sit through the first hour to get to it.

The promotion was clever, the idea could've been great, and I really had high hopes; but I was left highly disappointed. If you are going to try and revive a film series this lat after the original; you have got to make it good. All they have done is damage the Blair Witch brand, although not as much as the first sequel, Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, yikes.

Blair Witch - Trailer