There's a New Blair Witch in Town

by Corey Gray

The original “Blair Witch Project” was released in 1999 and was, in my humble opinion, the strongest found footage film of our time. It did have an unsuccessful sequel back in 2000, and now in 2016 it’s getting a major reboot. “Blair Witch” is set to come out on September 16th, less than a month away. It focuses on a whole new crew of curious teens, but this time there’s more at stake: the main character’s sister is missing.
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The original movie was released at a time when the internet was still growing. There wasn’t the plethora if readily available information that we have today, and the “Blair Witch Project” production team took advantage of that. They made a website that went over the lore of the Blair Witch and gave the least amount of information as possible by not acknowledging the crew of the movie, and really making it seem that the movie was shot by these three wannabe videographers just trying to make a documentary. Even the IMBD page listed the no-name actors, whose characters where named after them, as “Missing, presumed dead”. When the movie had first come out, there really wasn’t a way to settle your nerves and see some verification that this wasn’t real. It targeted the part of us afraid of the unknown and uncertainty, and that’s why it’s a legend of the horror genre.

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This reboot obviously can’t do the same, but they did choose some generally no-name stars. I can’t help but fear there won’t be anything that can set this movie apart from the countless found footage films in the horror industry today. Shaky camera work and low lighting can only take a horror movie so far, but the major Blair Witch fan in me is remaining hopeful. The production was done very hush-hush, having the film originally being marketed as “The Woods” before it was revealed that it’s a “Blair Witch Project” sequel. The company that made the movie, Lionsgate, even kept only very few people in the know about what the final product would be. They are clearly keeping many details about the movie from us, the consumers, as well, seeing as there really hasn’t been too much marketing with it. It seems they’re going to let the cult following of the original film do all of the hype work for them.
    I’m excited to have the chance to explore the Blair Witch lore some more. The original kept it very vague, so I’m hoping there’ll be more juicy details in this one. It does seem as though this production is really trying to honor and do justice to the original, so I will for sure be first in line for the spooky treat that “Blair Witch” is sure to be.  ​