Sometimes you've got to just judge a film based on the emotions that it evokes in you rather than overanalysing and scrutinising each individual part of its make-up.
The second half of Blair Witch made me feel one emotion in bucket loads: raw unadulterated fear.
Directed by Adam Wingard, Blair Witch is a follow-up to 1999's "The Blair Witch Project". The plot is very similar to that of its predecessor as is much of its composition. In this film James, the brother of Heather from the first film, goes with a group of friends to the Blair woods in order to look for his missing sibling after footage pops up online which may serve to prove that she is still alive. However once in the woods, the group learn the hard way that there are certain rocks which are better left unturned.
Like I said, when you break Blair Witch down, there isn't an awful lot to marvel at. The acting isn't top quality, especially in the film's early stages. For a movie who's entire existence relies on the "belief" that it depicts real events, the acting is very pantomime in the first half. James Allen McCune, who plays James, is particularly guilty of this and it is not until the film's climax that he redeems himself a bit in terms of his performance. Also, while the first film popularised the found-footage sub-genre, Blair Witch is now one of many such films to come out in the decade since the initial outing. Because of this, Blair Witch doesn't really feel special from a technical perspective like its predecessor was at the time and therefore can't be considered as "special" a film. Despite this the camera work is very good and the shaky cam style, combined with the low-level lighting, helped to create a particularly realistic feel which other horrors would do well to try to imitate.
However, like I always say, there is only one question that has to be answered in order to judge the quality of a horror film: is it scary? The answer to this question is an extremely firm yes! I've seen mostly every horror film to come out in 2016, but none of them have come close to filling me with the levels of dread that Blair Witch reached in its third act. I was honestly shaking at some points and I will readily admit I had to take a few seconds to steady my breathing before leaving the screen. Yes, the first act is an extremely slow-burner, introducing us to the characters and trying to make us care about them before anything particularly strange happens, but when they do the film goes from 0 to 80 in 2 seconds flat. Eerily atmospheric, filled with scares and featuring a now infamous threat, Blair Witch is by far the scariest horror film to come out this year.
If you're wanting a good scare, go and see Blair Witch.
Score: 8.5/10
On a side note, what a cracking year this has been for horror movies so far. By far the most consistent genre of 2016.
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