SMALLS GOES FOR A TREK IN THE BLACK HILLS FOREST WITH BLAIR WITCH

Blair Witch is a continuation of The Blair With Project. In 1994, Heather Donahue and her friends Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams trekked deep into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland for a documentary Heather was doing on Ellie Kedward aka The Blair Witch. They were never heard from again, but the footage they shot was recovered. Around 20 Years after Heather and crew vanished, a mysterious new video is discovered in The Black Hills Forest and uploaded to the internet. It shows a young woman frantically running through a house. James Donahue (Heather's younger brother, played by James Allen McCune)) has been keeping his eyes and ears open for any sign of his sister, and when he sees the new footage he becomes convinced that the house is the same house from the end of his sister's footage, and that the girl MUST be his sister. James' girlfriend Lisa (Callie Hernandez) is doing a documentary on him and his search for Heather. Together with their friends Peter (Brandon Scott) and Ashley (Corbin Reid), and with Burkittsville natives Lane (Wes Robinson) and Talia (Valorie Curry) leading the way, they decide to investigate The Black Hills Forest in search of that house and hopefully, Heather. Naturally, things don't go exactly as planned as the group find themselves traveling in Heather and friends' footsteps.

Blair Witch is directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett (The duo behind such hits as You're Next and The Guest). They clearly have a great love for The Blair Witch Project, and are very knowledgable about The Blair Witch's rich backstory and mythology. The set-up is very cool, and when the characters go over the storied history of Ellie Kedward and her victims, the film doesn't get a single thing wrong. Blair Witch doesn't negate anything the original classic did, and actually adds a little bit to the mythology. As for the actors this time around, they all do a fine job (with my favorite character being James). Of course, I have to talk about The Blair Witch herself as well. She's more aggressive here and seems downright pissed. 

With the new technology we have today comes new forms of video recording equipment, which Blair Witch isn't afraid to use. We get over-the-ear-cameras (referred to as POV cams), webcams, drones, and hand-held video recorders. There is still a good deal of shaky cam here, but it's nice to get different angles and views instead of just relying on one source of video.

While The Blair Witch Project resembled an actual amateur documentary/student project, Blair Witch resembles more of a theatrical film. We see a bit more here than we did in the original, but a decent amount is still left in the shadows. Most of the film is pretty creepy, tense and weird but I honestly wasn't scared until the last act or so. For myself, I'd say I felt the first and last acts were the strongest parts of this film. While Blair Witch isn't as great as The Blair Witch Project was (and certainly won't have the impact the original did at the time it was released), this is still a faithful, fun, very cool, and worthwhile continuation of The Blair Witch Project. Blair Witch gets a solid recommendation from me, I'm sure fans of the original (like myself) will eat it up. 

3.5 STARS