Ah found footage films. They are all the range these days with some being great like the first three Paranormal Activity films, Cloverfield and Unfriended and others not being great at all. Its difficult to make found footage films innovative and original when you pretty much see the same thing over and over again. Now with Blair Witch, its a different story. It wasn't the first found footage film to be made, but it became what I would call a game changer. It was effective, it was terrifying and just showed the scariest thing can be what you don't see or your own imagination. It even showed that even with a small budget and handheld cameras, you can still make a great film. I think its safe to say that as each Paranormal Activity film came along, they went to limits where they would use a wide range of technology for filming events that transpired which went as far as using webcams on Macs and even the now gone but not out of commission Kinect. While Unfriended had you see everything from just a Mac computer screen. Its come a long way, but if it wasn't for the first Blair Witch film, it wouldn't be a popular sub-genre that it is today. So now let's look at these films:
Just to also point out that while I will review the first and the latest film, Book of Shadows will be missed because I haven't nor intend to see it, it was a suckfest according to those who have seen it and the filmmakers have officially stated that its not canon, but do still acknowledge its existence.
The Blair Witch Project
So the year is 1994 and we see a group of three film students consisting of Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard and the famous one of them all, Heather Donahue (which are the actors' real names and are all playing a fictionalized version of themselves). The trio are filming a documentary about the fabled Blair Witch. They spend the first day of filming by going to Burkittsville, Maryland (formally known as Blair) and interview residents living there who offer some insight in what they are filming about. On day 2, the trio venture into the woods that are north of Burkittsville and its here where things start happening like people losing their minds, noises start happening and other things that make them disappear forever. Like everyone else has said, its a great. but terrifying film that set the standard for found footage films and to this day, it is still among the best of its kind and a great film overall. 9/10
Blair Witch
To make a film that is better than the first, can be hard. Its probably one of the reasons why Book of Shadows didn't do so well. But here we are 17 years later and we got a sequel. So after years of finding out where his sister went, James Donahue (played by James Allen McCune) discovers a YouTube video of the footage Heather took and together with his friends and the uploaders of the video, they set out to find the house that Heather was last seen in, only for them to start getting into the same trap she did. This is probably the most genuinely terrifying film I have seen in a long time. The jumpscares are well executed, the terror and fear is at an all time high and just everything about it makes it a great horror film despite what critics have said. Yes it does feel like a rehash of the first, but you can't deny, everything is upped to 11 here. It is that terrifying. You can forget FNAF, Slender and Paranormal Activity because this is where its at. 9/10
I really wish that people would take into account what these films have shown because I got to say, if you want a fright, you got one or two right here that have well executed jumpscares and are genuinely terrifying. 9/10
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