Wingard and his frequent collaborator, writer Simon Barrett, were faced with a tough challenge: deliver a Blair Witch sequel seventeen years after the first film that would entertain modern audiences without violating what made the first Blair Witch Project so terrifying, specifically: fear of the unknown and the unseen. In short, Blair Witch is a bigger (not necessarily scarier) sequel to the Project that stays true to Myrick and Sánchez's style and approach though, Wingard sidelines drama and coherent plotting in service of defining Blair Witch mythology (and laying a foundation for future sequels).įor months, Blair Witch was marketed under its working title, The Woods, in order to preserve the experience for moviegoers, with no hint of its connection to the Blair Witch series, but the film itself is significantly less subtle about tethering the two together (though it ignores Book of Shadows entirely). Now, sixteen years later, director Adam Wingard ( You're Next and The Guest) has released a follow-up, titled Blair Witch, that should appease longtime fans looking for a more authentic continuation of the Blair Witch story but, conversely, does little to reinvent the waning found footage genre that exploded out of the 1999 film's success. Unfortunately, the series was quickly tainted by a rushed sequel ( Book of Shadows) that bore little resemblance to its predecessor. One of the first films to popularize the found footage genre, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez's The Blair Witch Project earned critical praise and a massive box office back in 1999. However, no amount of preparation or modern gadgets could actually prepare the group for nightfall in the Blair woods.
After the original Blair Witch tape surfaced, investigators scoured the woods looking for Heather but never located the dilapidated cabin featured in the video so, in order to narrow his search, James turns to the Burkittsville couple, Lane (Wes Robinson) and Talia (Valorie Curry), who found the recent Blair Witch video, requesting the pair lead him to where exactly they discovered the footage. To ensure the friends don't suffer the same fate as Heather and her film crew, and to get the best video possible for the thesis project, James and Lisa equip their group with high-tech gear: ear-top cameras, GPS radios, night vision gear, and an aerial drone.