Blair Witch, the sequel to The Blair Witch Project, not to be confused with The Woods (the title Lionsgate fooled everyone with until the premiere at the San Diego Comic-Con) or Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (which I never took the time to watch), was pretty entertaining! I haven't seen The Blair Witch Project since its release in 1999, but as far as I can tell there's no need to watch the first one (or that second one I never watched) to enjoy Blair Witch. It's the same camera shot idea, coming from the individual cameras held by the characters in the film. But, it's 2016 (well technically 2014 in the film), and we have cameras on our ears and on drones!! Which means we have a lot of different vantage points this time around.
1 of the 3 couples is an African-American couple, which is why we're reviewing it on BMRC, in case you were wondering. Peter (Brandon Scott, Wreck-it Ralph) and his girlfriend, Ashley (Corbin Reid, Words with Girls) are childhood friends of James Donahue (James Allen McCune, The Walking Dead), the younger brother of Heather Donahue (from the original, The Blair Witch Project). Peter and Ashley join James, Lisa (Callie Hernandez, La La Land), Lane (Wes Robinson, Roadies), and Talia (Valorie Curry, The Following) on a camping trip to try to find Heather Donahue in the Black Hills Forest. And of course they encounter some paranormal activity.
Peter is a bit of a wise guy, so you just know he'll live up to the Black person being the first to go in a horror flick tradition, but I'll let you see for yourself! As for Ashley, though not one of the main characters (note there are only 6 characters really), she has the widest array of experiences of all of the characters, and one of the grossest scenes of the film (and no it is not a death scene)!
Overall, the film was very entertaining and not too predictable. The audience was totally committed to the characters, freely exclaiming what they should and shouldn't do next (or shouldn't have done). We also had plenty of laughs, but in an entertained sort of way, not in a this is the worst horror movie ever type of way. I laughed the hardest and jumped the least, but the audience members definitely jumped in their seats every now and then!
So unless this really isn't your type of flick, I say go check it out!
8/10