Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
09-15-16, 08:43 PM
#51
09-15-16, 11:29 PM
#57
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
Saw it this tonight. I really enjoyed it. Definitely going to be a polarizing though, especially to fans of the first film.
Last edited by asianxcore; 09-16-16 at 12:31 AM.
09-15-16, 11:53 PM
#58
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
Eh, It Follows had an interesting premise with horrible choices and ideas (talking about that pool scene). I couldn't deal with that. Babadook had some good scare moments and WAY better acting.
As for this movie, big disappointment outside the last 20 or so minutes. Had characters that you really couldn't cheer for, didn't make a lot of sense (as someone mentioned the calling of a name, why would a sister be calling out to you when she doesn't know you are looking for her how many years later?), and I had hoped for a better backstory. It does explain the stick figures (looks just like the witch) but overall just not worth it. Original is better (at least it had characters you could enjoy).
As for this movie, big disappointment outside the last 20 or so minutes. Had characters that you really couldn't cheer for, didn't make a lot of sense (as someone mentioned the calling of a name, why would a sister be calling out to you when she doesn't know you are looking for her how many years later?), and I had hoped for a better backstory. It does explain the stick figures (looks just like the witch) but overall just not worth it. Original is better (at least it had characters you could enjoy).
09-16-16, 02:19 AM
#59
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
Just got out of the theatre. There were about 20 other people in there, most of whom had not so complimentary things to say about it as they walked out. Myself, I thought it was on the fringes of being a good movie. There were some really creepy elements. It really is a remake of the first film with a little more exposition pertaining to the Blair Witch lore. I thought the millions upon millions of found footage horror movies since 1999 really put a damper on this film. Like going back and listening to Led Zeppelin IV all the way through again after decades of abuse by FM radio. The actors seemed like actors, the found footage felt like a found footage movie. The people used in the first film whether its the 3 leads or the townies all really felt like living breathing people that inhabited the Blair Witch universe. The same can't be said for the sequel. The only other thing I'll add is that I thought the ending sorta sucked.
All in all I thought it was a decent film with some decents scares. A far cry from seeing the original opening night when I was 14 and walking out of the theatre with numb legs.
6.5/10
Spoiler:
All in all I thought it was a decent film with some decents scares. A far cry from seeing the original opening night when I was 14 and walking out of the theatre with numb legs.
6.5/10
09-16-16, 05:36 AM
#60
Moderator
Thread Starter
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
This was way overhyped. The new rating is more accurate. A rental at best.
09-16-16, 07:35 AM
#61
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
Didn't hate it, but as I left the theater I felt underwhelmed. It did step up when they finally got to the house. It was cool actually seeing the witch a few times. There were a handful of creepy/tense moments throughout, but overall the movie was very eh. And this coming from someone who's a big fan of The Blair Witch Project.
Give it 2.5/5
Give it 2.5/5
09-16-16, 08:54 AM
#62
DVD Talk Hero
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: In the straps of boots
Posts: 28,004
Received 1,183 Likes
on
835 Posts
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
1/5
The entire movie plays out, beat for beat, almost identically to the original. If you have even a vague memory of how that film played out, this one is going to be too familiar, even with its differences. That would have been okay, if it wasn't so damn boring this time around. It's different in parts, but mostly not. The movie sets up moments for payoffs that never amount to anything. The characters are all pretty much just textbook 20-somethings. There are a silly amount of misplaced jump scares. There's an incredibly dumb moment when one character climbs a tree to retrieve something.
The last sequence (~20 or ~25 minutes?) was building up some real tension that could have turned me around on this flick, especially during one character's 'escape,' but then it falls flat. And the last moment, as mentioned in Chadm's spoiler, was a major groan.
This film has some unanswered questions about two characters (those who've seen it know what I mean), but while there's some mystery there, it's not exciting. Meaning, I just don't care why those two are experiencing what they are experiencing in their particular situation.
Overall, this movie was a bore for its first 2/3, and frustrating during its final moments.
If you're a fan of the original, you'll probably want to see it anyway. I don't want to dissuade you. Just don't expect this to live up to Wingard's other (much better) flicks.
The entire movie plays out, beat for beat, almost identically to the original. If you have even a vague memory of how that film played out, this one is going to be too familiar, even with its differences. That would have been okay, if it wasn't so damn boring this time around. It's different in parts, but mostly not. The movie sets up moments for payoffs that never amount to anything. The characters are all pretty much just textbook 20-somethings. There are a silly amount of misplaced jump scares. There's an incredibly dumb moment when one character climbs a tree to retrieve something.
The last sequence (~20 or ~25 minutes?) was building up some real tension that could have turned me around on this flick, especially during one character's 'escape,' but then it falls flat. And the last moment, as mentioned in Chadm's spoiler, was a major groan.
This film has some unanswered questions about two characters (those who've seen it know what I mean), but while there's some mystery there, it's not exciting. Meaning, I just don't care why those two are experiencing what they are experiencing in their particular situation.
Overall, this movie was a bore for its first 2/3, and frustrating during its final moments.
If you're a fan of the original, you'll probably want to see it anyway. I don't want to dissuade you. Just don't expect this to live up to Wingard's other (much better) flicks.
09-16-16, 03:40 PM
#63
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
Just got out of the theatre. There were about 20 other people in there, most of whom had not so complimentary things to say about it as they walked out. Myself, I thought it was on the fringes of being a good movie. There were some really creepy elements. It really is a remake of the first film with a little more exposition pertaining to the Blair Witch lore. I thought the millions upon millions of found footage horror movies since 1999 really put a damper on this film. Like going back and listening to Led Zeppelin IV all the way through again after decades of abuse by FM radio. The actors seemed like actors, the found footage felt like a found footage movie. The people used in the first film whether its the 3 leads or the townies all really felt like living breathing people that inhabited the Blair Witch universe. The same can't be said for the sequel. The only other thing I'll add is that I thought the ending sorta sucked.
All in all I thought it was a decent film with some decents scares. A far cry from seeing the original opening night when I was 14 and walking out of the theatre with numb legs.
6.5/10
Spoiler:
All in all I thought it was a decent film with some decents scares. A far cry from seeing the original opening night when I was 14 and walking out of the theatre with numb legs.
6.5/10
Question is, WHY did it get so overhyped to begin with???
09-16-16, 03:45 PM
#64
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
1/5
The entire movie plays out, beat for beat, almost identically to the original. If you have even a vague memory of how that film played out, this one is going to be too familiar, even with its differences. That would have been okay, if it wasn't so damn boring this time around. It's different in parts, but mostly not. The movie sets up moments for payoffs that never amount to anything. The characters are all pretty much just textbook 20-somethings. There are a silly amount of misplaced jump scares. There's an incredibly dumb moment when one character climbs a tree to retrieve something.
The last sequence (~20 or ~25 minutes?) was building up some real tension that could have turned me around on this flick, especially during one character's 'escape,' but then it falls flat. And the last moment, as mentioned in Chadm's spoiler, was a major groan.
This film has some unanswered questions about two characters (those who've seen it know what I mean), but while there's some mystery there, it's not exciting. Meaning, I just don't care why those two are experiencing what they are experiencing in their particular situation.
Overall, this movie was a bore for its first 2/3, and frustrating during its final moments.
If you're a fan of the original, you'll probably want to see it anyway. I don't want to dissuade you. Just don't expect this to live up to Wingard's other (much better) flicks.
The entire movie plays out, beat for beat, almost identically to the original. If you have even a vague memory of how that film played out, this one is going to be too familiar, even with its differences. That would have been okay, if it wasn't so damn boring this time around. It's different in parts, but mostly not. The movie sets up moments for payoffs that never amount to anything. The characters are all pretty much just textbook 20-somethings. There are a silly amount of misplaced jump scares. There's an incredibly dumb moment when one character climbs a tree to retrieve something.
The last sequence (~20 or ~25 minutes?) was building up some real tension that could have turned me around on this flick, especially during one character's 'escape,' but then it falls flat. And the last moment, as mentioned in Chadm's spoiler, was a major groan.
This film has some unanswered questions about two characters (those who've seen it know what I mean), but while there's some mystery there, it's not exciting. Meaning, I just don't care why those two are experiencing what they are experiencing in their particular situation.
Overall, this movie was a bore for its first 2/3, and frustrating during its final moments.
If you're a fan of the original, you'll probably want to see it anyway. I don't want to dissuade you. Just don't expect this to live up to Wingard's other (much better) flicks.
09-16-16, 06:28 PM
#65
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
What a piece of shit. Full disclosure, I really hate found footage movies with a passion. I'm always taken out of the movie by the fact that people always have some dumb excuse to hold a camera, and also by the fact that this raw footage is edited by someone. But I decided to give this a shot because I wondered how they could update TBWP in this new era. Plus Winegard's The Guest was one of my favorite movies I've seen this year and I wanted to see what he would bring to the table.
-This is bad. Just bad. None of the characters were interesting at all and after leaving the theatre I literally forgot most of their names. Mike, Heather and Josh weren't the best characters either but at least I could remember their names.
-The updating of technology doesn't really work at all. There's a subplot with a drone being used that doesn't really have much of a point at all. They use it a couple of times and it gets stuck in a tree. Yay.
-This movie really just drags and drags. They revisit the "scares" of the original (rocks, sticks) in this one as well and they are just as lame as the are in the original.
-There's some body mutilation horror that seemed like it was going to go somewhere supernatural and cool that instead just doesn't. Plus the actress didn't have nice feet. Would have rather seen the leads of the goth girls.
-Because of the whole handheld camera thing it ruins some of the scares and deaths. One characters death doesn't even show up. One minute there standing and the next I was going "wait a second, did they die?"
-There were two things I liked about it. I liked the part when they got to the house because it felt like a POV walkthrough of a haunted house. I also liked a pretty tense scene with the main actress towards the end that gets ruined because they don't do anything with it. And unlike some posters, I didn't mind what happened at the end with the main actress because in a high stress scenario I could see it happening.
-I also hated the look of the BW. Or what you can actually see anyway.
Overall I think this is a poor update of BW and a big disappointment as a Winegard fan. If nothing else this really shows what made the first BW work was the marketing, and the uniqueness of seeing something like that. Yes movies like Last Broadcast did it first but the success of BW was 50% marketing and 50% the experience and uniqueness of it. In this day and age after being plagued with 10,000 found footage movies that uniqueness is gone and instead it's just another found footage movie.
1/5
Good question. Of all the movies to be excited about, another Blair Witch seems to be the least interesting one to be excited about.
Can you spoiler tag it because I'm not sure what you are referring too.
-This is bad. Just bad. None of the characters were interesting at all and after leaving the theatre I literally forgot most of their names. Mike, Heather and Josh weren't the best characters either but at least I could remember their names.
-The updating of technology doesn't really work at all. There's a subplot with a drone being used that doesn't really have much of a point at all. They use it a couple of times and it gets stuck in a tree. Yay.
-This movie really just drags and drags. They revisit the "scares" of the original (rocks, sticks) in this one as well and they are just as lame as the are in the original.
-There's some body mutilation horror that seemed like it was going to go somewhere supernatural and cool that instead just doesn't. Plus the actress didn't have nice feet. Would have rather seen the leads of the goth girls.
-Because of the whole handheld camera thing it ruins some of the scares and deaths. One characters death doesn't even show up. One minute there standing and the next I was going "wait a second, did they die?"
-There were two things I liked about it. I liked the part when they got to the house because it felt like a POV walkthrough of a haunted house. I also liked a pretty tense scene with the main actress towards the end that gets ruined because they don't do anything with it. And unlike some posters, I didn't mind what happened at the end with the main actress because in a high stress scenario I could see it happening.
-I also hated the look of the BW. Or what you can actually see anyway.
Overall I think this is a poor update of BW and a big disappointment as a Winegard fan. If nothing else this really shows what made the first BW work was the marketing, and the uniqueness of seeing something like that. Yes movies like Last Broadcast did it first but the success of BW was 50% marketing and 50% the experience and uniqueness of it. In this day and age after being plagued with 10,000 found footage movies that uniqueness is gone and instead it's just another found footage movie.
1/5
Question is, WHY did it get so overhyped to begin with???
This film has some unanswered questions about two characters (those who've seen it know what I mean), but while there's some mystery there, it's not exciting. Meaning, I just don't care why those two are experiencing what they are experiencing in their particular situation.
09-16-16, 08:13 PM
#67
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
Didn't know who Adam Wingard was. Never seen anything by him, but as I look at his filmography and see that he is supposed to direct a remake of I Saw the Devil,
he is now officially on my shit list.
he is now officially on my shit list.
09-16-16, 08:18 PM
#68
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
That said, Blair Witch is something I can wait for at home.
Last edited by RichC2; 09-16-16 at 08:23 PM.
09-16-16, 10:09 PM
#69
Senior Member
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
In my case, it's the reason I'm skipping this one. The original is one of my top five all-time favorite horror films. It profoundly unnerved me in a way no other has before or since, and that is largely because of the unknown/unseen. A sequel showing the witch would be akin to a Black Christmas (also in my top five) sequel disclosing the killer's identity. So, as soon as I heard that, it became an immediate skip.
09-16-16, 10:24 PM
#70
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
I saw the movie at a free screening last week. It's alful but I never really cared for the first one that mich either. The found footage is only a novelty the first time they they did it. Its been copied so many times since then that it's not original anymore and is just a gimmick for a lack for a lack of good writing.
09-18-16, 02:32 AM
#73
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
09-18-16, 05:50 AM
#74
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
http://ihorror.com/blair-witch-direc...-within-movie/
If you can spot the missing map from the first movie, you can win $400.
If you can spot the missing map from the first movie, you can win $400.
09-18-16, 10:11 AM
#75
Re: Blair Witch (2016, D: Adam Wingard)
If it was a decent movie, I'd go watch it again and try to spot the map. And the more I think about it, the spoiler I posted makes me hate this movie even more and kind of ruins the original when you put it together...