Blair Witch (2016)

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the 2016 version of Blair Witch is actually NOT a re-make of the 1999 classic mother of all "Found Footage" films but a loose sequel.

Set in 2016 a group of young 'uns once again enter the Black Hills Forest, led by James, the much younger brother of Heather from the original movie who is looking for some sort of answers to her disappearance all those years ago. The Scooby Gang in completed by three friends and joined by two locals and "experts" on the Blair Witch.

Right from the start there are references to Rustin Parr - a man who was "possessed" or merely obeying the Blair Witch and killed seven children in the 1940s , making one stand facing the corner as he killed the other. This reference was featured in many of the fake documentaries around the time but I don't think it was mentioned in the original film, hence confusing a lot of people with the ending.

There is no mention of any of the events in Blair Witch 2. We presume that just didn't happen. It did, and you know it did, we just wish it didn't.

So in the 2016 sequel we get a lot of the same stuff - lots of blurry camera action as the kids run about scared out of their tiny minds screaming about such and such. People go missing, strange noises are heard in the night and the forest itself seems to have a mind if it's own. A lot of similar stuff as the original movie as well as far too many false jump-scares.

As the gang moves deeper into the forest they become confused, disorientated and one by one start to go missing.

However this time round, seventeen years on audiences need a bit more so we do actually get some scary stuff instead of just leaving it all up to what you don't see as in the original. There is also the advantage of technology as not only do the gang have Go-Pros and GPS but a drone - of course all of this fails so they just end up running in the dark while filming it.

Once again we encounter the house in the forest presumed to be the home of Rustin Parr and here *spoiler alert* we catch the odd glimpse of the witch herself. Spooky stuff.

I will say that for a sequel with big scary boots to fill it does stand up, even on it's own it would still stand up. Where as the 1999 original left lots up to your imagination and we still don't really know why the things that happened did or who indeed was behind the killings of the three young film makers - the 2016 Blair Witch only does that up to a certain point before actually moving into the realms of "...and here is the scary thingy".

It retains a lot of the suspense, there are still unexplained happenings, it's much more visual but still keeps within the same vein that you'd expect. What can I say other that - I was not let down!

9/10 Masks.