This week’s big theatrical following is Blair Witch, a reboot of the franchise that kicked-ff the found-footage format trend in horror. The new Blair Witch comes by way of director Adam Wingard, who has become a frontrunner of the new era of horror filmmakers, thanks to films like You’re Next, The Guest, and the anthology film series V/H/S.
Blair Witch arrives in theaters after taking a strange path to get there. Early teasers for the film actually advertised a film called The Woods, which came on a wave of high praise from horror movie critics; after the full trailer debuted with the title of Blair Witch, the buzz surrounding the film only grew that much more.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The film had a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (currently in progress), which has allowed some of the bigger outlets in the industry to review it. With a wider range official reviews now out, we’ve pulled together to get an early impression of how Blair Witch is doing with critics:
Some will laud it, others will loathe it, but make no mistake: Blair Witch is that game-changer horror fans desperately have been waiting for. It will usher in a new breed of genre films that are targeted at creating an emotional experience above all else. “Scary” is probably an understatement as this may just be the first film since The Exorcist that will leave younger audiences scarred for life. —Bloody Disgusting
Blair Witch diehards should rejoice, not the least because this new offering pays meticulous homage to the original—particularly through painstakingly recreated production design. Its metaphysical additions to the mythology give the franchise its greatest gift: a future. Just when found footage and the Blair Witch saga seemed like relics from horror cinema’s past, it seems there might actually be new reason to return to the woods. —Daily Beast
Blair Witch is an intelligent and effective return to a beloved genre game-changer that doesn’t sully the original and is almost certainly setting up for further sequels to come. If you must reboot a classic, this is how you do it. —Digital Spy
Ultimately, the only thing mustier than the Blair Witch herself is the found-footage format. Nothing about this film feels found. It’s been carefully and manipulatively packaged, marketed and sold to make a buck with a young, impatient audience. If The Blair Witch Project signalled a new dawn of horror, Blair Witch is the loud death rattle of a once exciting sub-genre, disappearing into the darkness. —The Guardian
The term “game-changer” has become a hackneyed one in the the industry, but “The Blair Witch Project” merits it to this day, from its trailblazing online marketing strategy to the establishing gimmick that has since become a standard horror subgenre — making even the most elaborately conceived found-footage works, Wingard’s film included, look a tad old hat. “Blair Witch’s” most ingenious and unrepeatable surprise was pulled off outside the frame of the film itself, with a Comicon stunt that revealed it as the true identity of Wingard’s hitherto secrecy-shrouded, supposedly original horror project “The Woods.”–Variety
…by sticking so slavishly to the original Blair Witch film’s template, the result is a dull retread rather than a full-on reinvention, enlarging the cast numbers this time but sticking to the same basic beats. —THR
The critical consensus seems about as split as it always is for a horror movie – but those who praise Blair Witch tend to do so with a great deal of praise, with words like “game-changer” being thrown around more than once. Meanwhile, those who criticize the film tend to point out that it isn’t so much of an improvement as a well-done retread of the original – and, of course, there’s the criticism of the found-footage format itself.
So there you have it: Blair Witch may offer moviegoers (especially horror fans) a solid return on their ticket price – something that’s usually hard to say in the month of September.
Blair Witch opens in theaters on September 16. It is 89 minutes long and is Rated R for language, terror and some disturbing images.
