In 1999, The Blair Witch Project popularized the found footage horror genre, for better or for worse. Whilst the found footage genre has been responsible for making people nauseous as well as outright confused due to it’s shaky camera movements, it has undoubtedly made horror much more immersive. 17 years later, the much anticipated sequel has finally been released. Although the movie provides great scares, it comes nowhere near its revolutionary predecessor.

Anticipation for this movie started blowing up before the public knew what it was. As part of the marketing campaign, a creepy teaser for the movie was released several months before its release. However, the movie was titled The Woods promising to be considered, “a new beginning for horror films.” As a huge fan of horror, I was already excited for this movie knowing the director Adam Wingward released great films such as V/H/S and The Guest. Only 2 months before the movie’s release was the official title made public, The Blair Witch.

Taking place years after the events of the first film, the movie follows James Allen McCune’s character James as he leads his group of friends in the same woods in which his sister disappeared in, in hopes to find her still alive. Things quickly turn south on the group, as they soon discover they aren’t the only ones in the woods.

The story in this movie is okay. It serves its purpose. The main flaw in the story is the lack of character development. The performances in the movie were great, but none of the characters seemed fleshed out. I kept looking at my watch knowing it was only a matter of time before each character runs out of screen time.

The movie makes up for its weak storytelling by giving us genuinely great scary scenes – even if it takes too long to get there. The first half of this movie is all build up. But once we get to the scary scenes, they are well worth the wait. Masterfully-engineered cinematography and sound design produce authentic fear in the audience. The shots are shaky and quick, leaving the viewer confused but afraid.

The sound design produces fear, but prevents the movie from being great. Sudden, loud screeches serve as a great pop-up, but take away from the immersion of the movie. Instead of always giving us realistic noises, the movie throws in loud bangs of different sorts to catch the audience by surprise. It works, sometimes, but is also a cheap way to scare the audience. All that being said, the sound design is still great. The natural sound of the eeriness of the woods, screams of the campers as they are being chased, and occasional toss back to pure silence are mixed together wonderfully.

All of these elements are what made the first movie great, though. There is very little new material compared to the first movie, which is disappointing, especially considering the uniqueness director Adam Wingward is known for. Nevertheless, Blair Witch has enough scary scenes to keep the audience entertained, especially in the final fifteen minutes of the flick.

Ultimately, Blair Witch doesn’t separate itself enough from the original movie, yet separates itself too far from great horror movies this year such as Don’t Breathe and Lights Out.