{"id":39268,"date":"2016-09-16T14:20:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T18:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=39268"},"modified":"2018-12-08T22:08:03","modified_gmt":"2018-12-09T03:08:03","slug":"new-releases-september-16-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2016\/09\/16\/new-releases-september-16-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"New Releases: September 16, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"new-releases-blair-witch-poster\"1. Blair Witch (Lionsgate, 3,121 Theaters, 89 Minutes, Rated R for language, terror and some disturbing images, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating at press time: 42% Fresh <\/a>[101 Reviews]): The Blair Witch Project <\/strong>was like catching a lightning in a bottle. For those of you too young to remember, the film was one of the most talked about films of 1999, where friends implored one another to see it. It was a ratty, amateurish $60,000 film that totally sold the idea that the film was footage found in the woods. And when it made over $248 million at the box office, it launched the “found footage” trend in horror.<\/p>\n

When a film is that successful, a sequel is guaranteed. And it got one in 2000 with Book of Shadows: The Blair Witch 2<\/strong>. Sharing neither tone nor the storytelling techniques of the original, it seemed more like a cash grab than a continuation of the first. While profitable, it left a bad taste in fans’ mouths, and would eventually be removed from canon of the franchise.<\/p>\n

Sixteen years later, we get this film, the first “true” sequel to the original. It follows a man who is the brother of the woman from the first film, returning to the Black Hills woods\u00a0to see if she is still alive. It seems like a slicker, updated version of the first film (they have GPS…and drones!), which could be either good or bad depending on your point of view. It is long enough after Book of Shadows<\/strong> that most bad memories of that film should have subsided. But it might also be too far away that the zeitgeist of the original is lost.<\/p>\n