Which Is "Witch"?

Oh, "Blair Witch." I really wanted to like you more than I did. In all fairness, any movie that provided a direct continuation of the cinematic breakthrough that was 1999's "The Blair Witch Project" would be subject to almost unbearably high expectations. It's the quintessential tough act to follow: a sequel that's both familiar enough and innovative enough to fit in and stand out at the same time. Plenty of part-twos have done exactly that: "The Godfather Part II," "Aliens," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," "The Dark Knight." Despite its best efforts, "Blair Witch" just doesn't fit the bill.

It's crucial for any film, especially one that strives for greatness, to know itself and its purpose. Unfortunately, this one becomes too painstakingly self-aware to fully immerse the audience in the thrills and chills that slowly unfold. Much like the intrepid documentarians who went missing in the first film, we know from the outset that this latest crew is doomed -- but in a failure of dramatic irony, we aren't as invested in the how or the why. By struggling in vain to respect its roots without satisfactorily deepening its already murky mythology, the new "Blair Witch" never quite recaptures the unprecedented experience that defined its forerunner and cemented its undeniable impact on filmmaking and pop culture at large. The original stealthily goes bump in the night, while the sequel is blatantly pop goes the weasel.

"Project" was able to function as both a movie and a multimedia sensation. Ahead of its release, the studio capitalized on the burgeoning ubiquity of the Internet to create what was arguably one of the first viral marketing campaigns. Inspired by the found-footage format used in the film, interviews and dossiers were fabricated along with missing-person posters, blurring the lines between fact and fiction as word-of-mouth buzz frantically tried to determine if the case was real. Rampant curiosity translated to record-breaking box office figures; in fact, it's still the highest-grossing independent film of all time when comparing its budget to its earnings. This unexpected success led to a follow-up film the next year, but "Book Of Shadows" suffered from its quick turnaround and standard narrative format. Rather than furthering the established story, it involved characters who watched "Project" and wanted to see where its events allegedly happened. (Fans, just like the new movie, pretend that "Shadows" doesn't exist.)

"Blair Witch," teased for months as a generic horror film called "The Woods" before the surprise revelation of its lineage at San Diego's Comic-Con, picks up years after the fateful events of the original. This gimmick, though an unbelievably well-kept secret, only benefitted the movie promotionally rather than encouraging today's more tech-savvy viewers to research its authenticity. In this era of social media and knee-jerk fact-checking, surely the studio could have come up with something bolder than a name change to herald its release. Alas, we're all too aware from the get-go that what we're about to see is just a movie, and the element of plausible fear goes right out the window. James, the younger brother of missing filmmaker Heather, has spent his life searching for clues about what really happened to her and her crew. An online video surfaces that offers a substantial lead, so James and his friends venture into those infamous woods to see what they can find.

Their discoveries are a mixed bag that pull the film toward nowhere and everywhere. The evolution of personal technology in the 17 years since "Project" means that each of the protagonists are carrying various recording devices, so we see events happen from other angles instead of just what James sees. The result is too polished; the restraint that made "Project" so effective -- feeling like you're really there because you're limited to one camera's point of view -- is missing. By imposing frantic, abrupt editing between perspectives, the suggested novelty of recovered footage evaporates. In my mind, the only way that these multiple cuts would have been acceptable is if some of them caught things that the others didn't, lending an eerie, unreliable air to what's really happening. Most movies, especially those driven by suspense, tend to allegorize technological products as humanity's foolish attempt to outsmart the unknown, but "Blair Witch" barely does anything to deploy clever thematic shocks. While I'm glad (and slightly horrified) to finally know what those pesky wooden stick figures represent, the only instance of digital ingenuity is an unsettling sequence where a character uses the camera to see what's behind her as she is forced to slowly, quietly walk backwards in the dark.

Elsewhere, opportunities to drum up genuine scares are squandered. "Project" adopted a realistic, less-is-more approach to building its tension, but "Blair Witch" goes too big and too obvious too quickly. The original film prided itself on not showing any blood or violence on screen, instead allowing our imaginations to fill in the blanks. Here, we get several images that, though fleeting, could have been depicted more tactfully to sow the seeds of psychological and visceral discomfort over time. Ultimately, this movie works best at its primal, fight-or-flight core, when the cinematography is reduced to just one of the remaining vantage points for a relentlessly claustrophobic finale. It's an adequate delivery, especially after too many disconnects early on, but it still can't shake the persistent deja vu that haunts the rest of the film. We've seen it before and we've seen it done better, but we still want to see if maybe we're wrong about where it's heading. Sadly, the destination isn't worth the many missteps of the journey.

Despite the open ending and unresolved questions, a third (technically fourth) "Blair Witch" movie doesn't seem likely. This one's unexpectedly low box-office tally, especially compared to the merits of its predecessor, should give the studio pause. The public wasn't given anything substantive to latch onto ahead of time, so they didn't show up to participate in the mystery. As with the previous attempts to expand the franchise through books, comics, and video games, nothing will ever be able to match, let alone top, the qualities that epitomize "Project" in the annals of film history. There's a fine line between artistic ambiguity for the sake of the story and commercialized ambiguity for the sake of a guaranteed green light to develop the next chapter. At the rate they're going, maybe the Blair Witch doesn't want her story told after all...