Keeping a movie’s existence a secret is a difficult thing these days, the marketing machine seems to start years before the movie is due for release and we know every major movie coming our way for the foreseeable future. While there are always exceptions to the rule (10 Cloverfield Lane), there are very few genuine surprises sneaking onto the release schedule. That said, The Guest director Adam Wingard has managed that feat by making a sequel to The Blair Witch Project without anybody knowing what he was up to. Simply titled Blair Witch, the unexpected sequel to the movie that birthed found footage as we know it finds a new group of youngsters who get lost in the woods.
The first trailer was screened at Comic-Con for a movie called The Woods, Wingard revealed that they used The Woods as the production name since the project was put in to development more than three years ago.
“The Woods was our working title. When we signed on to it, we knew that [the name] was eventually going to be changed. To us, it wasn’t even going to be part of the marketing. But I think Lionsgate made a really smart decision, using that.”
Plot wise, Blair Witch is every inch a sequel to the iconic original that took the box office by storm. James Allen McCune(The Walking Dead) stars as the younger brother of the character Heather Donahue played in the first movie and he ventures into the woods to find out what happened to her.
In the years since The Blair Witch Project was released, found footage style movies have more or less run its course with Hollywood fresh out of ideas to reinvigorate the format. Could the new Blair Witch find a way of making audiences interested in found footage again? While you ponder that terrifying thought, check out the Blair Witch trailer as it already looks better than Book of Shadows (remember that?).
Blair Witch arrives in cinemas this September.
A group of college students venture into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of James’ sister who many believe is connected to the legend of the Blair Witch. At first the group is hopeful, especially when a pair of locals offer to act as guides through the dark and winding woods, but as the endless night wears on, the group is visited by a menacing presence. Slowly, they begin to realize the legend is all too real and more sinister than they could have imagined.
