Blair Witch

What was initially unexplored territory – the hand-held, shaky-cam technique of found footage – has been with us since the original film. Twenty years after his sister Heather disappeared into Maryland’s Black Hills Forest, her brother James decides to go look for her when footage supposedly shot by her is posted online by locals. Taking along his friend Lisa. who is making a documentary on “The Blair Witch,” neither of them nor their two friends, Peter and Ashley, have learned that a compass is a necessity when trekking through the woods. Neither have they learned that to find your way out if lost you might take along a flare gun or a flamethrower. Retracing Heather’s steps means they too get lost but fail to comprehend that if you chance upon a creek, follow it because it flows into somewhere??! Now this quartet brings along an array of cameras, flashlights and cellphones and encounters the two people who located the VHS tape, posting it under the alias darknet.666 – which would be enough to remove any sense of credibility from the pair – but otherwise, this sequel is nothing more than a remake of the branches snapping, the bickering and the house of illusion that appears out of nowhere from the first Blair Witch but with none of the hesitant creepiness or tension.

[R]