Imagine every overused horror movie cliche being utilized in a film that doesn’t capture the nostalgia it attempts to utilize, and you’ll have the “Blair Witch”. Directed by Adam Wingard, Blair Witch was a surprisingly well kept secret, up until two months before its release and being marketed by the name “The Woods.” The original film, “The Blair Witch Project,” released in 1999, revolutionized the horror genre and the way we consumed these movie experiences with its found footage style and pseudo-documentary-true-story approach.

This reboot/continuation follows four people who have connections to the original group of people from the previous film, where they team up with two locals who claimed to have found the tape from the missing people. The group heads to the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the case of the missing sister of a member of their group 17 years earlier. The locals claim that these woods have been the home to many horrendous murders. They employ the use of three different kinds of shots with a tree-mounted security camera, two different handycams and a drone. As the night goes on, they soon realize the myths of murder were not just lore, but that they are all truly in danger.

After the smoke from the nostalgia bombshell clears, this film was one of the worst moviegoing experiences I have ever had to be a part of. Every horror movie cliche was floundered and left us wondering why we sat through this whole movie in the first place. Everything from the kids in the woods archetype, to the racially motivated first death we all laugh about when discussing the ways horror movies misstep.

It also failed to take full advantage of the variety of media formats it was provided, as the drone shot and security camera footage were unutilized with the exception of a few useless moments. The plot made little to no sense, and the sense of empathy that Wingard attempted to convey for the loss of a family member was clearly lost in the annoyingly loud yells into the woods as they searched for their missing group members.

The one saving grace, if you could even call it “saving,” was its sound production and use of noise. The sounds of approaching evil were the only way in which the movie semi-succeeded as it shook the theater and seats.

I was really rooting for the success of this movie, as it was so praised in quotes, claiming a horror movie renaissance was on its way. However, the only way this movie can build upon the horror genre would be by doing the exact opposite.