Blair Witch
Lionsgate | Release Date: September 16, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
21
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
CineVueBen NicholsonSep 13, 2016
It's an enjoyable jumpy imitation. Read full review
60
EmpireJonathan PileSep 13, 2016
Effectively scary and occasionally inventive, Blair Witch is a solid genre film both helped and hindered by its franchise’s place in cinematic history. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 12, 2016
Setting up a number of promising kinks in the now-standard found-footage formula, as the seemingly spooked forest begins to close in its hapless victims, Blair Witch disappointingly casts most of them aside for a finale that does little to advance the series’ existing mythos. Read full review
58
The PlaylistWill AshtonSep 15, 2016
It’s an admirably well-crafted misfire, created by two of the finest filmmaking duos working together today. But perhaps that demonstrates just how singular the original remains, even to this day. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 22, 2016
Unfortunately, although Blair Witch owes much to the spirit of "The Blair Witch Project," it’s an inferior production. This is as much a result of stylistic and narrative choices as it is a reflection of how the horror landscape has changed in the last 17 years. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenSep 15, 2016
The characters are so thinly sketched that the audience feels little emotional investment in them, and the handheld (or rather head-mounted) cameras produce the same jittery visuals that many viewers found so off-putting in the original. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniSep 15, 2016
It's nothing more than a sophisticated clone of the original, and it really overdoes the shaky-camera thing - even more than in some of the worst found-footage movies The Blair Witch Project spawned. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael NordineSep 15, 2016
Blair Witch’s comparatively maximalist approach shows too much and scares too little. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezSep 15, 2016
Falling into the trap that sinks most horror sequels, Blair Witch amps the jolts and shocks with more visceral frights (there’s some business involving an infected foot wound that is truly unnerving and also super gross) to diminishing results. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubSep 15, 2016
This time, it seems as if there’s a little less magic in the woods. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 15, 2016
Wingard’s movie, for all its abundant mischief, doesn’t trust the power of its own illusion. You can see these woods a lot more clearly now, and what you see is that you’ve been here before. Read full review
50
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeSep 14, 2016
Blair Witch does manage to generate occasional moments of tension, particularly when it strays from the first film’s narrative and peeks into some new dark corners. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonSep 14, 2016
It doesn't suggest documentary footage found in the woods so much as a haunted-house version of Hardcore Henry. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 13, 2016
What’s scarier—someone yelling boo or the sound of someone, or something, whispering it in the distance? Blair Witch has plenty of yelling, but not nearly enough that gets under your skin. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinSep 12, 2016
By sticking so slavishly to the original Blair Witch film’s template, the result is a dull retread rather than a full-on reinvention, enlarging the cast numbers this time but sticking to the same basic beats. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 15, 2016
The acting and filmmaking are too crude to make you care about what happens to any of them, even though you know pretty much exactly what that will be. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 15, 2016
Without real innovation or story evolution, Blair Witch becomes a trip down a rabbit hole of misery and suffering. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovSep 14, 2016
It’s a fun and mostly effective ride while it lasts, part Slenderman creepypasta weird and part full-on, nerve-jangling horror, but it’s ultimately, perhaps unavoidably, unsatisfying. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushMatt SingerSep 13, 2016
Blair Witch does deliver the requisite shocks demanded of a horror movie for a multiplex audience, but maybe it’s time for filmmakers to stay out of these woods for a while — at least until there’s a new technology for the Blair Witch to mess with. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 13, 2016
Blair Witch styles itself as a love-letter, but it’s pure transcription. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 12, 2016
If The Blair Witch Project signalled a new dawn of horror, Blair Witch is the loud death rattle of a once exciting sub-genre, disappearing into the darkness. Read full review
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