Into The Woods

For our podcast episode about this very film, click here.

Year: 2016

Director: Adam Wingard

Cast: James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Corbin Reid

Run Time: 1 hour 29 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

I like the output of director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett more than I like the legacy of The Blair Witch Project. The 1999 found footage phenomenon was a masterpiece of grassroots viral marketing, but the film itself is only a passable entry in the genre. And the less I think about its quick and dirty follow-up Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, the happier I’ll be. So unlike many rabid fans, I am very open to new blood in this stunted franchise.

I’ve been a fan of Wingard and Barrett’s partnership since their 2013 magnum opus You’re Next and their bubblegum action smash The Guest. They tend to blend genres in an exciting, refreshing manner, and Wingard’s directing has been blossoming as his visual toolbox develops. When I heard they were both being plunked into a found footage shocker, I was skeptical about whether or not this stripped-down methodology would hinder their progress, but hoped it might allow them to focus on making a singularly terrifying movie, which is something they haven’t accomplished just yet.

It’s nice to want things.

In Blair Witch, film student Lisa Arlington (Callie Hernandez) is making a documentary about her friend James (James Allen McCune) and his unresolved grief. You see, his sister Heather disappeared in the Maryland woods some 15 years ago. When a tape of her disappearance surfaces online, he gathers Lisa and his friends Peter (Brandon Scott) and Ashley (Corbin Reid) to trek out into the woods to find the abandoned house depicted in the tape and hopefully find out what became of her. They reluctantly allow the local Witch-philes Lane (Wes Robinson) and Talia (Valorie Curry) to tag along with them, because they know the location where the tape was found.

It’s only a matter of time before things start getting weird. They get lost, hear mysterious noises at night, see strange apparitions, and generally discover the reason why nobody should ever go camping.

Seriously, camping’s the worst.

Is Blair Witch a scarier film than The Blair Witch Project? Oh, effortlessly. But is it a better film? That’s where things get a little dicey. As a 2016 found footage film, it has the disadvantage of audience overfamiliarity, and it doesn’t do much to steer itself away from a lot of the clichés of modern POV horror. Why do these people keep filming when sh*t hits the fan? Who cares. (Their cameras are mostly head-mounted, which is a good excuse for recording during the climax, but the characters rather emphatically turn their cameras on for no blessed reason at the weirdest possible times so we can get valuable exposition.) And who invited this unpleasant extraneous couple? Well, we needed a higher body count. And where the hell is that droning, atonal score coming from that’s trying desperately to avoid being noticed? Well, I’ve never had an answer for that one.

The thing that sucks is that the silence in Blair Witch is so eerily, awe-inspiringly complete, it would be far more disturbing if all we could hear was the characters breathing and the whir of a camera. The sound design was good enough to have pulled it off, but the misstep of including any sort of score, no matter how subtle, reeks of a lack of confidence, exposing the movie’s artifice in the process.

Plus, being an honest continuation of The Blair Witch Project means you inherit all of its problems. Notably, the mythology of the Blair Witch herself gets a little fuzzy in favor of providing startling scares. Obviously, we’re not meant to truly understand how this shadowy, unknowable menace operates, but there are so many ingredients thrown into this stew that it just turns into mud. Combining ghostly apparitions, Satanic magic, creature features, body horror, and time warp sci-fi into a single narrative, Blair Witch completely fails to build a coherent menace, making it difficult to understand and thus be invested in the characters’ plights, even if individual moments are tremendously creepy.

Including, but not limited to, this guy’s uncanny resemblance to a loathed classmate of mine.

And thus concludes the section where I’m perhaps unfairly critical toward Blair Witch. Although it never feels quite like a unified whole, the sum of those parts is still pretty freaky. After ramping up with a punishingly long opening act, Blair Witch slips easily into pure terror, crafting images that harness the corner-of-your-eye imagination of the original film while giving the audience a sumptuous visual meal thanks to its higher budget.

There is some Gross. Sh*t. in Blair Witch, you guys. A lot of the most terrifying images are reminiscent of other horror favorites, but they’re presented in an electrifying new way that keeps you on your toes. The second and third acts do what a proper horror roller coaster should, keeping you reeling and cringing at a manic pace. There are a couple of longer setups with payoffs that fall flat, but it’s a heap of fun just the same.

I feel this need to temper most of my praise, because the problems in Blair Witch are numerous and frustrating, but they pale in comparison to its raw energy and power. It’s a fun campfire movie, and I wouldn’t take that away from anyone. It may not be changing the course of horror as we know it, but it’s an excellent Blair Witch Project sequel that manages to bring on the jolts, even if it’s hardly the all-encompassing phenomenon of the original.

TL;DR: Blair Witch is a solid, frightening sequel, even if it doesn't quite cohere.

Rating: 7/10

Word Count: 950
Reviews In This Series
The Blair Witch Project (Myrick & Sanchez, 1999)
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (Berlinger, 2000)
Blair Witch (Wingard, 2016)

R.S.V. PTSD

Year: 2014

Director: Adam Wingard
Cast: Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer

Run Time: 1 hour 39 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

You're Next is a tough act to follow. Although the horror comedy from director-writer team Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett couldn't pull its weight in the box office, the fans it acquired are outspoken and fiercely loyal. Their newest film, The Guest (premiering September 17th), will disappoint unless you can divest yourself from expectation (luckily for The Guest and unfortunately for my favorite movie of 2013, the likelihood of audience members having seen You're Next seems to be slim). 

The Guest was never going to be You're Next again. But what it is is still a ton of fun. As described by Adam Wingard himself (I am fancy and important won tickets on Twitter to go see the film at the Sundance Next Festival followed by a Q&A insanely moderated by the moderately insane Nicolas Refn), it's a cross between Halloween and The Terminator with an on-its-sleeve influence from 2011's Drive.

As a fan of slashers, 80's action films, bright colors, and men who look like Ryan Gosling, this is the perfect combination for me. And it will be for anyone who falls into any of those camps.

If your favorite movie is Winter's Bone, you're on your own.

The Guest tells the story of a family. Mom (Sheila Kelley), Dad (Leland Orser), nerdy younger brother Luke (Brendan Meyer), and sexy, rebellious older sister Anna (Maika Monroe). Still reeling from the death of the oldest son Caleb in the war, they take in a recently discharged soldier named David (Dan Stevens), who arrives one day on Caleb's behalf to deliver his final message. David charms them with his rugged good looks and his stories about his time with Caleb and everyone lives happily ever after.

Well. No. Not everyone. When people who have wronged the family wind up dead under mysterious circumstances, Anna grows suspicious of the handsome stranger in their midst. Luke already has reason to be suspicious considering the damage David inflicted upon the local bullies, but chooses to ignore it. He may be book smart, but he sure is a dumbass.

The Guest is not art, but it's not pretending it is. It could be about the manifestation of a family's grief or the effects of PTSD. It could have made a self-serious statement about the war and its effect on American society. And it would have been a great movie, perhaps even a better one. But the movie it chooses to be is so entertaining, it's hard to bemoan the more shallow approach to the material.

You can pick it apart all you want, but it's not the plot you're watching it for. It's a suave badass kicking butts and taking names. It's a young blonde transforming from a teenybopper nobody to a confident warrior. And Jiminy Christmas is it pretty.

Correction: Jiminy Halloween. Correction:  Jiminy Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

The aesthetic and color palette are about as close as a Refn homage can get without actually being a greatest hits YouTube video, but Wingard lets his inspiration lead him to new places as a director. His use of color and shot composition here show definite growth from the man who made You're Next and are a few of the only elements in the film that outright dwarf his previous venture.

The Kool-Aid tinted world of The Guest draws viewers into the heightened reality of the film, one that's just a step to the left from our own, existing in the collective consciousness of those who grew up in the 80's or, like me, have developed a lasting appreciation for the film culture of that time period. The film's tone can be a little aimless at times (it's not quite a comedy but it's funny, it's not quite a thriller but it's exciting), but the color tones keep us firmly in one unified space.

And, unique for a film of this pedigree, the acting feels like a cohesive whole rather than one seasoned veteran faltering under the weight of a dozen amateurs. Even the more minor roles like Orser as the father or Tabatha Shaun as the best friend key into the funny, strange atmosphere that The Guest puts out. Only Lance Reddick (as a military officer on the hunt for David) draws attention away from the strong ensemble as his acting style tends to shade dangerously close to over-the-top. He's no Icarus, sending the film plummeting to a watery grave, but less camp-minded individuals will have trouble swallowing his performance here.

I just set myself up for a great joke but I don't think I should go there.

A few bits and bobs before I leave you. First of all: Man, can Adam Wingard shoot a drink. I can't adequately explain why but my favorite shot of You're Next is orange juice being poured into a glass in the first scene. There's an equally great shot in a bar scene in the first act of The Guest. I don't know what's going on and I refuse to apply film theory and read too far into things, but I like where it's going.

But that kind of observation doesn't do justice to the action-packed fun of the film. The dialogue is razor sharp, the movie references are both subtle (see: Halloween III) and obvious (of course there's a You're Next mask - keep an eye out) but equally fun to hunt down, and there's way too much badass to handle in one single piece of cinema.

I'm not in love with The Guest, but it's a genuinely entertaining film that keeps me excited to follow these filmmakers as they grow and progress through their careers. And although Simon seems to be more self-aware about these things than Adam does, it's great to see that the women in their action / horror films can actually be layered people rather than one-note knife bags.

It's not out for a good month yet, but I urge you to keep this movie kicking around in the back of your brain. Forget about You're Next, buy a ticket, and have yourself a good time.

TL;DR: The Guest is a nearly worthy followup from Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, although the fun can be shallow.
Rating: 8/10
Should I Spend Money On This? Oh definitely. I know it's tough to go to the movies now that tickets are more expensive, but this one's worth a holler especially if you adore cheesy 80's cinema.
Word Count: 1094

The Applebox Killers or: Five Things You Didn't Know About You're Next

Because Sergio is super up on things, we managed to get tickets to a special midnight screening of You're Next, my favorite horror movie of the year at the Cinefamily Theater in Los Angeles. Afterward there was a Q&A with the director Adam Wingard, the writer Simon Barrett, and one of the stars AJ Bowen.

It was a really great experience, the likes of which make me really glad that I live in Southern California.

Because I'm super cool and I can name drop, here's me with Adam Wingard and AJ Bowen.

But aside from being super fun, the event was also very informative about the process of making the film and I learned some very interesting things that I'd like to share with you all.

#1 The Killers Weren't Quite So Menacing As All That

Two of the killers (one of whom was played by Simon Barrett himself) were... vertically challenged. Although one of the actors towered over the rest of the cast, the other two had quite short statures. In order to make them more imposing, the other two frequently had to stand on wooden appleboxes to adjust for their height difference. During production the crew unofficially dubbed the movie "The Applebox Killers."

#2 You're Next Owes Everything to The Possession

Lionsgate had previously picked up You're Next for distribution in 2011 but was delayed by corporate restructuring. Once the Sam Raimi produced The Possession proved to be a modest hit, this cleared the path for You're Next's release one year later.

#3 Sharni Vinson Really Threw Herself Into Her Character

Apparently this Aussie chick is just as tough as she looks. Sharni was dedicated to telegraphing every single one of Erin's aches and pains as accurately as possible and was disappointed when they wouldn't let her jump out the window and used a stunt double. Ironically, after having danced for three weeks on a broken ankle in Step Up 3D and breaking her knuckles when punching a wall in Bait, You're Next was the first film set where she didn't break a bone.

#4 Barbara Crampton Is A Peach

Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon and star Jeffrey Combs were both supporters of the team's earlier film, A Horrible Way to Die. In honor of their support, Barrett and Wingard requested that Barbara Crampton (the love interest in Re-Animator) come out of retirement to play the mother. They told her to call Stuart and Jeffrey so they could vouch for them, but she loved the script so much she decided to do it anyway.

#5 Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett Love Silly Horror Movies

It just goes to show that the greatest horror filmmakers have the best senses of humor. Barrett extolled the virtues of Return of the Living Dead III and Wingard's favorite Halloween film is Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, a 1995 slasher that featured Paul Rudd and a druid's curse.

Word Count: 487