Starring: Tyler Gene, Hunter Redfern, Matthias Margraves
Directed by: Jake Robinson
I remember sitting in an empty movie theater back in the Summer of ’99 watching THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and after it got over I walked out into the parking lot, dead in the middle of the afternoon, and I was honestly rattled at what I’d seen. Even 24 years ago I considered myself somewhat desensitized to horror movies, having been brought up on so much variety, and I guess it was the notion that what terrorized the three campers in the film was never seen, and that’s exactly what worked. I hadn’t had my fill yet of the endless whip-shot camera work, or the mindless babbling that filled the film’s downtime, but I really thought to myself “it’s going to be a while before someone tops this blend of filmmaking.”
Here we are, 24 years later, and my most sincere declaration is this: I, Matt Boiselle am indisputably sick to death of found-footage films. There, I said it – now I can start my dissevering of Jake Robinson’s THE WENDIGO…anyone got anything for a queasy stomach in the meantime? The film starts with an overly aggravating “social media content creator” deep in the woods of North Carolina, and he’s hamming it up for likes and subscribers aplenty – then he goes missing which the majority of his followers believe is a straight-up publicity stunt (deep-down I’m sure a lot of us didn’t mind him vanishing, but that’s besides the point). Lucky for all of us (sarcasm), his friends decide to eschew the intelligence route, and go looking for him themselves, as opposed to having the professionals handle an organized search (outside of the logically-bereft park ranger who evades his job duties & allows the group to enter a restricted zone, but “better be out of there by sundown”).
Soo, all rationale and believability aside, we’re stuck in the woods now with a group of people who apparently aren’t capable of holding conversations without excessive cattiness, whining or f-bomb dropping every few words, therefore making this entire cast disposable and generally obnoxious as a whole. One thing that to this day that still boggles my mind (in almost every found-footage film) is the complete & utter disregard for one’s safety…when being chased down by a bloodthirsty folklore legend, angry spiritual entity or pissed off woodland beast, when does it occur to get your feet to running and forget about the damned camera? I’m sure that the spirit of the BLAIR WITCH was alive & well with the conceptual architecture, but there were more than a few similarities within when viewing this presentation (dragged-out dialogue, excessive infighting, sprinting through the woods) – all in all this was something that’s been done before, to a much better extent, and has garnered replay-ability.
I’m going to take a VERY HARD PASS on watching this one again, and I’m betting my bucks that you’ll probably keep this in the “one & done” folder. I don’t like to score films based on my reaction, but I’m just going to toss my cards on the table and call this the WORST horror film I’ve seen in 2023. I liken this movie to screaming coming from the woods…just cover your ears and act like it never existed.
At the tender age of 6, Matt was indoctrinated into the horror genre by his mother, who asked him to sit down and watch "The Exorcist" with her - ever since then, it's been a blood-soaked, neon-lit, fever dream of an existence. "You don't make horror...horror makes you."
(Can't remember who came up with this quote, but he was probably off-kilter like I am).
