10 Reasons Blair Witch Is A Crushing Disappointment
5. Too. Many. Cameras.
The original movie mined a lot of tension out of the fact that it was just three people getting lost in the woods with two cameras. There's a low-maintenance charm to it, and the fairly infrequent shift of perspectives made the viewer feel extremely immersed in what was going on.
Perhaps it's a comment on our ADD-addled culture that the new film features an absolute cr*p-tonne of cameras: there's one mounted on the ear of each camper, while some of them bring secondary cameras, and there's even a drone thrown in there for good measure.
While on one hand the ear-mounted cameras allow director Adam Wingard a lot of visual versatility, especially when the campers inevitably get separated, the constant perspective-shifting ultimately doesn't add much, and the addition of drones feels rather gimmicky and unnecessary.
The more pared-down thrills of the original are more effective, and in not fleeting so impatiently between cameras, the tension feels more sustained.