Wingard and Barrett need to stop... (spoilers for their movies)
...making such douchebag characters in their horror movies. Plus, have the characters do stupid things. The camera work needs some improvement as well.
Why do they do it? V/H/S 1 and 2, You're Next, this movie etc., they all have at least 2 or more absolute jerks who you can't wait for to get killed just so you'd stop listening to their insipid lines.
And at least one character will do something incredibly stupid for no reason.
Their wraparound segment in V/H/S 1 has a bunch of scumbags who you really start to hate in such a short time that you hope they get killed soon and when it happens it's pretty anti-climactic. Why would you start a movie with this? It might turn a lot of people off and make them not care what happens next (especially since the next segment in that movie also starts with douchy characters, but not as bad as those in Wingard/Barrett segment).
Their segments in V/H/S 2 are a little better here. The characters in the wraparound are OK. The one in the eye segment is stupid and kind of douchy, but nothing like the ones from the first movie.
In You're Next almost all the characters are jerks as well. Plus, really, really stupid. Here it's a little more justified because you're meant to root for the final girl. But imo, that just makes it worse. You still have to suffer seeing how stupid these characters are and they're such big jerks (yes, I know that it's a plot point that the family members don't stand each other, but tone it down, most of them don't even go through any character development, they don't get better as the movie goes along).
It's just a cheap way to make the character you're supposed to root for seem more competent, but it just makes her mary sueish.
In Blair Witch that black guy is also a jerk for no reason. You wonder why he's friends with the main character, why those two hang out? Plus, they're looking for the MC's sister, show some respect dude, did you forget why you're going through the woods?
It's such a relief when that character dies.
You know, I think Blair Witch combines all the worst traits their horror movies have into one package. Stupid characters who are also jerks (and those who aren't are just so bland), certain plot points which don't make much sense and seem like they're added there just because they thought it will be creepy (like that leg thing in Blair Witch or the random naked guy in the basement in V/H/S 1), the shaky camera work.
OK, you can say that it makes sense for their found footage movies, but it's still more shaky than necessary, you can't know what's going on sometimes, Adam Wingard really overdoes it.
Even his other movies use random shaky cam, like You're Next and The Guest, sometimes. Some people said that it's there to make the situations more tense, but how does that make it more tense? It just makes it harder for me to see what's going on.
It's like these two didn't improve much over the years, their movies have the same problems.