MovieChat Forums > The Last Exorcism Part II (2013) Discussion > Is this seriously going the Blair Witch ...

Is this seriously going the Blair Witch Route?

posted 12 years ago by trcrock
26 replies | jump to latest

I mean, with Blair Witch Project, it was the first major found footage horror film, and the simple effects created great scares. Then when a sequel was to be made, they abandoned the whole "found footage" thing and went for a live action route with cheap special effects. Thus, that film was terrible. I can't believe the same thing is happening here. What I liked about the first film was not too many special effects with the found footage thing, and overall the scarier scenes were what we couldn't see much of. With this, it looks like they're just going to show everything (blow the whole "not what you see, what you don't see" approach) and go for cheap effects, just like with Blair Witch 2. Based on that, I have a very strong feeling this film isn't going to be good at all. Who agrees?

[–] jehureyes 12 years ago

There's a Blair Witch 2? :o
We haven't seen the movie so let's not judge yet. Paranormal Activity has become sooooo darn unrealistic but it works. :/ Maybe the creators of Last Exorcism didn't want to do the same thing and have an experiment. Let's just wait for what critics have to say on this.

[–] ofuoku71 12 years ago

This is Blair Witch 2:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0229260/

They should have stayed with the FF format. This sequel just doesn't feel the same now.

[–] jehureyes 12 years ago

O.o I saw that page before. Didn't believe it was a sequel. I thought it was rip-off. That's a lot of crap... :/

[–] polar167 12 years ago

I think the change in direction is because they wanted to focus more on the character of Nell and it's more or less impossible to do that with the same documentary format the first one had. Like BW2 - which I didn't think was all that terrible - it embraces the "found footage" aspect of the first and weaves that in as part of the story rather than letting it be the story.

[–] Lovesbitcka 12 years ago

After Paranormal Activity went from being one of the best horror franchises (with 1 & 2) to one of the worst (with 3 & 4) I am sooooooooo glad Last Exorcism is abandoning the found footage crap but that's probably just me

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[–] alesisqs61 12 years ago

I completely agree....although I don't think PA was the best franchise ever....it did actually somehow break new ground. But...with 3 and 4 the ground it did break...has been shattered to pieces by greedy Paramount. I don't see how ANYONE could like 4....even though I know they exist...it's played out. I saw the trailer to TLE part 2 and look how refreshing it is to see a normal format...like a breath of fresh air because lost footage has been killed off....every Tom , Dick and Harry have used it. It's even being done better with fresher stories than this one. Personally...I commented that PA 5 should be filmed like a regular movie instead of the footage angle because they killed it with 4. The last footage film to do it right was VHS and not every movie was good, but the haunted house in that one was better than PA 3/4 easily.

I also thought Blair Witch 2 was good and creepy....except it didn't answer anything new, it just asked more questions and the 3rd was never made...so it failed. I didn't expect BW 2 to be like the first, but that's normally a good thing. I thought it was just too strange for it's own good and it never got wrapped up..kinda a shame really. BW deserved a trilogy or at least a finale.

PA makers are laughing all the way to the bank....yikes. They literally put out 10 minutes of footage with FX and stuff...the rest is just footage that costs virtually nothing...while nothing is happening. While 3 had some really good setups and payoffs...the story was weak. Part 4 had nothing going for it and no good payoffs. Some people seem to like the end...but it just feels so forced and cliche I can't help but chuckle at it.

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[–] ncsteelersfan43 12 years ago

Blair Witch II was sooooooo much better than the original POS called Blair Witch.
It actually had professional actors and a budget.
Blair Witch I is the most over-rated anything art-form of all time.
TV,Movie Radio, cave paintings you name it, it's better than that POS.

[–] e25171971 12 years ago

I mean, I get that you're a Steelers fan, so that itself speaks to your tastes, but seriously? That piece of crap sequel was better than the original in your opinion?
There's just so much wrong with that sequel that I can't even get to all of it in a single post. I won't even try, because no one would waste their time reading it.

[–] number1lakerfan23 12 years ago

Blair Witch 2 was utter crap. Not scary at all, nearly destroyed what the first had established. As for professional actors, well, Jeffrey Donovan has gone on to have a pretty good career. But I'm failing to even remember who else was in it besides him.

The children playing outside the tent scene, any nighttime scene with branches heard cracking (animal or not, going through something like that and hearing those branches cracking would be nerve wracking), the complete isolation once they get lost and panic starts to set in and of course, the last ten to fifteen minutes. Hearing those screams and finding that house, Heather descending the stairs and seeing him standing facing the corner as she screams in complete terror. I still hate going into the damn basement to this day because of that scene.

The sequel has none of those moments, it's just flat out terrible and was completely unnecessary.

[–] killerrabbitmp 12 years ago

From what I remember, Blair Witch 2 was about fans of The Blair Witch Project going into the woods and (probably) going crazy. At least this movie looks like it advances the story of The Last Exorcism.

[–] alesisqs61 12 years ago

Exactly....BW2 strayed from the original characters and I think that threw a wrench into the plan. Had there been a true trilogy with the original girl, who has quit acting....it might have been able to work. Now there's no way it could work and it's dead.

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] e25171971 12 years ago

I disagree entirely and find your offhand dismissals rather inappropriate.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] e25171971 12 years ago

So your problem is with the current found footage films rather than the concept as a whole? That's like me saying modern comedies suck because the end is predictable and the jokes are bland or low brow and unfunny. The problem isn't with the genre or subgenre, the problem is with the execution and the current state of the representatives.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] e25171971 12 years ago

You're rather pessimistic. While I cede that the best are average at most it's not as if it is impossible to make a decent film with it. Again: modern comedy tends to be a genre that needs to be put out of its misery, especially as long as guys like Rogan, Samberg, Schneider, and even sadly Adam Sandler today are in the game.
Though it is by definition a subgenre, whether you want to call it that or not. It is a sub genre of horror. A fad is 3D. The genre and subgenre affect the story, the fact that it's found footage affects the story, thus subgenre.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] phildog120 12 years ago

The difference here is that Blair Witch was the benchmark for found-footage while TLE part 1 wasn't really that good... if they were to make it as another found footage film, people would write it off as a nonsense sequel. In fact, I feel like part 2 looks a whole lot better than part 1.

In retrospect, Blair part 2 was terrible, but it was trying to piggyback the success of the first. I feel this film is trying to actually improve rather than just make money, although I'm sure this is a large part.

[–] Zebb67 12 years ago

I was surprised how much I liked the first LE, considering I'm not much of a fan of supernatural/found footage films. The ending genuinly surprised me and everything up until then kept my interest. It was one of the few instances where the found footage gimmick worked, so it's too bad if the sequel is qoing to drop it.