The Woods

Let’s give the Blair Witch some credit: She may be a vengeful demon from the 17th century who likes to torture documentary filmmakers and camping enthusiasts, but as monstrous hell-beasts go, she’s pretty tech-savvy. Back in the olden days of 1999 when the first Blair With Project came out, cell phones and GPS barely existed; tricking unsuspecting college kids into getting lost in the backwoods of Maryland was a relative snap. This new generation of victims come equipped with all kinds of gadgets: GoPros and cell phones and drones capable of surveilling dozens of miles of land — all of which might help these truth seekers make their way back to civilization. The witch disables them all; draining the batteries from their surveillance equipment, blocking the signals from their global positioning systems, and crashing their drone in a tree. Mercifully, she doesn’t deactivate any of the cameras they’re wearing, so we can see her incessant torture of these poor unfortunate souls.

There’s almost no such thing as a surprise anymore. We’ve become saturated by a surplus of information, a culture obsessed with being in the know, constantly living in anticipation of an arrival. Not a day goes by when you don’t see a new movie trailer online, pass a TV show poster on your morning commute, or see a musician promote their upcoming album in a viral late night clip. We’re always informed of what’s up next, an awareness of the impending future that has driven the element of surprise to near extinction. But in 2016 something different happened in the entertainment world.

When is a movie not a movie? When it’s actually a secret sequel (a legacyquel, really) to another movie.

When we talk about a “trend” in Hollywood, what we’re really talking about is someone having a good idea and then a lot of people copying it. When the trailer for The Social Network arrived with a haunting choral version of Radiohead’s “Creep,” it felt special, and it made the movie feel special too...

The official synopsis for The Woods on YouTube says simply that it is “one of the scariest movies in decades. The Woods reinvents horror with a completely fresh and terrifying take on the genre.” Well, jeez. No pressure or nothing. Just be the scariest thing anyone has seen in years and completely reinvent one of the most formulaic genres in movies. Piece of cake!

Director Adam Wingard and his screenwriting partner Simon Barrett have yet to disappoint us—from the fantastic, subversive horror thriller ‘You’re Next’ to the throwback action flick ‘The Guest,’ the duo have been consistently delivering in the genre film department. Next up, the pair will head back to horror for the upcoming film ‘The Woods.’