Right on the heels of a new Blair Witch TV spot, Collider has a look at an exclusive trailer for the new sequel. The visceral and intense ad plays on claustrophobic fears, riffing on The Descent by featuring one of the characters crawling through an underground cavern. The sequence smartly plays with the concept of why nobody in found footage films ever puts the camera down while also paying homage to Ridley Scott’s Alien, as whoever is being chased by (presumably) the Blair Witch herself utilizes the camera as a flashlight.
Early buzz implies that writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard may have topped the terrifying original with their official sequel (presumably, Book Of Shadows will be left in an alternate timeline of the Blair Witch cinematic universe). And perhaps it’s appropriate for the original found-footage horror movie to bring on a return to form. If anything, these two filmmakers are known for spinning genre on its head.
Blair Witch hits theaters September 18.