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[Editorial] The New ‘Blair Witch’ Game Keeps the Torch Burning For a True Horror Trendsetter

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The year was 1999 and everyone was going to the theater. Before the internet had really taken off, and long before forums like Reddit and Twitter obfuscated reality and fiction in such a way that we often can’t tell them apart anymore, we had The Blair Witch Project, supposed found footage presented to moviegoers as legitimate evidence of something really strange going on in Burkittsville, Maryland.

The trailers were gripping, most memorable for one character’s now famous and often parodied snot-nosed and crying plea for help as she was lost alone in the woods after a few days of hell. Until then, nothing else was quite like The Blair Witch Project. Being only ten years old at the time it hit theaters, I remember when my mom came home from seeing it without me, telling me how unnerving it was, and how it was all real. As a budding fan of cryptids and urban legends, my mind was blitzed with thoughts. What did she see? What kind of evidence was presented in the theater that night? Was it really all true?

As we all now know, of course, it wasn’t true, but the campaign to present it as the real thing was so effective and so exhilarating, it revitalized the horror genre. The movie slyly cast unknown actors, built up a ton of interesting lore, and even sold it all with a tie-in special on the Sci-Fi network which, like the movie, operated on a don’t ask, don’t tell policy regarding the story’s validity in a pre-Snopes world. After slashers dominated horror in the 80s and into the 90s with Wes Craven’s Scream, The Blair Witch Project arrived at the turn of the millennium to change horror forever.

In the 20 years since The Blair Witch Project stunned audiences, we’ve seen other torchbearers arrive on the scene. Blockbuster franchises like Paranormal Activity spawned more sequels than many could keep up with, while indie anthologies like V/H/S gave multiple up and coming horror auteurs the freedom to tell one-off stories they were passionate about. Today, the success of found footage horror movies is all over the place, but the importance of The Blair Witch Project lives on. Found footage horror had arrived, and its influence today stretches beyond just cinema.

There are so many excellent found footage horror movies we wouldn’t have without The Blair Witch Project, but without this crucial genre progenitor, we may still be sailing adrift in the world of horror gaming. Some terrifying games like Outlast take the found footage element seriously and behave just like the 1999 film. You’re alone on an investigation into some nauseatingly scary locale and every horror you encounter is captured on camera. I personally find Outlast 2 to be the scariest game of the generation, and its roots leading to Blair Witch are obvious, but the inspiration doesn’t end there. While few other horrors have taken the found footage element so literally, modern horror games are defined in large part by their defenseless protagonists, much like the trio in the woods of Burkittsville.

All-time great genre entries like Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA don’t have you carrying a camera, but they helped popularize the idea of immersive horror games where you didn’t just have few resources like you did in the previous era of horror games in Resident Evil or Dead Space. Now you had no resources whatsoever — other than your legs. The new era of horror had arrived. Run, hide, and hope the entity chasing you through labyrinthine woods, dark hallways, or foreboding underground bunkers didn’t spot you. Today these defenseless immersive horror games outnumber more traditional survival horror games at a pace of about two to one. Upgrade-able plasma cutters and gut-busting shotguns are out. Running for your life is in, and it all started in 1999.

That’s what makes this week’s E3 announcement of a new Blair Witch video game so exciting. Bloober Team, the horror-focused studio behind recent hits like Observer and Layers of Fear, has revealed a found footage Blair Witch game is coming this August. The trailer looks awesome, and excitingly, the game promises to build on the lore of the Blair Witch. There surely exists an entire generation of younger horror fans that don’t even know about The Blair Witch Project and for them, this could be the entry point to a new beloved franchise.

For those who have longed for more from the series for years, this seems like the best possible outcome too. Two movie sequels failed to really capture the magic of the original, while Outlast has shown us no found footage experience is scarier than the one in which you’re holding the camera. In 1999, The Blair Witch Project catalyzed the most prominent trend in modern horror cinema and inspired a new kind of horror video game. With Bloober Team’s Blair Witch, the last two decades of horror come full circle.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

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Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

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Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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