That's what I've heard. Critics had the unrealistic expectation of reinventing the genre. I think it should be a fun and scary horror movie.

You're dead right about the expectations. Anyone looking for huge innovation is looking in the wrong place. I went in expecting a thrill ride, not a re-invention of the wheel, and I walked out ready to see it again. As I said, it's heavy on jump scares, but several of them worked on me. So while I take a grin and bear it attitude to the JS's , they were effective. It's most definitely a popcorn movie!

Abattoir (2016)
B
"An reporter is trying to solve the mystery of a haunted house made of rooms where tragedies happened."

I'd probably give this movie an A if it had a better cast and bigger budget.
Guillermo del Toro would've been perfect for this.

Saw Blair Witch today.
Pretty good movie. It takes a similar approach to the original but switches things up a little bit.
I found the characters surprisingly likable. It was an OK movie for the most part but the final act, last 10-20 minutes are really scary. I understand why some people have praised the movie considering how good the ending is.

It also doesn't explain too much. Leaving the audience to decide what actually happened. There where some very well done scary scenes. Every time the camera moved I half expected to see things in the forest in the background, this made the film somewhat unpredictable.
Some people will really not like this film and if you didn't like the original in any way chances are you won't like this one either!
I liked it quite a bit!

FROSTBITEN 2006


Though it was in Swedish, I was able to follow most of the story. A vampire virus is spread throughout a small town when a young woman takes what she thinks are recreational drugs to a party. It also happens to be a " thirty day night" kind of thing because this town is so far up north. Some dark humour , pretty enjoyable all in all.

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The Dead Room (2016)
I.M.D.B.
When a terrified family flees a desolate southern New Zealand farmhouse, two cynical scientists and a young psychic are sent to investigate their claims of a haunting. There they encounter a powerful spirit that will protect the house's secrets at all costs.

Enjoyable supernatural 'entity-in-a-house' movie. Dialogue was a little stilted in places, but overall it was well done. I enjoyed this one.
7/10

The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

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>>: B+


Blair Witch (2016)

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Expecting something decently entertaining but disappointed. Thing is after the original TBWP, particularly in this found footage genre there were significant amount of movies came out with this "there's something in the woods" set up and even if I take it as a standalone film, this is still an average or actually a below average flick in compare to those. And as I just said, there were movies with quite similar set ups came out before but didn't get much attention & received mixed to bad reviews mostly but here the case is the title itself and it's relation to the cult favorite & one of the most influential genre films that came out in last 20 years, I guess. Otherwise, films like A NIGHT IN THE WOODS (2011), HOLLOW (2011) or NIGHTLIGHT (2015) also offered very similar premise & events in their stories where few people gets lost in the woods & experience some sinister force of unknown evil is haunting them one by one but actually worked or did better with creepy encounters/scare tactics than this one. That's why it gets me now wondering how this same film would do or left impact to the same audience if it had no connection with TBWP!?!

Anyway, in the film I found the characters were very mediocre...didn't care for any of them; jump scares weren't much effective at all, mostly filled with sudden loud noises & mix of static sounds (if anyone interested to only watch a new horror film for better & decent amount of jump scares, then I'd recommend the recent cyber horror flick FRIEND REQUEST). The ending kinda reminded me of REC finale also (mainly the way they tried to reveal the Witch this time!) but overall it was just another lame, cash in effort and another crap Adam Wingard film (expect THE GUEST which was an action-thriller & enjoyed a lot than his horror films).

>>: C-


I hated it mostly because of it took a hell lot of boring time before it took us into the "haunted house". I understand that there's a build up required for that but the frustrating part was the way they poorly executed a seemingly interesting idea of a 'room by room haunted house' plot. It was just dull, IMO. Moreover, those smoky ghostly effects inside the haunted house also quite hilarious and yeah...a better budget, cast & director might have solve that issue & others by treating the same concept with more interesting & clever approach.

The movie is about the investigation not the house itself.
So imo mission accomplished. And the ending was kinda satisfying.

It does look fun. ty.