Tag: Simon Barrett

Blair Witch Box Office Prediction

Seventeen years ago, The Blair Witch Project came out of nowhere and turned into a 1999 summertime smash. The found footage horror pic (we can basically thank it for kicking off that craze) was initially shot for a tiny $60,000 and made $140 million domestically and $248 million worldwide. A year later, a quasi-sequel entitled Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 failed to connect with audiences.

This time around, we have a direct sequel to the original and it was shockingly a secret up until a couple of months ago. The director/writer horror team of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett have been responsible for some critically acclaimed genre titles such as You’re Next and The Guest. Their latest venture was said to be The Woods and there was even a trailer for it. It wasn’t until this summer’s San Diego Comic Con (where it screened to great buzz) that it was revealed as Blair Witch. Like the 1999 pic, the cast is made up of relative or total unknowns.

Backstory explained, let’s get to its box office potential. First things first – scare tactics have been a bright spot at the multiplexes lately. The Conjuring 2 debuted to $40 million. Lights Out surprised many with a $21 million premiere and Don’t Breathe exceeded all expectations with $26 million out of the gate. That bodes well for this.

One potential concern: will younger viewers feel the connection to a franchise that has laid dormant for over a decade and a half? While the original was a moneymaking sensation, reaction to it was actually polarized and that may have contributed to the mediocre returns of the 2000 follow-up.

That said, I still envision Blair Witch reaching mid to high 20s next weekend with strong word of mouth from its screening helping.

Blair Witch opening weekend prediction: $27.4 million

For my Bridget Jones’s Baby prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2016/09/07/bridget-joness-baby-box-office-prediction/

For my Snowden prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2016/09/07/snowden-box-office-prediction/

For my Hillsong – Let Hope Rise prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2016/09/12/hillsong-let-hope-rise-box-office-prediction/

 

You’re Next Movie Review

A dysfunctional upper class family consisting of mom and dad, their four adult children, and their children’s significant others get together for the first time in quite a while in You’re Next. As if that weren’t terrifying enough, what follows is them being trapped in the well-worn clichés of a home invasion horror flick. The central premise of Adam Wingard’s picture is that the gory bloodshed is only slightly scarier than the character’s personality flaws and sibling rivalries.

Caught in the middle of all the family drama is Erin (Sharni Vinson), who’s accompanying her boyfriend (A.J. Bowen) to his parents (Rob Moran and Barbara Crampton) vacation home for the weekend. It turns out Erin will be our film’s strong heroine presence and that she knows a lot more about how to deal with the unwelcome guests than anyone on else on site. Those invaders come in the form of murderers with cool looking animal masks who’ve thought out their crime well (piano wire is put to good use).

You’re Next follows in the tradition of Scream and The Cabin in the Woods in that it satirizes the genre while celebrating its conventions. Director Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett have a lot of fun playing with those conventions. It may not reach the ironic heights of the aforementioned pictures, but it often comes darn close. The central twists aren’t particularly surprising and there are times when Next becomes a little repetitive.

Yet it’s bloody heart is in the right place. The 80s sounding soundtrack is a trip. The pic surprisingly works more as a gore infested comedy than traditional horror flick. You’re Next‘s family argument starts at the dinner table and doesn’t stop just because a group of bow and arrow shooting, knife wielding terrorizers decide the crash the occasion. For enthusiasts of the genre, there’s a lot to admire here and there’s fun to be had.

*** (out of four)