Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

‘The Outwaters’ Is an Unforgettable New Take on ‘The Blair Witch Project’<!-- wp:html --><p>Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Photo by Robbie Banfitch / Cinedigm</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/skinamarink-review-terrifying-horror-film-is-tiktoks-the-blair-witch-project">found-footage horror subgenre</a> has always been a mixed bag, caught between playfully exploiting its pseudo-documentary techniques for jolty terror and floundering about trying to posit its mayhem as “real.” </p> <p><em>The Outwaters</em> doesn’t at first deviate greatly from the template set by its predecessors (in particular, <em>T</em><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-blair-witch-the-top-secret-thrilling-sequel-to-the-blair-witch-project"><em>he Blair Witch Project</em></a>). Yet it turns out to be a cannier, and more effective, slice of shaky-cam insanity than most of its brethren, right down to a finale that’s akin to <em>2001: A Space Odyssey</em> as processed through a meat grinder.</p> <p><em>The Outwaters</em> (in theaters Feb. 9) begins in familiar territory: the sound of a hysterical 911 call set to title cards and photographs of its four protagonists, as well as text that identifies this material as video recordings (taken from three camera memory cards) discovered by the Mohave County Police Department on Feb. 22, 2022.</p> <p><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-outwaters-review-unforgettable-new-take-on-the-blair-witch-project?source=articles&via=rss">Read more at The Daily Beast.</a></p><!-- /wp:html -->

Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Photo by Robbie Banfitch / Cinedigm

The found-footage horror subgenre has always been a mixed bag, caught between playfully exploiting its pseudo-documentary techniques for jolty terror and floundering about trying to posit its mayhem as “real.”

The Outwaters doesn’t at first deviate greatly from the template set by its predecessors (in particular, The Blair Witch Project). Yet it turns out to be a cannier, and more effective, slice of shaky-cam insanity than most of its brethren, right down to a finale that’s akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey as processed through a meat grinder.

The Outwaters (in theaters Feb. 9) begins in familiar territory: the sound of a hysterical 911 call set to title cards and photographs of its four protagonists, as well as text that identifies this material as video recordings (taken from three camera memory cards) discovered by the Mohave County Police Department on Feb. 22, 2022.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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