3-minute preview: 'Blair Witch'

BONE up on woodland horror Blair Witch as the horror franchise prepares for a comeback.
What's it about?
With its unusual found-footage aesthetic, The Blair Witch Project became a 1999 box office sensation, presenting what it claimed was the terrifying true life account of three college students lost in haunted woodland.
Ignoring a less well-received sequel, Blair Witch follows an expanded troupe of six young adults – this time composed of both students and locals guiding them into the same wooded region.
Searching for one of the original film's explorers, the group instead find something much more sinister.
Who's in it?
Blair Witch sticks with generally lesser-known actors, though their resumés namecheck a number of familiar productions.
Among them, James Allen McCune has 10 episodes of The Walking Dead and 11 of Shameless under his belt. Callie Hernandez is soon appearing in October's political comedy serial Graves, and is part of next year's Alien: Covenant.
Brandon Scott and Corbin Reid have both worked with Issa Rae of October's well-anticipated series Insecure (Scott was also in Grey's Anatomy season 5 and 6), while Valorie Curry of House of Lies, The Following, and the fifth Twilight Saga film is also in American Pastoral.
Who's behind it?
Writer Simon Burnett and director Adam Wingard are new to the franchise but are frequent collaborators. Most recently they contributed to the first two V/H/S horror anthologies and made 2014 action thriller The Guest.
Wingard is currently adapting Japanese comic book and animated series Death Note as well as South Korean action horror I Saw the Devil.
Is it any good?
Blair Witch has been tracking at a 58% approval rating and 5.9/10 average score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an aggregated Metascore of 54, while IMDb users have produced a 6.1/10 average from a little over 500 ratings.
On that evidence, it's not reaching the heights of the original Blair Witch film, but it's a whole lot better than Book of Shadows - Blair Witch 2.
When's it out?
On general release in the US and Canada from Sept 16, Blair Witch arrives in cinemas the same week in numerous territories including Australia, the UK and Ireland, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Singapore.
French availability starts from Sept 21, German and Russian from Oct 6, and Japanese from Dec 1. — AFP Relaxnews
Official Trailer: