Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows

     In the wake of The Blair Witch Project and the prodigious media coverage devoted to its conflation of documentary style and supernatural legend, fans and curiosity-seekers have descended upon the movie's real-life setting of Burkittsville, Maryland. Jeff (Jeffrey Donovan), a black-sheep townie only recently released from a mental institution, has turned his powerful obsession with Blair Witch into a business and has lured four young people to Burkittsville for a tour of the Witch's purported Black Hills' haunts. Jeff's clients are also fixated on the film, for reasons they themselves may not fully comprehend. Erica (Erica Leerhsen) is a practicing Wiccan who has immersed herself in Blair Witch mythology, even though she decries the film's portrayal of her fellow witches. Grad students Tristen (Tristen Skyler) and Stephen (Stephen Barker Turner) are writing a book about the Blair Witch, but disagree completely about the story's basis in fact, with folklorist Tristen arguing that it must contain some grain of truth while Stephen insists it's a textbook case of mass hysteria. Completing the group is Kim (Kim Director), a hard-edged, sardonic Goth aficionado possessed of striking psychic abilities.

     After spending a strange and disorienting night at one of the most sinister sites in Blair Witch lore, the five campers awake to a scene of destruction and no memory of having gone to sleep. They return to Jeff s abandoned warehouse loft to try to piece together what happened. But as Jeff leads Erica, Tristen, Stephen and Kim across the rickety drawbridge and unlocks the metal door to a chorus of barking dogs, they are entering a place no safer than the woods they just left. Inside, legend begins to bleed into reality as they become caught in a nightmare as inescapable as their own bedeviled minds. Too late, they realize that when they left the woods, they didn't leave alone.

     The writer of this film deserves an award for coming up with one of the smartest, and perplexing story's known to man. A story such as this, has never been so deep and eery leaving a little chill in my spine just thinking about it. The direction of this film is also done well, as it blurs the lines between reality and what is not reality perfectly. You'll never know what's what, unfortunately..you probably won't care.

     The acting in this movie is absolutely horrid. Its like a group of Brendan Fraser's got together for a movie audition, the director liked what he saw, and he tacked a money making name like Blair Witch to it. The actors try to be humorous, they're not. They try to be frightened, they fail miserably. Erica tries to look nice naked, and doesn't. I'm afraid that even with a kick ass plot and story these people had to work with, their acting made it very uncomfortable to sit through the entire thing. There wasn't one person in this film I cared for. When someone went missing, I just thought.."so". I guess this is what happens when you take a great film like BW1, with its realistic emotions and bastardize it to a sequel with some of the most un-emotional cardboard cutouts known to man. Its sad, it really is.

     Another thing that pisses me off about this film is the title. Book of Shadows. With the exception of mentioning it once in the first 15 minutes of the film, the term "Book Of Shadows" was never used again. And with that one mentioning, it had nothing to do with the story. It was just there. So why was this title used?!? I don't know. It was like the writer thought...hey..what's one of the coolest things you can think of. The director said book of shadows, and the title was born. That's like using the title "Scream" and no one in the movie screams, or "Fight Club" and there's no fighting, or a book of Shadow's and there's no Motha...there's no book.

     Had this movie been cast differently, it would be one of the greatest psychological films of all time. But because it wasn't, it further shows why horror movies, or any movies, should not get a sequel if it doesn't need one. Blair Witch one was a classic/original/fresh piece to the world of film. Blair Witch 2 had the right idea in mind, just chose the wrong people to do it with.

Rating:

out of four.

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