Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows: Artisan Entertainment
Rating: USA: R

Back in 1999, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez’s small, modestly budgeted independent horror film, The Blair Witch Project took theaters by storm. Riding on an early wave of positive buzz from critics and fright film fans, the faux documentary became a box-office juggernaut—and then the backlash began. Still, when a movie breaks that magical 100 million dollar mark at the box office, sequels are all but inevitable—particularly for a genre film. And, true to form, we were all treated to Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows in October of 2000.

Book of Shadows is really a sequel only in name. This film operates within the confines of the established Blair Witch mythology (that a vengeful witch haunts the forest and that strange things can happen to anyone who enters her domain), but drops all of the pretense concerning the first film and its cast (by divulging that the first film was ‘only a movie’ and trying to create the illusion that what’s happening now is what’s really real). This is a moderately interesting approach—unfortunately, the film’s plot never really manages to live up to it.

As the film opens, we see the aftermath of The Blair Witch Project--not the found videotapes and police investigation of the film, the ‘real life’ aftermath of the film’s success and how it affected the quiet town of Burkittsville, Maryland which was ground zero for tourists looking for Blair Witch memorabilia. The denizens of this sleepy little town aren’t dumb—many of them are selling off homemade stick figures from the woods, rocks, and dirt to the out of towners in hopes of making a few bucks.

Jeffrey Patterson (Jeffrey Donovan) is making a killing off of the Blair Witch phenomenon, selling all of his various wares (t-shirts, hats, stick figures, bags of dirt, etc.) on the internet. In hopes of making even more money, he’s started what he calls the ‘Blair Witch Hunt’—a walking tour of the woods that includes visits to coffin rock, the burnt out remains of the Rustin Parr house, etc. For this inaugural hunt, he’s accompanied into the forest by four other people seeking the witch: Tristen Ryler (Tristine Skyler) and Stephen Ryan Parker (Stephen Barker Turner), a couple researching a book on the Blair Witch and mass hysteria, Erica Geerson (Erica Leehrson), a wiccan looking to find a mentor in the witch, and that new 90’s horror cliché character, the goth girl Kim (Kim Director), who’s along because she’ thought the movie was cool’.

This group sets out into the forest armed with video cameras and camping gear, and sets up shop in the remains of the Rustin Parr house. After encountering another walking tour (who also want to camp in the ruins, but decide to spend the night at coffin rock), our lead characters settle in for a night of drinking and ghost hunting.

Unexpectedly, they all awake the next morning to find that their equipment has been smashed, the tapes are buried in the ruins, the book documents that Tristen and Stephen have brought along have become confetti, and that no one knows what happened for a several hour stretch. Tristen has also miscarried during the night.

From there, the film asks us to accept the most implausible plot development yet—that these 5 strangers would all convene at Jeffrey’s old warehouse home to view the tapes and find out what happened. What will the tapes show? What’s up with the weird witch symbols on everyone’s skin? You’ll have to sit through the rest of the film to find out.

It’s hard to pick a precise moment where I realized that this film was headed for trouble (there were no shortage of warning signs), but if I had to pick, I’d point out one of the opening shots. Director Joe Berlinger has this cool fly over of the woods—the sun’s setting, the trees seem desolate and barren, there’s no sign of anyone. In short, it’s beautiful, but given the woods’ history, it’s creepy as hell, too. We see this great shot for mere seconds before the soundtrack kicks in—a really loud and obnoxious number by Marilyn Manson (who Hollywood seems to feel should be on every horror film soundtrack). This loud and abrasive song not only clashes with the imagery of the scene, it completely destroys the mood—all but screaming ‘hey, look, this is a Hollywood horror movie! Run out and buy the soundtrack!’

Of course, this is just one of many gaffes that will fill the rest of the film.

It’s a shame, really, because there’s an interesting idea buried in the script—the idea of lost time and losing control of yourself during that span is one that I’ve always found intriguing. Coupling that with the question as to what’s real and what’s group delusion could have made for an intense and rewarding genre film. Unfortunately, though, the film presents its two ideas in such a heavy-handed and obvious way that it’s no fun. Add to that the fact that it never really takes the time to explore either idea with any depth (before resorting to an ambiguous cop-out ending) and you wind up with a film that misses on every level.

Even if the script had managed to handle these issues with subtlety and depth, the film would probably still be a failure—the cast that’s been assembled simply isn’t capable of pulling off the kind of performances required to make a film like that work to begin with. Tristine Skyler is particularly awful, especially in the forest, where each of her lines sounds as though it’s being read right off a cue card. Erica Leehrson is no better as the dippy wiccan, who might as well have culled all her dialogue from books in the new age section at her local Barnes & Noble. Our other three leads are slightly better—or maybe just less annoying in the face of the aforementioned performances—but they shouldn’t be writing any Academy acceptance speeches anytime soon, either.

Director Joe Berlinger does a fair job behind the camera. There are some nice shots scattered throughout the film, but unfortunately, most of them are more distracting than helpful in terms of advancing the plot. Berlinger definitely overdoes it with some hyper-edited gore segments in the early part of the film—and just about anyone can figure out who the victims of these acts are long before the script decides to finally reveal it to us. The film shambles along at a moderate pace, but really bogs down in the second and third acts where scenes of characters bickering and debating seem to drag on for days, only broken up by the occasional hallucination or vision that spurs us on to the next long dialogue scene.

Book of Shadows offers up more gore than its predecessor (which essentially left everything to the viewer’s own imagination—a dangerous act in this day and age for sure), but it’s still not going to be enough to please hardcore gore fans. There are some stabbings, a rock bashing in a head, a hanging, and a few other odds and ends, but most of it presented in that super-edited MTV-style that we’ve all come to know and hate. If you’re looking for blood and guts, look elsewhere.

Overall, Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows is a film without an audience. Fans of the original film will walk right by this one because it’s just a cheap attempt to cash in on the Blair Witch name. People who hated the first film will skip this one on principle (although, I think it offers up the more ‘traditional’ horror film that many people who didn’t like the first film were looking for). Of course, the fact that a lot of people will avoid this movie is actually a good thing since it’s not very entertaining. While there’s a few interesting ideas at work in the core of the screenplay, this director and cast aren’t talented enough to pull them out and make the film work. So, instead, we’re left with a film looks a lot like most of the other Hollywood horror fare of recent memory—slick and fairly stylish, but ultimately empty experiences. Feel free to give this one a wide berth.


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV