| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Book of Shadows - Blair Witch 2 |  | |
Book of Shadows - Blair Witch 2
This thoroughly second-rate follow-up to the groundbreaking (and highly profitable) horror flick The Blair Witch Project--produced by Blair Witch directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez--plays with the notions of reality and fantasy that surrounded the hype of the original movie, and attempts to throw in some scares along the way. A year after the release of the original film, a group of five Blair Witch aficionados--four out-of-towners led by one seriously unhinged "tour guide"--venture into the woods outside Burkittsville, Maryland, on a tour of the sites made famous by missing documentarians Heather, Mike, and Josh. After a drunken night of camping out in hopes of communing with the spirit of the Blair Witch, the five wake up to find that their seemingly innocent sleep may have been disturbed somehow. But what exactly happened? If you're expecting suspense of the first degree and a horrifying payoff similar to the one that climaxed the first film, you'll be sorely disappointed. After retreating to an old, run-down broom factory (get it? Broom factory? Blair Witch? Oh well...), the five go over their videotapes of the night in question to get some answers, and basically wind up screaming at each other for the remainder of the film, and shedding some blood along the way. Documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger (of the highly acclaimed Paradise Lost and Brother's Keeper) proves that he should definitely stick to nonfiction filmmaking, and the entire cast is grating and unpleasant, aside from a scene-stealing turn by Kim Director as a goth chick with attitude to burn and a no-nonsense approach to this Blair Witch stuff. Strictly for hard-core Blair Witch fans only, and even then this sequel may prove to disappoint. --Mark Englehart
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
Price Range: $4.85 - $9.98
 Book of Shadows - Blair Witch 2
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| User Reviews |  | Way to Destroy a Franchise!!
rating: 1
I can't write a proper review of this film because I refused to finish it. It takes a lot to get me to pull the trigger on a horror movie in mid-play, but that threshold was met and exceeded by the BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2.
You have to give the makes of this film some credit. With just two hours of incoherent, badly-written filmmaking, they managed to end any hopes Hollywood had for making a string of BLAIR WITCH movies. Not only that, but they actually drove the whole phenomenon which accompanied the first flick right out of the popular consciousness. I honestly haven't heard the words "Blair Witch" uttered aloud by anyone, anyone at all, since about 2001. And this movie came out in 2001. Coincidence?
The concept here involves some fans of the original film, who take a guided tour in the same woods where the events of BW "happened." They make a camp, but wake up later with all their equipment wrecked or stolen, and no memory of the intervening five hours. The rest of the film takes place in an abandoned...sigh...broom factory where the fans have holed up. They begin to get paranoid, bleed and find that creepy BW symbol on their bodies when not screaming at each other. Not much happens, and nothing makes sense, but everyone is angry, and so was I when I realized how badly this movie sucked.
Whether writer-director Joe Berlinger suffered a violent blow to the skull when he did both tasks, or simply has no feeling whatsoever for non-documentary film-making, or staggered off on some pretentious-artist trip, I've no idea. I just know there's a reason this sucker's in the bargain bin at your local Ballbuster.
The last time I saw a sequel desecrate the original this badly was with the second MATRIX film. But that was just silly, stupid and boring. This throws in some additional "qualities", like having nothing whatsoever to do with the original and suffering from the delusion that continuity, order or a comprehensible storyline are necessary to make a successful movie, and you have a level of crappiness which is seldom achieved even on those bloodygodawful movies you see on the Sci-Fi channel.
Let's face it. The first BLAIR WITCH movie wasn't actually very good, it was more like a clever student film, hitched to a brilliantly innovative guerilla marketing campaign, which itself happened to trundle into town at a time when the horror movie market was in a creative depression. Take away the gimmickry, and you have nonunion actors shreiking at each other in the woods. But at least the idea was cool. Here, there are no ideas, except to kick the crap out of the pinata of the original idea in the hopes it would cough out some candy. Sorry. Didn't work.
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Really doesnt live up to the original!
rating: 1
This movie was awful! It was boring, the acting was bad, and it was completely confusing! They barley mentioned the blair witch and it did not follow the first!!! I loved the first and thought it was really creepy! This, not so much. I would avoid if i were you.
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A slight departure from the original...
rating: 4
Sure, there are a few awkward scenes and bad one-liners, but all in all, this flick is not too shabby. It departs from the format of the first Blair Witch movie, and with the exception of the occasional spoof of reference to the original, this movie goes off on it's own with the subject all together. The overall feel of the movie is quite surreal and is sure to creep you out once in a while with the "did they or didn't they" suspense. Sure, it wasn't the summer blockbuster when it came out, but it is certainly worth a viewing even if you did not like the original.
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I Liked It
rating: 4
In my opinion this is a lot better than the first Blair Witch because the casting is superb, the acting is halfway believable, the realistic costumes and it doesn't pretend to be reality.
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blair witch 2
rating: 5
after watching the first one, i am for sure that this one is nothing less than the first one. the second one will be just as good as the first one. thanks.
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Book of Shadows - Blair Witch 2
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