Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

Now, I will start off my review by saying that I never understood the hype of the first Blair Witch Project. Half the time I felt dizzy, very confused and slightly "sea-sick". While I understood the basic idea of the movie: 3 friends go into the woods to make a documentary about a legend of the Blair Witch and subsequently they seem to be stalked and attacked with no clear answers as to why or how, their footage being found a long time later; I wasn't sure why it became as popular as it did. One night I had fallen asleep with my TV on and when I woke, I saw Book of Shadows was on. I almost changed the channel when I realized that it was the sequel to Blair Witch Project, but (like a superficial girl) I saw Jeffrey Donovan on the screen and stayed a moment, ending up watching the entire movie. The movie was about a tour guide (former mental institution patient Jeffrey) who takes a group of tourists (Gothic Kim, Wiccian Erica, and a couple researching the Blair witch Tristin and Stephen) into the woods where the footage from the original movie was made. One night they camp out in the woods, drink, talk, have fun. All the while, they videotape their night. Suddenly they all wake up and have no memory of what had happened that night. Tristin and Stephen's research notes is found ripped to shreds all over the campsite, the tapes hidden away. They find the tapes and eventually go to Jeffrey's home. Looking through the tapes, they see nothing, but eventually they run the tapes backwards and they find that they had a wild party. Still unable to put the pieces together completely, they find out that tourists that they had a run-in with were murdered, and it was them who committed the crimes. Erica is found dead, and they realize that Tristin is to blame for the murders (I don't believe it is confirmed, but it is implied that she is possessed by the Blair Witch), and they confront her and as she ties a rope around her neck, she mocks them, especially Stephen, who loses his cool and pushes her off of the stairs. The three remaining are arrested, the cops have video tapes that shows them killing others. The tape shown to Stephen shows Tristins death completely different than how it occurred, showing the 3 ganging up on her, and kill her by tying the rope around her neck and pushing her off. They are baffled and assumed to be arrested. It is shot completely different from the first: a fiction movie rather than a faux-documentary, and the storyline being more clear. There were many twists and turns, interesting characters, a solid storyline and great editing.I definitely recommend this movie to others. It's not perfect, but it is a solid film.

This excellent horror flick has such roadblocks in front of it. People who didn't like the first movie are unlikely to give it a try. People who loved the first movie are unlikely to enjoy it. While it is about the same subject and is dead on in continuity with the first movie, it is nothing like it. This uses a film crew! This movie is as creepy as they get. It's a little weird, and doesn't all run in chronological order (it is very obvious when it jumps time and makes it's points clearly). It can leave you with your mouth hanging open (in a good way for horror flicks). I repeat: This is nothing like the first movie. Be ready that it's only based on the Blair Witch, and is not the same style as the first movie. The characters have a situation and spend the movie trying to figure out what the heck happened, while things keep happening! While this movie is a little scary for sure, it's mostly CREEPY! All those who enjoy suspense horror, should give this a whirl. This isn't a hack and slash bloody horror throughout (although it has it's moments).

one of my favorite movies --- i want to reply to a comment i see a lot about this movie. I'm noticing many people saying either that the director did a bad job cause there are too many 'loose ends' by the end of the movie or that there were too many 'unanswered questions'. that was the idea. The questions were meant to be left unanswered - its up to you to come up with your own answer on what really was going on in the movie. Was it mass hallucination? was it a curse? --?? all of the above? up to you to guess at, thats the fun of it. Just cause you don't get it, doesn't mean it isn't good. Matter of fact thats probably just proof this movie is good, there's plenty for you to miss, and many people miss it. I have a feeling the people that didn't care for this movie didn't understand natural born killers, requiem for a dream, blue velvet or a billion other movies either. excellent flick - I've seen it about 4 times, I love the visuals, the music, the actors, the plot - i loved the secret message hunt provided in the DVD version (that was a lot of fun) - and i enjoy the whole concept, but I'm not going to get into any spoilers - for those that don't get it.... ah well, maybe an action movie is a better choice for you.

Book of Shadows is technically the follow up to the 1999snoozefest, "The Blair Witch Project," but has few ties to the original. This movie is not a true sequel to BWP. It mentions the original film as a work of fiction, and it is debatable if the BWP2 storyline exists in the same continuum as the first film. BWP2 has better writing, effects, and production values than its predecessor. It is unfair to compare the sequel to the original, as the second installment isn't even a true horror movie. Book of Shadows examines the experience of supernatural phenomenon as it is experienced in reality. The question is: Are the events in the movie objectively happening, or are they subjective experiences of the participants based on collective delusion? The film maintains a constant level of tension and creepiness, but genuine scares are few and far between. That said, I believe that the filmmaker's intention was not cheap frights. Viewers are shown the events though the victims eyes; you spend most of the film trying to figure out what is going on. The confusion is played out less through plot advances, but rather through character development. The writing is decent. Every character but the Wiccan has believable dialog. There are also some great scenes that show a level of cinematography that is not evident in the grainy original. The BWP used amateur video to create the mood of the original. There are no scenes in the movie that are technically well done. BWP2 has some well architected images that invoke tension by their design. The only point where this movie suffers is in its attachment to the original film. This is not a great movie, but people will hate it because of its association with the BWP. The film is based on the cultural event surrounding the BWP, not the movie. Audiences may not have been sure if the footage in the original movie was real or faked. Even if they knew it was 'just a film,' there was still doubt about the subject matter. Was there a real Blair Witch legend? Was the movie based in fact? Was there a disappearance? BWP2 focus on the confusion created by the uncertainty. If you were frightened by the original BWP, it was because of the mystique, not because of what you saw in the film. This movie examines the effects of mythology and belief on the collective perceptions of the believers. If this movie had focused on some other phenomenon than 'Blair Witch Hysteria,' it would not suffer from the backlash of the original. I think this is a good flick and worth a rental (if not the price of admission). Don't expect a horror film; this movie is working at a higher level.

Which wasn't much, by the way. Beyond some clever advertising and (occasionally) creepy atmosphere, Blair Witch 1 wasn't what it was cracked up to be. I tried very quickly of everyone saying how beautiful that particular emperor's clothes were. The second film is actually much better, although most people, having slavishly (and inexplicably) dedicated themselves to the rambling and decidedly un-scary first film, will not be willing to choke this one down. It's more of a mainstream horror film, meaning it has a plot and some vague sense of thematics. It is the theme which most people missed that I found the most interesting. The camera in this film turns on itself, and shows that once something has been filmed, it takes on a life of its own apart from the realm of what we call fact or fiction. I'm reminded of Robert Wisdom who said in Todd Solondz's generally superior _Storytelling_ that "once you put it on paper, it all becomes fiction." It's the same concept here, with film. A story which may or may not be true, turning itself inside out so many times that neither the audience nor the characters know for sure what the truth is anymore. It's a cautionary message and a reprimand which seems to have generally gone unheeded. I'll probably see this again.

Movies that do not walk you through it and leave some interpretation are great in my book. Blair Witch 2 is one of those movies. The ending had me confused at first and then I thought about it. As I see it there are 2 different possibilities. There's the idea that what you saw the characters do is actually what happened and then the Blair Witch doctored the tapes and killed those people. I find this idea a little hard to believe because the whole thing with messing with the tapes is strange but it is the Blair Witch after all. The other idea is that they blacked out or were seeing things different when the crimes happened. Like when Kim had that confrontation with the clerk Peggy. What she thought happened was she got p****d at Peggy stormed out while leaving the cash. But what the tapes revealed was that she cut Peggy's throat. So Kim thought she didn't kill Peggy but I think she did. I believe the second theory because in the beginning Jeff says that film lies but video always tells the truth, we saw the film but the video cameras were the video. I even listened to the commentary track and the director even says himself that there are many possibilities. Whew! Enough explanation of the ending (hope I didn't ruin it). They movie is kind of ironic in the fact that it is making a big deal about the commotion of the first movie and that it was in fact not true. Lots of dream shots and other things to freak you out. I highly recommend seeing this. Plus the music rocks (like that sweet credits tune)

This isn't as much a horror movie as a horror of a movie. It goes something like this. Throw in the usual decoys; a Goth chick who's hard outside but soft and chewy inside, a real Wiccan witch, whose petulant disdain for mere mortals is the entire range of her acting ability, and a really cool loft with a fallaway bridge for isolating the idiots who were stupid enough to get caught inside. Then have all the so-called actors yell and scream a lot to show how really deep they are. But the grand prize goes to Jeffrey Donovan, who is so bad that even John Waters wouldn't cast him if they happened to run into each other somewhere on the streets of Baltimore. And if he did, he would have had the sense to play this crap for high camp, because playing it seriously only succeeds in producing a banal, juvenile and completely unimaginative dung heap. What amazes me most is the bombastic and pretentious commentary track on the DVD. Is this guy for real? Does he really think dropping a litany of terms he picked up in film school is going to convince us that this is high art? Now that's scary!

"Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2" follows a group of fanatics obsessed with the Blair Witch legend in the aftermath of the film's first release. Among them are a mentally-unstable local; a husband-and-wife team of graduate students studying the Blair Witch; a self-proclaimed Wiccan; and a depressive goth. The five camp out in the ruins of Rustin Parr's home, where the Blair Witch tapes were "found," and experience a mental blackout in which they each fail to recount several hours of the night. In a daze and confusion, they retreat to the group leader's warehouse- turned-home, where their individual psychological breakdowns lead them to a disturbing truth. I'm just going to say it outright: I love this film. It was, and continues to be met with hostility from fans of the original, which still quite frankly baffles me. It's not nearly as terrifying as the original film, but it is ingenious in its own way. Rather than approach a sequel with a rehash of the first film's material, co-writer/director Joe Berlinger offers something different: a narrative within a world in which "The Blair Witch Project" was real footage— a world inhabited by characters who range from unabashed believers to academic skeptics, to people who simply "thought the movie was cool." With a common interest, they set out into the woods to find some evidence—but all goes awry when one of the women suffers a premonitory miscarriage, and they are forced to retreat to the leader's home, which is where the film becomes a full-blooded psychological thriller. What is real, and what isn't? Where is the Blair Witch? Outside, lurking in the forest? Possessing one of the characters? Is she even there at all? These are the kinds of questions the script toys with, and the result is wildly engaging. The performances are top-notch, and the film is peppered with disturbing scenes and images, and some ghoulish scenarios. The score lends an oppressive tone to the movie, and it is steeped in an atmosphere of complete unease that grows more and more pervasive as the five characters bear witness to the inexplicable. The film plays its cards well and is careful in its subtlety, which leads to a downbeat and twisted conclusion. Overall, "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2" has been harshly criticized by fans who it seems haven't taken the time to try and understand what it's attempting to do. It is not a rehash of the original film, and it never aims to be. The approach taken is commendable and rather brilliant, and it manages to establish an ever-increasing sense of oppressiveness that grows on the audience, which is the real catch here in my opinion—it is genuinely unnerving to watch, and that's something rare these days. 8/10.

One paragraph in particular below may be seen as a possible spoiler, and I will warn you one more time before you read that far. However, Book of Shadows spoils itself with forward shadowing, cheesy dialogue, blatant misuse of stereotypes, and a host of other problems, before we even address the fact that as sequels ago, this could very well be the worst on record. I am reminded of Bob and Doug MacKenzie: (played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas on SCTV and later the film Strange Brew) Canadian brothers who made a small cable television show called Great White North. In one particular episode, Bob and Doug were discovered by a big network and given a great amount of money to go Big Time. Which they did. And their new show failed miserably. What made their original little cable show so entertaining and enjoyable was lost for all the glitz and glamour of show business. In selling out, they lost what made their show special. The same thing happened here with Blair Witch. Some may find one or two statements in the following paragraph to be *spoilers*. Book of Shadows will forever be intertwined with The Blair Witch Project. However, the films do not belong together. Blair Witch was a fictional account about three college students who went into the woods to make a documentary about suspicious legends of the area and never returned. Book of Shadows is a fictional account about five young adults who venture into the woods and drive themselves crazy. Believing the Blair Witch from the first film to be distorting their reality when actually they've just lost their minds, Book of Shadows dismisses Blair Witch as the hoax that it was, and in so doing hasn't a leg to stand on by itself. Some call Blair Witch Project genius and some call it a fluke, but it grossed over ten times as much money as was required to make it. No matter how you slice it, Blair Witch will be remembered in history as a success. However, Book of Shadows is an inevitable byproduct of that success. Nothing more. Book of Shadows is the very sort of movie that inspired directors Sanchez and Myrick to raise the bar of the genre in the first place. In interviews the men have explained that one day they were sitting around talking about what really scared them. It wasn't the trite Hollywood slasher films of present day, but eerie documentaries of their youth. Stories of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster and the Bermuda Triangle. So they sought to outdo modern day blood fest films and action packed polished horror thrillers by inventing a mythology with some historical relevance and sociological believability. Book of Shadows is just another bloody fright. It's just another high budget Hollywood chiller thriller. If you like that kind of movie, you will find Book of Shadows to be a satisfactory clone. If you were someone who was attracted to Blair Witch Project because you've been looking for something more creative and daring than any horror or thriller films that have come out of Hollywood the last twenty years, Book of Shadows will seriously disappoint you. Book of Shadows disregards the events of The Blair Witch Project as not real, and therefore deserves to be dismissed itself. Just as if the sequels to Nightmare On Elm Street had pretended Freddy Krueger didn't exist. If it is ever made, a true sequel to Blair Witch will deal directly with the events of the first film - specifically the disappearance of the three college students. Personally, I refuse to refer to Book of Shadows as a sequel to Blair Witch Project. There are rumors that a "prequel" dealing with the original history of the Blair Witch might be made, but even that will not be a sequel. The true Blair Witch Project Two has yet to be filmed. Unfortunately, I fear it never will be.

Attracted by the film `The Blair Witch Project' hoards of film fans have been pouring into the small town of the film. One such group books onto a `Blair Witch Hunt' tour to camp in the woods and see the sights. When they awake the next morning to find their camera equipment smashed, 5 hours unaccounted for and their film hidden in the same spot as the film from the original movie they are unsure what happened. However as they replay the video tape they notice some very weird things. Undeterred by bad reviews I decided to watch this film on television the other night. Initially I was impressed by the idea, instead of following the original movie, the sequel twists the idea of the original as a documentary and presents it as a film but then uses the film to present another story that is `in the real world'. Conceptually this was quite clever and I was drawn in by it. Sadly this didn't last very long and it wasn't long before it became quite an ordinary film that wasn't creepy in any way and was actually quite dull. The plot is interesting – interesting enough to keep me watching anyway. The twists are the end are meant to be horrifying and perhaps surprising but by then all they got out of me was an `oh' of vague interest. For most of the film it is noisy chat and fake surprises and creepy goings-on. They didn't work as the film felt very trashy and uninvolving. The gore and flashed edits of violence were supposed to keep us guessing I think but they only served to numb me to the film, as did the occasional dream/fantasy sequence. It was a shame as it was a clever idea and had some good bits in it but the delivery let it down. The direction is very plain and doesn't manage to build an air of suspense anywhere near as well as in the original, resulting in a rather boring series of scenes punctuated by `scares' that don't work. The cast don't really help either, they don't come across as real people and it is hard to care for such as self important group of people who are walking stereotypes – the goth, the witch, the college boy etc. At least in the original we got to see them break down and become more afraid during the film – here they could be the cast from any teen horror movie. As you may have guessed I'm not a big fan of teen slasher movies but Blair Witch was much more than that and traded on atmosphere – that was it's strength. By throwing in gore from the very start and having tonnes of little imagined scenes of horror, Book of Shadows loses that strength and becomes a movie that lives and dies on it's ability to scare. Sadly the originally good idea doesn't scare and remains `interesting' and nothing more. It is a shame that they had to make this film as it won't satisfy those who like their horror creepy or those who like it bloody.