"Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2"
In 1999 "The Blair Witch Project" created a movie-going tempest as one of the most profitable films in history. Because of the enormous publicity and hype, tourists flocked to the tiny Maryland town of Burkittsville to learn more about the truth and legend of the Blair Witch. Jeff Patterson (Jeffrey Donovan), a local resident with a questionable past, is taking advantage of the phenomenon with his Blair Witch store and the newly inaugurated Blair Witch Hunt tour. Four people from Boston sign up for the tour and they spend the night on the sight of the house of the notorious child murderer, Rustin Parr. But, something happens during the night and five hours of their lives are missing. They soon realize that they encountered something evil in the woods and it is bent on vengeance in "The Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2"
Sequels to popular horror films usually fall far short of the expectations raised by the original flick. The seminal horror films, "The Exorcist" and "The Omen," were both followed with mediocre, is not outright bad, sequels that paled in comparison to their originals. When I saw "The Blair Witch Project" last year, I found the student film-like qualities - shaky camera and amateur feel - were tempered by the intelligence and imagination of the mock documentary's story idea. I liked the film, but didn't understand why huge numbers of people declared it the greatest horror flick ever. It was an interesting effort, maybe even good, but not great.
"Blair Witch 2" fares a bit better than the other sequels I mentioned. The second entry in the Blair Witch series (BW3 is in the works) benefits from a bigger budget, an experienced (albeit, in documentaries) director and a script that has intelligence (by director Joe Berlinger and Dick Beebe). There are some confusing moments as the tale cuts between the live action, images on video and flash (forwards or backs? It's hard to tell sometimes in the context of the story). But, overall, it is a linear telling as the five protagonists head off into the woods near Burkittsville to uncover the truth about the Blair Witch.
Jeff loads his guests into his camouflage painted van with ample quantities of beer, booze and weed for their stay in the woods. They camp on the site of the child murders, decades before, and set up a variety of video gear to try to capture taped evidence of the Blair Witch. Then the group gets down to doing some hearty partying. Kim (Kim Director) is a member of the Wicken faith and is out to clear the tainted name of witches everywhere. Erica (Erica Leerhsen) is a mega-Goth chick who joins the tour because she "thought the movie was cool." Tristine (Tristine Skyler) and Stephen (Stephen Baker Turner) are a couple of researchers on the hunt to garner material for their grad school work, The Blair Witch: History or Hysteria.
Their revelries are interrupted, at one point, when a competing group, The Blair Witch Tour (made up of Japanese and German tourists), tries to crash the campsite. The interlopers are turned away and they head to the infamous site called Coffin Rock, where ritual murders were done years ago. The Hunt gang continues to party until they all eventually pass out. The next morning, they are horrified to find that, while they were asleep, someone trashed the camp, destroying all the video equipment and shredding the volumes of research brought by Tristine and Stephen. Tristine, inexplicably, tells the rest that the tapes from the camera are buried under the foundation of the murder ruins (as were the tapes in the original BW). They find the tapes, pack up and head back to Jeffrey's digs to use his elaborate video gear to check out what was recorded. They find, while watching, that the time stamp on one of the videos has an abrupt jump in the middle that shows a glitch cover the five hours when all were thought to be asleep.
Things start to blur, at this point, as the action jumps around. Dreams and daydreams mix with reality and the video surveillance cameras around Jeffrey's place record something quite different from the live action. As they continue to try to unravel the mystery of the missing hours, it becomes apparent that something wicked has this way come. Kim goes missing and the local sheriff calls Jeff on the phone to investigate the brutal, ritualistic murders of the Blair Witch Tour group at Coffin Rock. Reality and the fantastical merge together as the confused and frightened campers learn what really happened during that crucial five-hour lapse.
The helmer and co-scripter for BW2, Berlinger, as I said, hails from a documentary background. (I recommend his "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.") This is his first outing in film fiction and he does a yeoman's job of marshalling his actors to the effort. The young actors in the sequel are a generic collection of unknowns who don't really give any dimension to their characters. Kim Director is quite photogenic, but looks more like a model posing than a thespian. Erica Leershen gets some mileage out of her cynical Goth chic persona. Skyler and Turner are merely OK as the researchers. Jeff Donovan does the goofy doper well enough but, again, none of the perfs, except for the very funny comic relief by the town sheriff (whose name, unfortunately, I have yet to find), are remarkable.
Suspense driven, rather than horror, the story contains very few chilling moments. One, where the spirit of a murdered child from the distant past appears before the Hunt crew, actual brought a shiver to my spine, but the rest of this horror sequel isn't really horrific, just shocking at times. There is some confusion in the way the events are portrayed, which has caused some negative buzz for BW2. It does require your attention and some contemplation afterwards, but, as sequels go, I've seen worse, much worse. (Did I mention "The Exorcist 2" and "The Omen 2"?) I give "The Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2" a C+.
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