Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)October 26th, 2000
PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
"We Put the SIN in Cinema"
Lightning doesn’t strike twice. It doesn’t even come close. Book of Shadows, the sequel to 1999’s much-hyped hit The Blair Witch Project, pales in comparison to its predecessor. In fact, they’re apples and oranges.
The first film was good because it was believable. Even after the relentless media coverage, some viewers still weren’t sure if the film was real or fake (believe me – I got dozens of dopey e-mail messages asking if I knew the real truth). Part of the original’s believability was in the acting, or perhaps the lack thereof. Josh, Heather and Mike weren’t acting so much as reacting to what was happening to them. There was no score, and the fact that the film was shot using two handheld cameras (which were operated by the actors) added to Blair Witch’s realism.
The best part about the original is that it didn’t rely on special effects or even anything visually disturbing to freak people out. The visions were mostly in your head, and we all know that what you can imagine can be 1000 times more frightening than anything Hollywood can create (Battlefield Earth aside). In 30 years, it will still be scary. People won’t laugh at the dated technology like they’re doing with the re-release of The Exorcist. Regrettably, the sequel doesn’t follow the same formula for terror.
Shadows ups the character count from three to five, and while none of the new kids have much acting experience, each tries really hard to do a good job. (Too hard, actually - none of them do particularly well.) And the actor-wielding, handheld cameras were discarded in favor of more traditional filming techniques (using a film crew complete with director and cinematographer). The lack of score has been replaced with a slew of "hot" modern rock tracks.
Director Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost) explains away the differences at the beginning of the film via a title card that points out the fact that Shadows is a fictionalized version of the actual events that transpired following the release of the first film. Shadows begins promisingly, using documentary-style clips of interviews with Burkittsville, Maryland residents explaining the effects the success of the first film had on their community and, more specifically, themselves.
Things begin to go astray once the real action starts to take place. Shadows is about Jeffrey Donovan, a former mental patient who creates an adventure tour of the supposedly haunted wooded area of Burkittsville. His first expedition includes a Wiccan girl (Kim Director), a couple doing research on a Blair Witch book (Tristine Skyler and Stephen Barker Turner), and a psychic who looks like a goth version of Debi Mazar (Erica Leerhsen). Like the first film, the real names of each actor are used for their characters.
The group's first stop is at the ruins of Rustin Parr’s home, where they spend the night and wake up to untold horrors that aren’t really that horrifying. The fab five even run into a group of sightseers from a rival tour group, and their fate becomes so obvious it’s almost laughable. There are occasional flashes of what we’re supposed to assume are the murders described in the first film, but other than that, Shadows offers nothing too frightening. There’s no whopper ending that leaves things unresolved, but there are about a half-dozen times when characters shout “What the f--- is going on?” Call me crazy, but I’d rather have the former than the latter.
Berlinger, who has no previous non-documentary feature work under his belt (he did direct episodes of Homicide and the short-lived WB drama D.C.), co-wrote Shadows’ script with Dick Beebe (House on Haunted Hill). The film was executive-produced by Blair Witch’s Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, who surround themselves with some quality behind-the-camera talent, including editor Sarah Flack (The Limey), cinematographer Nancy Schreiber (Your Friends and Neighbors) and musical maestro Carter Burwell (Three Kings). Unfortunately, Shadows will never be able to get out of the shadow of The Blair Witch Project. As horror sequels go, it’s still better than the rest of the slop out there (aside from Scream 2), but compared to the original, it’s a whopping
disappointment.
1:32 - R for adult language, nudity, drug use and drinking
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