Book Of Shadows - Blair Witch 2 Review

Dir: Joe Berlinger

Starring: Kim Director, Jeffrey Donovan, Erica Leerhsen, Tristen Skyler, Stephen Barker Turner

Run Time: 90 mins

No one ever said it was going to be easy making a sequel to one of the single most successful independent film in history. The Blair Witch Project was a genuine movie phenomenon and was dubbed by many one of the scariest movies of all time. Horror sequels, as we know, are pale reflections of the original movie and are generally made by a different creative team simply to cash in on the success of the first picture and more often than not detract from it’s worth, even if they follow the ground rules laid down in Scream 2.

Bearing all this in mind, director Joe Berlinger turned down the project three times before eventually giving in and then only when he’d come up with an original and post modern spin on the horror movie sequel. Starting with what you know best is always a good idea, so as Berlinger is principally a documentary maker the film starts with a documentary about the Blair Witch phenomenon and its impact upon the real life town of Burkitsville where the movie was set.

Fact and fiction then begin to blur as four tourists, all with personal interests in the Blair Witch, take a tour of hot spots from the Blair Witch mythology conducted by local entrepreneurial rogue Jeff. What they end up under going however is the aftermath of a prime lost weekend from hell. Waking up the next morning they find that not only has all their equipment been trashed but a rival tour party camping nearby have all been ritualistically slaughtered and our heroes are the main suspects. The movie then lurches into an increasingly halucinogenic horror fest, in which the five leads face up to the realisation of their darkest fears and no–one is certain whether they did commit the attrocities they are accused of or if they are in the sway of some primordial evil that they encountered in the woods.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is not as innovative or creatively resourceful as its predecessor and it has suffered acordingly at the hands of the critics. But to its credit it does make some interesting comments on the first movie and all the hype surrounding it and at times it is genuinely scary. Worth a watch as long as all you‘re expecting is a good old common or garden horror flick.