The Blair Witch Project was a remarkable feat, in that
it proved that it's still possible (if only that once) for someone
to take a very potent idea with some good actors, and make a viable
feature film without tens of millions of dollars worth of production.
It successfully exploited some very basic anxieties: being lost
and isolated, undergoing psychological deterioration and, not
the least, being stalked by something you can't see or defend
yourself against. I decided to give the sequel a try, in spite
of the bad reviews I've encountered, thus far.
When they interviewed Jeffrey Donovan for one of the lead roles in Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, they asked him what he thought of the original. He replied: "I think it fucking sucks." and they still gave him the part. Whatever bad things people will say about this sequel, they can't accuse it of being a carbon copy.
In fact, they take the interesting step of including the release and the success of the first movie in the plot of it's sequel. At the beginning, the "real life" town of Burkittsville, Maryland is overrun with fans of the original Blair Witch Project. Locals are selling stick figures on eBay, along with rocks, baggies of dirt from the haunted woods, and, of course, coffee mugs, t-shirts and the likes. There are also tours to the locations where the events in the first film supposedly took place.
Why anyone who's seen The Blair Witch Project would want to come within a thousand miles of same said locations is beyond me.. but there you have it. One tour group consists of: Jeff (Jeff Donovan), a former mental hospital inmate turned Blair Witch entrepreneur. He's the guide. Yikes. There's Tristan and Stephen (Tristan Skylar and Stephen Barker Turner), a couple researching a book about the hype. She's a believer, he's a cynic. There's Kim (Kim Director), who is keen on Gothic culture, and finally, Erica (Erica Leerhsen), a self-proclaimed "good" witch who wants to make contact with her notorious colleague.
The group camps out at the site of the most recent incident (witch-induced serial child killings in the 1940s). With video cameras, booze and weed, they begin their campfire vigil. At first, their fun is only interrupted by another tour group. When they wake up in the morning, however, they find that they have all blacked out, and during their absence, some very sinister things have transpired. Their fate is different from that of the fictitious filmmakers who perished in the first movie, but suffice to say that, as in the original, our humble protagonists soon have much cause to regret ever having gone into the woods.
I liked this movie. It was a relief to see a horror film that declines all the obvious, overused devices. There was not a single annoying, cheap "BOO!" scare to be had; the film is disturbing on a more profound level. There is much confusion as the plot unfolds, but the confusion belongs there. As the film wrapped up, I could feel the underlying logic much more so than on a mediocre film, where events often seem to turn at the whim of a bad screenwriter. If you know the "history" of the Blair Witch (see below), the convoluted story line will make more sense, and you'll be sufficiently creeped out.
Being as it is a sequel, Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 does suffer from some handicaps. It's easier to watch, with it's vastly improved production values, but this also makes it feel less real. The 3 filmmakers from the first movie looked (and behaved) more like people you and I might actually know. Now, we've got a group of 5 people, all of whom look like they could be in a Hollywood movie. The casting people seem to have opted for more glamorous faces, now that there's millions of production dollars needing to be recouped. (Mind you, I wasn't complaining during the nude shots!)
Book of Shadows may not be the classic innovation that it's predecessor was, but at least it keeps the dread of the Blair Witch intact. (Kudos once again for not showing us the creature, for deliberately leaving some doubt as to whether she even exists...) I was satisfied and entertained by this effort, and I'll likely go out to see what happens in the next installment.
Note: for maximum effect, I highly reccomend reading up on the "history" of the Blair Witch. Click here for a brief summary.