Other Titles • Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) • BW2 • BWP2 • Blair Redux • Blair Witch 2 • Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows • Book of Shadows: Blair Witch Project 2
Synopses for Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
1.
This thoroughly second-rate follow-up to the groundbreaking (and highly profitable) horror flick The Blair Witch Project--produced by Blair Witch directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez--plays with the notions of reality and fantasy that surrounded the hype of the original movie, and attempts to throw in some scares along the way. A year after the release of the original film, a group of five Blair Witch aficionados--four out-of-towners led by one seriously unhinged "tour guide"--venture into the woods outside Burkittsville, Maryland, on a tour of the sites made famous by missing documentarians Heather, Mike, and Josh. After a drunken night of camping out in hopes of communing with the spirit of the Blair Witch, the five wake up to find that their seemingly innocent sleep may have been disturbed somehow. But what exactly happened? If you're expecting suspense of the first degree and a horrifying payoff similar to the one that climaxed the first film, you'll be sorely disappointed. After retreating to an old, run-down broom factory (get it? Broom factory? Blair Witch? Oh well...), the five go over their videotapes of the night in question to get some answers, and basically wind up screaming at each other for the remainder of the film, and shedding some blood along the way. Documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger (of the highly acclaimed Paradise Lost and Brother's Keeper) proves that he should definitely stick to nonfiction filmmaking, and the entire cast is grating and unpleasant, aside from a scene-stealing turn by Kim Director as a goth chick with attitude to burn and a no-nonsense approach to this Blair Witch stuff. Strictly for hard-core Blair Witch fans only, and even then this sequel may prove to disappoint. --Mark Englehart
2.
Drawn to the site of the horrific unsolved events of the original Blair Witch disappearances, a group of young thrill-seekers camp out in the now infamous Black Hills of Maryland.
But when they awake the next day, five hours are missing from their lives and an eerie sense of foreboding grips them. Back in town, struggling to understand what happened, they begin to hear disturbing cries, find cryptic symbols on their bodies and experience startling hallucinations.
Descending ever deeper into paranoia and panic, they now sense that when they left the woods, they didn't leave alone.
3.
Artisan Entertainment's Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 delves deeper into the legend of the infamous Blair Witch and the unspeakable evil wrought in the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland.
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 takes place in present-day Burkittsville, after the events chronicled in The Blair Witch Project. Four young people have signed up for a tour of the Black Hills, the latest Blair Witch-inspired moneymaker dreamed up by Jeff Patterson, a black sheep townie with a murky past. They set up camp near the foundation of the house that belonged to Rustin Parr, the old hermit who was hanged for the murders of seven children, a crime that bore the mark of the Blair Witch. In the morning, the campers awake with no memory of having gone to sleep and five hours stolen from their lives. They return to Jeff's residence, an abandoned 19th Century warehouse at the edge of Burkittsville, to try to piece together what happened.
But the strange occurrences haven't ended with that night, as legend and reality become frighteningly entwined. Bizarre symbols appear on their bodies, children's plaintive crying is heard, phantasmagoric visions confound their eyes, and fleeting apparitions suggest the villainy of the distant past. In the woods, a grisly discovery at Coffin Rock recalls a deadly chapter in the history of the Blair Witch. No longer sure what is real and what is imagined, the five young people start to unravel psychologically, eyeing one another with suspicion and edging ever closer to mass hysteria. Too late, they realize that when they left the woods, they didn't leave alone...
4.
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 returns to Maryland’s ominous Black Hills region to reconstruct a ghastly series of crimes committed in November 1999. In the wake of The Blair Witch Project and the prodigious media coverage devoted to its conflation of documentary style and supernatural legend, fans and curiosity-seekers have descended upon the movie’s real-life setting of Burkittsville, Maryland. Jeff (Jeffrey Donovan), a black-sheep townie only recently released from a mental institution, has turned his powerful obsession with Blair Witch into a business and has lured four young people to Burkittsville for a tour of the Witch’s purported Black Hills’ haunts. Jeff’s clients are also fixated on the film, for reasons they themselves may not fully comprehend. Erica (Erica Leerhsen) is a practicing Wiccan who has immersed herself in Blair Witch mythology, even though she decries the film’s portrayal of her fellow witches. Grad students Tristen (Tristen Skyler) and Stephen (Stephen Barker Turner) are writing a book about the Blair Witch, but disagree completely about the story’s basis in fact, with folklorist Tristen arguing that it must contain some grain of truth while Stephen insists it’s a textbook case of mass hysteria. Completing the group is Kim (Kim Director), a hard-edged, sardonic Goth aficionado possessed of striking psychic abilities.
After spending a strange and disorienting night at one of the most sinister sites in Blair Witch lore, the five campers awake to a scene of destruction and no memory of having gone to sleep. They return to Jeff’s abandoned warehouse loft to try to piece together what happened. But as Jeff leads Erica, Tristen, Stephen and Kim across the rickety drawbridge and unlocks the metal door to a chorus of barking dogs, they are entering a place no safer than the woods they just left. Inside, legend begins to bleed into reality as they become caught in a nightmare as inescapable as their own bedeviled minds. Too late, they realize that when they left the woods, they didn’t leave alone …
5.
Sexier and pacier than its predecessor, but still occupying the same psychological horror genre, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 takes up the Blair Witch story one year on from the time when the three student filmmakers went missing in Maryland's Black Hills. Flashbacks and forward leaps are agitatedly and excitedly cut together, drawing us quickly back into the terror territory of the original movie. Once again, to blur the line between fiction and reality, the actors use their own names for their characters. Jeffrey Donovan is Jeff, a Burkettsville entrepreneur making a fortune from selling Blair Witch memorabilia. He has the bright idea of starting Blair Witch tours, but on his inaugural one the malign spirits of the wood make mischief once more.
Director Joe Berlinger previously worked on a real-life documentary about a Wiccan who was executed for murders he may not have committed. Parallels with this story and the plot of Book of Shadows are clearly visible and the influences cited by Berlinger--Rosemary's Baby and The Shining--shed their demonic shadow throughout. --Lorna Read
On the DVD: the film may have divided critics, but no-one can deny that this special two-disc edition of the Blair Witch sequel is positively packed with added value. Firstly there's the "Secret of Esrever" ("Secret of Reverse") which alludes to ghostly goings on during the filming and then challenges the viewer to find the secret apparitions dotted around the film--although whether it sheds any more light on the plot is open to debate. Director Joe Berlinger's commentary is informative, talking as he does about the personal issues (how he lost some editorial control over the project) and about bringing the myth to life. Book of Shadows is presented in its original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio, with a sharp-looking anamorphic transfer and intentional graininess that adds to the overall effect. The audio is also an important factor as the soundtrack uses disjointed voices, screams and the excellent music of composer Carter Burwell to build tension. There are also two "mockumentaries"--"Shadow of the Blair Witch" is about the events that the sequel is based on and "The Burkittsville 7" looks at the grisly murders of seven children by the hermit Rustin Parr. --Kristen Bowditch
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