Review of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) by Kj P — 19 Sep 2016

It is inevitable that a film made for $60,000.00 with a return of almost $250,000,000.00 at the worldwide box office would get a sequel, but the least you could do is try to make something somewhat enjoyable. Take 2008's Iron Man for instance. They made that film in hopes of it becoming a success in order to expand on the Marvel universe. Granted, that universe already had a fanbase, but you see where I am going with this. The Blair Pitch Project was made on a shoestring budget with hardly a skeleton crew. I am positive that their hopes were to enter it into a film festival and gain some viewers, which would in turn get their names out to the world. Although the directors of the original film are no longer heard of today, as they were kind of one-hit-wonders, even then it seemed insanely quick for a studio to whip up a sequel. In just over a year, a sequel was produced as a cash grab. Lets talk about horrendous it was, and still remains to this day.

Following a group of teenagers after they have viewed the film The Blair Witch Project, they venture into the woods to study the myth even further. They also bring cameras and bizarre things begin to happen to them. Now, at first you may start to commend the film for being different and flashing back and forth throughout time, but it also gives away the ending of the film, which is awful anyway, but that is aside from the point. While much more happens in this film, it also takes away the creepiness that the first film was able to pull off. With a $15,000,000.00 budget, it was clear that the studio was looking to make the same numbers as the original, but in turn it only ended up earning them under $50,000,000.00. While that return is not necessarily a box office bomb, it was clear that it was a one-time type of film. If they wanted to make a cash grab, they could have at least did the same movie over again with new people, but this film just makes the original feel like The Godfather of horror films.

The original film relied solely on the shaky camera, clever sound design, and the performances in order to send chills down peoples spines. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 cuts to flashbacks of people being stabbed and branding being done, many more times than it needed to. Due to the fact that the core story was more of a mystery than a horror this time around, the filmmakers seemed to need to cut back to shocking moments to make its audience feel uneasy. It was cheap and I hated watching each and every trick that the filmmakers tried to pull on the audience. I would have liked this more as a mystery/thriller, but they were too afraid to take any chances.

Overall, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 tries to do something different with its story in the first act in order to make the audience feel like they are in for something very interesting; However, that is not the case at all. Fooling its audience into thinking it is a horror film and building up tension to a final scene that is laughably executed, this film fails on almost every level. The performances in the first film felt real and believable, but I found myself chuckling at most of the line deliveries throughout this film. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is the epitome of a cash grab sequel that failed to hit every mark that it was striving for. Die hard fans of the original film won't even be able to find any enjoyment out of this train wreck of a sequel. The only thing that is remotely similar would have to be the fact that it takes place in the woods once again. This film is boring, laughably acted, and edited together faster than any horror film I have ever seen. Aside from a few promising moments in the first act, it is complete trash.