Review of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) by Sol H — 07 Mar 2009

Just like Beneath the Planet of the Apes, this film's basic premise is actually bloody good and an ingenius way of stretching a film that logically should have been left alone into a franchise... on paper (the premise continues the whole "this is real" element of the first film. This time, instead of "found footage", the film is a "re-enactment of true events" whereby some people went on a Blair witch hunt after seeing the first film). Unfortunately, just like Beneath the Planet of the Apes, this film also fails to actually pull of it's ideas effectively. Which is a shame because this film was full of good ideas and moments that sort of worked -as well as hidden scary images and words; the sort of thing I love. The sort of thing they did in Ghostwatch which rumour has it inspired the first Blair Witch Project. Sadly, the writing just wasn't all there and so ultimately the film is still pretty crappy. That's added to with an incredibly obvious lack of budget, an incredibly annoying soundtrack and awful editing (trying too many MTV tactics and failing).

So yeah, sadly it's a handful of good ideas lost in a sea of cliched tedium... BUT it's also a hell of a lot better than it's reputation would have you believe and just like Beneath the Planet of the Apes, a hell of a lot better than it had any right to be.

Personal enjoyment: 4/10.

Actual quality as a film: 3/10.