book of shadows : blair witch 2
book of shadows: blair witch 2 is a 2000 sequel to the blair witch project .
click blair witch 2: book of shadows soundtrack cd for more info from the moviemusic store .
book of shadows: blair witch 2 is a reactionary act of franchise rebellion | birth. movies. death .
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and it was exactly this that the studio exploited to make the sequel to the blair witch project, the film called the book of shadows: blair witch 2 .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing book of shadows: blair witch 2 near you .
nc: you know, something like… (photoshopped images of the following movie posters are shown with the words blair witch 2 posted near the titles as nc talks in voiceover) the departed: blair witch 2, alien vs. predator: blair witch 2, or toy story 2: blair witch 2 !
' book of shadows: blair witch 2' is the sequel to' the blair witch project'. this time, a group of tourists who go on a blair witch tour end up getting cursed by the witch causing ...
earlier in the day we talked about the disappointing box office returns of blair witch. now the director of book of shadows: blair witch 2, joe berlinger, has chimed in to give his opinion on the state of things. . … continue reading → the post book of shadows: blair witch 2 director joe berlinger talks blair witch box office appeared first on dread central .
the director also said the sequel will completely disregard book of shadows: blair witch 2, the failed 2000 sequel which eduardo sánchez and daniel myrick executive produced .
score: carter burwell. book of shadows: blair witch 2 soundtrack album for sale by original score was released oct 24, 2000 on the milan label .
in this true - crime documentary, we delve into the murder spree that was the inspiration for joe berlinger' s
book of shadows: blair witch 2 .
book of shadows: blair witch 2 won the golden raspberry award for
worst remake or sequel
. it also won the same kind of awards from the stinkers bad movie awards .
the real problem here may be that blair witch 2 was made simply - - and only - - because blair witch made a lot of money .
, we have to stay in that world, which book of shadows didn' t stay in that world. book of shadows created a different world. it' s like if the sequel to
a book of shadows is essentially a witch' s diary - where she puts her spells and power thoughts into. the tapes which provide the answers to what happened would therefore be the proverbial book of shadows for the characters .
blair witch is the third in the franchise but the first since 2000’s book of shadows: blair witch 2, which abandoned the found footage format and performed modestly at the box office, earning $ 26 million. remarkably, although blair witch was shot in may and june of 2015, there has been almost no chatter on the internet about the film’s connection to the blair witch project .
nearly 16 years ago, book of shadows: blair witch 2 debuted to $ 13. 2 million in ticket sales on a $ 15 million budget. adjusted for inflation, that total balloons to around $ 21 million in 2016 dollars — more than double what blair witch made across its first three - day frame .
families can talk about why the blair witch project was so popular, and how book of shadows: blair witch 2 attempts to capitalize on the original movie. is the first film just as scary, or even scarier, even though it isn' t as gory as this sequel ?
the book of shadows mainly builds on the massive hype and hysteria that was spawned by the hugely successful blair witch project, and in it, the blair witch hunters are as much as fans of the film as we in real life are .
: besides the faint connection to blair witch, there' s no book of shadows to be seen. it was tacked on by the studio but does have some wiccan connection
book of shadows: the blair witch 2
couldn' t hope to equal its predecessor, yet it' s a surprisingly intelligent and welcome addition to a genre that' s usually a dumping ground for low budget efforts .
book of shadows was released worldwide from 2000 - 2002. overall, it grossed $ 47, 000, 000 .
book of shadows: blair witch 2 received such a toxic reception that it all but killed the franchise, though i have a bang - up idea for the concluding entry to the blair witch trilogy: it’s about a group of tourists obsessed with the beloved cult smash book of shadows: blair witch 2, who travel to burkittsville to experience the legendary backwards - dancing ghost child, the crazy blair witch - hunt van, and of course, the famous abandoned broom factory. why should the franchise’s crazy hall - of - mirrors aesthetic end due to one flop? maybe book of shadows ’ problem wasn’t that it was too meta or obsessed with its own homemade mythology; maybe it was that it wasn’t meta or self - obsessed enough .
book of shadows: blair witch 2 is an american psychological horror film and the sequel to the blair witch project, directed by joe berlinger and released in 2000. a third film was set to be made, but never surfaced. the directors of the first film have been discussing a third film as well .
this page uses content from wikipedia. the original article was at book of shadows: blair witch 2. the list of authors can be seen in the page history. as with horror film wiki, the text of wikipedia is available under the gnu free documentation license .
book of shadows: blair witch 2 won the golden raspberry award for
worst remake or sequel
. it also won the
worst remake or sequel
and
the remake or sequel nobody was clamoring for
from stinkers bad movie awards .
the filmmakers behind book of shadows: blair witch 2 (who aren' t the original blair witch writer - directors) are documentarians who made a more absorbing nonfiction feature called paradise lost about a murder case in which three high schoolers may have been falsely accused because of their gothic looks and music, not unlike the so - called wiccans here. whether it' s borrowing those discussion - worthy themes from paradise lost, or referencing names and places from the blair witch project, book of shadows finishes in last place .
the 2000 sequel, book of shadows: blair witch 2, was considered a shameless cash grab that had little involvement from sánchez and myrick. but the original co - directors have talked about the possibility of a prequel, which would be set in the late 1700s .
blair witch 2 - book of shadows soundtrack lyrics:' godhead - the reckoning',' system of a down - mind',' p. o. d. - lie down',' marilyn manson - suicide is painless',' elastica - human'
as hard as it may be to find a modern moviegoer who remembers the blair witch project, it' s near impossible to find anyone that' s seen its ill - fated follow - up, book of shadows: blair witch 2. this isn' t that surprising, as the first sequel in the blair witch saga was perceived to have flopped so hard, it pretty much killed any chances of a sequel for at least 16 years. something that still haunts and traumatizes book of shadows' director, joe berlinger, to this very day .
a documentary exploring the life of the blair witch and the three missing student filmmakers .
kim is the apathetic - she represents the outsider mentality of the blair witch hysteria .
given the fact that the internet is talking again about the blair witch films thanks to adam wingard’s new entry on the franchise, i’ve decided to take a shot on my own blair witch project and recut the 2000 sequel book of shadows, which i’ve been a fan of since its original release .
while it would be difficult to match the media mayhem that surrounded the release of the blair witch project (1999), it' s fair to say that book of shadows is one of the more eagerly awaited sequels for some time .
based on the “paranormal 2” trailers it’s clear they’ve already avoided a few of the pitfalls of “blair witch 2, ” most notably maintaining the original’s docsploitation visual style instead of shifting to a more conventionally shot fiction film. but paramount has kept a tight lid on just about everything else. having enjoyed both “the blair witch project” and the first “paranormal activity, ” and having suffered through “blair witch 2, ” here’s five lessons i hope “paranormal 2” writer michael r. perry and director tod williams learned from that unholy mess .
it' s 1999 and fans of a movie called
the blair witch project
are flocking to the annoyed town of burkittsville, maryland. local resident (and former mental patient) jeffrey patterson is cashing in with blair witch merchandise and is taking four tourists on his inaugural' blair witch hunt' armed with multiple video cameras. once at the ruins of rustin parr' s house, however, the group blacks out (after a fair share of partying) to discover ruined equipment, shredded book drafts, and several hours unaccounted for on their video in
book of shadows: blair witch 2 .
finally! a new blair witch movie to wipe the taste of this one out of our mouths. book of shadows: blair witch 2 (2000) director: joe berlinger stars: jeffrey donovan, kim director, erica leerhsen a group of blair witch project fans venture in to the same woods and clearly learned nothing from the first movie. i imagine it' s not easy making a sequel to something that was a legitimate... read more ...
what’s scary once is rarely scary twice, whether a terrifying film’s villain is seen or not. horror historians are still trying to discern what the hell happened with book of shadows: blair witch 2, the 2000 follow - up to the record - breaking found - footage smash the blair witch project. since there’s no actual witch shown in codirectors eduardo sánchez and daniel myrick’s original 1999 film, book of shadows filmmaker joe berlinger — the documentarian behind the paradise lost films — abandoned the supernatural altogether and tried mining psychological hysteria from a convoluted story about blair witch fans who lose their minds. berlinger’s efforts were admirable, but also disastrously ill - advised. the blair witch project earned $ 250 million on a $ 60, 000 budget — book of shadows cost $ 15 million and scraped its way to just $ 47 million .
while director adam wingard' s upcoming blair witch is technically the second sequel in the blair witch franchise, following book of shadows: blair witch 2, the movie doesn' t pay any attention to its predecessor. from an outside perspective, this makes plenty of sense, given that the 2000 film was a received tremendously poorly, but the real explanation for its exclusion is actually a lot simpler than that: the canon for the franchise only includes work made by or in coordination with the creative team responsible for creating the original, and that doesn' t include book of shadows .
therefore, i recommend you all to watch the book of shadows: blair witch 2, keeping in mind that was a fictional film that had no real basis, and decide on whether the film was truly shit as people say, or a flawed masterpiece that could' ve been so much more, or actually better than the original blair witch project in terms of its theme .
and, as with all highly successful pop culture entities, building a franchise to exploit the fan base was inevitable. in 2000, book of shadows: blair witch 2 hit theaters, offering a different approach to deepening the mythology - instead of repeating the found footage format, director joe berlinger presented the sequel as a fictionalized retelling of real events that took place after the release of the blair witch project. book of shadows disappointed audiences who just wanted more of the same, and although the commercial and critical response would indicate otherwise, this sequel is not a failure .
a pale shadow of the diabolically clever piece of video hocus - focus that was the blair witch project .
the worst part about “book of shadows” is that the references to the first “blair witch” are essentially window dressing for what is otherwise a very generic horror movie. after the first half hour in the woods, it’s basically just a bunch of obnoxious people hallucinating and yelling at each other in a dumpy loft. it would not surprise me in the slightest to learn that “book of shadows” began its life as an unrelated screenplay about hallucinating tourists that some producers found and sprinkled a few blair witch references on. because that’s what it feels like. “the blair witch project” was scary because it didn’t look like a scary movie. “blair witch 2” isn’t scary because it looks like every scary movie .
simon brew sep 20, 2016 blair witch: book of shadows is renowned as a very bad sequel. its director has explained just where it went wrong… whilst the new blair witch sequel, from director adam wingard, hardly sent box office tills into overdrive over the weekend, we’ve yet to meet anyone who even begins to argue that it’s not a significant upgrade on the original follow - up, book of shadows: blair witch 2. renowned documentary maker joe berlinger took on the job of the second movie, and he’s been looking back at just what went wrong with the film. revealing that he couldn’t bring himself to see the new blair witch, in spite of his respect for adam wingard, berlinger admitted “i just couldn’t bring myself to go see it and relive the trauma”. what trauma? that of the studio recutting book of shadows. they “inserted scenes
“blair witch” is currently in theaters. “ book of shadows: blair witch 2 ” is available on dvd, if you’re thinking it’s time for a critical reappraisal (or at least a rewatch with some fresh eyes). you can also check out berlinger’s very honest dvd commentary here, check out the chapter in his book all about it (via download here) and even read his original notes from the film (via download here) .
joe berlinger, writer - director of the first blair witch sequel, 2000’s book of shadows, took to twitter on monday morning to vent frustrations over the treatment his movie received, despite performing better at the box office than wingard’s latest effort .
when “paranormal activity” came out last year it was hard not to think about “the blair witch project”: two heavily improvised, found footage horror films shot independently on shoestring budgets that became enormously profitable hits thanks to ingenious internet marketing campaigns. so with “paranormal activity 2” opening this week, it’s hard not to think about “book of shadows: blair witch 2, ” which, like “paranormal activity 2, ” was rushed into production to capitalize on its predecessor’s surprising success and made by a different creative team than the original film .
tristen: the blair witch? i thought you embraced nature, not evil .
as it follows the twisted path traveled by five people fixated on the blair witch project, book of shadows: blair witch 2 journeys into a dark and dangerous place where the line between truth and fiction blurs and perhaps vanishes altogether. individual perception grows increasingly untrustworthy as the film' s protagonists find themselves caught in a vortex of unspeakable evil, the origins of which - human or supernatural - remain chillingly uncertain .
what' s surprising is that the official sequel to the film, the book of shadows: blair witch 2, is actually a flawed masterpiece. despite the overwhelming hate of the horror community and cinephiles alike, what i found in that movie was the vision of a great storyteller that just went horribly wrong in post - production .
while dismissing the legend of the so - called
blair witch ,
a researcher delves into the truth or fiction of a series of killing often attributed to the blair witch in the 1940' s .
the continuity of the blair witch franchise was something i talked about at length with screenwriter simon barrett a few weeks when i had the chance to interview him over the phone. curious about the fact that book of shadows: blair witch 2 was in no way referenced in the new film, i asked the filmmaker what he considered to be part of the larger universe going forward, and he explained in great detail :
sequel the original title: inverted; the original title appears before the the
blair witch 2
part. also an infamous example of the title having no bearing on what actually happens, as no book of any kind is ever plot - important .
this weekend, “ blair witch, ” a sequel to “ the blair witch project ” and an attempt to reboot the franchise, arrived in cinemas and flopped. hard. earning $ 9. 6 million, it was nearly double the budget of the $ 5 million movie, but it was the worst opening in the series history, and it also took a beating from critics and audiences (who tagged it with an abysmal d + cinemascore). and the occasion led to filmmaker joe berlinger, who helmed “ book of shadows: blair witch 2 ” over fifteen years ago to equally disastrous results, to hit twitter with what some could perceive as a # hottake: read more: ‘ blair witch ’ can’t capture the mystique of the original [ review ]. continue reading joe berlinger dispels myth that ‘ book of shadows: blair witch 2 ’ was a failure at the playlist .
book of shadows opens with real footage of tv hosts like conan o’brien and roger ebert talking about the previous film. this story, we find out, takes place in our universe during the immediate aftermath of the original picture’s release. in the world of book of shadows, the blair witch project was a fictional movie, and the characters themselves are fans of it, thus placing them on our level. how cool is that? five protagonists take a tour of the woods where blair witch was shot, just as any cinema geek may want to visit the set of their favorite horror film. this ingenious premise would later be copied in similar sequels like grave encounters 2. each of the characters in book of shadows represents a different reaction to the blair witch project, from those interested in analyzing its legitimacy to wiccans offended by their portrayal on screen to people who just want to capitalize on the whole ordeal (i. e. the studio executives who funded book of shadows). berlinger pokes fun at everyone involved in this madness, including himself for profiting off of it .
berlinger had a vision for the film that would become book of shadows: blair witch 2. he wanted to use the hype and controversy surrounding the original film as a springboard to explore the slippery line between fact and fiction, reality and fantasy, and documentary and fiction film. artisan had ideas of its own, and according to book of shadows’ audio commentary, berlinger and artisan embarked on a brutal, hard - fought war over the film’s soul (if a film this mercenary can be said to have a soul) that everyone lost. book of shadows was such a flop that a planned third film to be released in 2001 was abandoned .
all of this talk about success and failure dances around the fact that both joe berlinger' s book of shadows: blair witch 2 and adam wingard / simon barrett' s blair witch are being unfairly judged. the two films are being compared to eduardo sanchez' s the blair witch project, and its micro - budget / mega grossing success. while neither film scaled the heights of the adventure that inspired them, they' re not outright failures, they' re merely failures by comparison. the financial trajectory of blair witch has the film on its way to being profitable, and book of shadows made some decent money over its theatrical and home video releases. if only someone had thought to make this argument back in 2000, berlinger might not have felt so offended .
for those unfamiliar with the story behind the making of book of shadows: blair witch 2, the film started moving through development shortly after the release of the blair witch project in 1999, as artisan entertainment wanted to immediately capitalize on the success of their hit movie. as a result, haxan films - the production company made up of eduardo sánchez, gregg hale, daniel myrick, robin cowie and michael monell, who made the first feature - was basically cut out of the process .
from the director of book of shadows: blair witch 2! zac efron may be funny and super handsome, but up next he’s going to have to flex a whole new set of acting muscles in director joe berlinger ’s extremely wicked, shockingly evil and vile. in the upcoming film, reports thr, efron will be playing ted bundy, one of the [ … ]
the stars of the blair witch project - heather donahue, joshua leonard, michael c. williams - will likely return for the blair witch project 3, although not as the main characters .
urltoken book of shadows - blair witch 2: jeffrey donovan, stephen barker turner, erica leerhsen, kurt loder, chuck scarborough, bruce d. reed, joe berlinger, sara phillips, lynda millard, deb burgoyne, andrea cox, lanny flaherty, bill carraro, daniel myrick, eduardo sánchez, dick beebe: movies & tv
2. it was steven spielberg’s secretary who discovered richard matheson' s story .
in its opening weekend back in the fall of 2000, berlinger’s film made $ 13. 2 million, opening at number 2 against “meet the parents” (which, in its fourth weekend, was still pulling in huge numbers). as of this writing, “blair witch” currently holds a 36% rotten rating on rotten tomatoes, while “book of shadows” is sitting tight at a 13% rotten rating. (the original film boasts an 86% fresh rating .) “book of shadows” eventually made $ 48 million worldwide (adjusted for inflation, that’s about $ 70 million) did $ 25 million in dvd sales .
jeff is the cynic - only out to make a profit from the blair witch hysteria .
audiences and critics aren’t the only ones feeling underwhelmed by adam wingard’s new blair witch film .
blair witch and its incredible filmmaker commentary are out now on blu - ray and dvd .
in the movie theater. for book of shadows it worked in a certain way but to me my biggest gripe with artisan was you shouldn' t have called it' blair witch 2.' it would' ve been fine to call it blair witch chronicles. it wasn' t really a sequel to our movie. so it would be a direct sequel to our film living in that mythology of burkittsville, being possessed, haunted by something .
historically, entertainment companies with small market caps don' t interest investors. and artisan has the added handicaps of a ho - hum record at the box office and a muddled identity. the disappointing showing of
book of shadows: blair witch 2 ,
which will be lucky to gross more than $ 30 million at the domestic box office, only adds to its problems .
robin: in 1999
the blair witch project
created a movie - going tempest as one of the most profitable films in history. because of the enormous publicity and hype, tourists flocked to the tiny maryland town of burkittsville to learn more about the truth and legend of the blair witch. jeff patterson (jeffrey patterson), a local resident with a questionable past, is taking advantage of the phenomenon with his blair witch store and the newly inaugurated blair witch hunt tour. four people from boston sign up for the tour and they spend the night on the sight of the house of the notorious child murderer, rustin parr. but, something happens during the night and five hours of their lives are missing. they soon realize that they encountered something evil in the woods and it is bent on vengeance in
the book of shadows: blair witch 2
the twilight saga: breaking dawn, pt. 2 (original motion picture score )
but cause the protagonists to blackout and murder innocent people at the blair witch' s influence .
erica is a wiccan who wants to
contact
the blair witch and sympathizes with her .
it’s easy to see why audiences rejected book of shadows: blair witch 2 and the ring two. instead of giving ticket - buyers more of what they loved about the first films, the sequel - makers went too far left. the most successful horror franchises over the last 15 years have done the opposite — remaining firmly in the center, zigzagging ever so slightly tonally, but never wholly rebooting .
these 5 people led by a blair witch hunter called jeff venture out into the black hills forest to find whether the blair witch has any credibility, and whether all of it was
hysteria or history
.
the movies are deadly serious because they make the case that injustice is being done. lives are at stake. i wondered earlier why berlinger would want to make a fiction film on witchcraft and black magic, but suspended judgment: he is one of the best documentarians around. but now that i' ve seen
book of shadows: blair witch 2 ,
i' m disturbed .
these characters who are already not completely mentally stable – jeff is established as having stayed in a psychiatric institution prior to the blair witch project even being released – begin acting out the very violence they have been supplied by film and television during virtually all hours of the day. no, r - rated fictional stories are not inherently irresponsible, nor are they even completely to blame for the events of book of shadows. rather, berlinger argues that the issue is when reality is not clearly differentiated from fantasy. this trend, in combination with the general public’s thirst for blood, is precisely what drove audiences to the theater in 1999. the monster of book of shadows isn’t the blair witch. it’s the blair witch project .
book of shadows: blair witch 2
is a not a very lucid piece of filmmaking (and contains no book of shadows). i suppose it seems clear enough to berlinger, who co - wrote it and helped edit it, but one viewing is not enough to make the material clear, and the material is not intriguing enough, alas, to inspire a second viewing. the characters are not strongly and colorfully established, there is no persuasive story line, and what planet does that hey - rube sheriff come from? he breaks the reality with every appearance .
filmmaker # 1: we’ve got a tour group, the blair witch walk. what’s your excuse ?
if you were planning to watch (or rewatch) book of shadows: blair witch 2 before seeing blair witch, the good news is that now you don' t have to. that being said, simon barrett also made it clear that it' s not his intention to disrespect those who are actual fans of the first follow - up, and as a result the new movie doesn' t really do anything to step on the events that went down in that film. said simon barrett ,
ed sanchez and daniel myrick spoke about a potential sequel to the first film on september 2, 2009. it would act as a direct sequel to the first film, never mentioning the events of book of shadows. in 2011, sanchez remarked that the sequel would depend on loinsgate' s decision .
choose 1 of 2 free * posters with ticket purchase (* shipping & handling not included). buy tickets
in the world of book of shadows: blair witch project 2, the first film has created a sensation, with witch - obsessed tourists flocking to the small town of burkittsville, maryland. four young adults join tour guide jeff (jeffrey donovan) on his witch - hunting excursion into the woods and wind up spending the night in the home of killer rustin parr. the next morning, they can' t remember what happened during the night, but one thing is certain - - evil is afoot, and they' re connected to it .
artisan chief executive amir malin conceded that
the glow of' blair witch' has diminished ,
but said ,
we were a terrific business before' blair witch' and we' re a terrific business today .
this is a short extension of the hospital scene in the movie book of shadows: blair witch 2. it was available as an online - only extra at the time of the home video release of the film. by following clues supplied in the video to decipher
the secret of esrever ,
viewers were led to a web site where they could enter a special code to download this short clip. (back in 2001, this was considered a big deal. )
save up to $ 2. 00 on shipping when you buy additional eligible items from obscurefiid .
book of shadows presents an ouroboros of fact chasing fiction chasing fact, accessorized by blair witch fandom cliches, hilarious in both their simplicity and realism. it' s a silly film, but one that was misunderstood in its initial release - this isn' t a direct sequel, but a direct, rebellious reaction to the fanaticism .
but even if joe berlinger did not quite accomplish what he set out to do, there is such a fascinating idea at the core of book of shadows. to make an interesting sequel, a director should feel that the previous film is lacking in some way. after all, if they don’t believe there was any room for improvement, then why are they bothering with another one? in book of shadows, berlinger took his hatred of the first movie’s dishonesty and made an entire film out of it, commenting on the danger of blurring the line between fiction and reality. had artisan stayed out of the edit bay and let the man do his job, perhaps book of shadows could have been something truly special .
the filmmakers of the blair witch project were blessed by the naïveté and obliviousness of youth and inexperience. they weren’t experienced enough to realize that films are made by artists, but cinematic product like book of shadows tends to be crudely assembled via a committee populated primarily by executives terrified of losing their jobs if a seemingly surefire prospect like a blair witch sequel under - performs due to an excess of audience - alienating “originality. ” artists aspire to break new ground; executives tend to gravitate toward the tried and true .
guess i' m out of space here, okay a tad over my allotted space if i was honest, so wrapping up like a christmas elf. book of shadows stands the test of time and taken out of its franchise is a rock solid psychological horror. forgot to mention that erica leerhsen isn' t averse to getting her kit off which adds to the festivities. if you love your dark genre bleak, grimy, and psychologically intense then you have the right movie. book of shadows uses the mythology from the blair witch project, builds on it, and takes things in a new interesting direction. if needing a road map for this movie then everything is working backwards, the clues are there, but don' t expect the movie to give up its secrets on a single viewing, this one should definitely be on repeat. naturally i' m going to be recommending this witchy outing, settle in for something unsettling folks, let book of shadows: blair witch 2 cast its spell over you .
well, there was no need to read anything into “book of shadows, ” because it conveniently spelled it all out for the viewer. “if people believe something, isn’t it real? perception is reality! ” a characters points out during one of the many arguments about whether “the blair witch project” is real or not. the first “blair witch” was a phenomenon. you know how not to recreate a phenomenon? by deconstructing that phenomenon onscreen during lengthy philosophical arguments .
“this is fucking bullshit! ” that is one of the final lines of book of shadows: blair witch 2. it may not be the actual last line, but it’s certainly the one that sticks with you the most upon the 2000 film’s ending. it’s said, or rather screamed, by stephen (stephen barker turner), a would - be academic working on a book about the blair witch phenomenon with his wife, tristen (tristine skyler). at least that’s what he was doing when he decided to take a “blair witch” tour with amateur obsessive jeff (jeffrey donovan) in a group that included a wiccan witch, erica (erica leerhsen), and a medium of sorts, kim diamond (kim director). by the end of their overnight sojourn, two members of that party are dead and that, honestly, is the only confirmable events that i can say actually happen in the movie’s narrative .
but who or what could be responsible for all this motherfuckery? could it be the blair witch? but that was just a movie! as berlinger says throughout the commentary, book of shadows: blair witch 2 is all about blurring the lines between fiction and reality, but the film quickly grows uninterested in reality. skyler has a miscarriage, and while in the hospital, she sees a creepy, backwards - dancing demon - child that’s been shoe - horned into the proceedings so that she will all but run out of the hospital and head back into the woods with a bunch of freaks .
there are interesting ideas throughout: by replaying certain characters' actions on videotapes that show radically different versions of incidents we saw earlier (in a conventionally shot sequence blair witch fan kim has an argument with a grocery clerk; a security camera later shows the same scene, although this time she stabs the woman to death), the film unsettles some of the assumptions underlying the blair witch project. after all, if the witch can manipulate video and film footage, then what status can the material that made up the original have? the sloppy but amusing opening of book of shadows, with burkittsville residents who live near the witch' s stomping ground jeering at a flood of blair witch fans or trying to hawk them souvenirs, already blurs the film' s status as a fiction - in the narrative universe of book of shadows, is the blair witch project a film by heather donahue, one of that movie' s characters, or by credited directors daniel myrick and eduardo sanchez? tellingly, the local sheriff complains about the unethical use of the word documentary. given this confusion, even what seems like a plain lapse (the tapes contain footage of the tapes being buried) might be another manifestation of the witch' s influence, like the witch marks that sprout like poison ivy on the characters' bodies .
the compromises berlinger had to make to satisfy artisan’s ideas of a commercially viable horror film begin with a clumsy opening text—included over berlinger’s objections—that reads, “the following is a fictionalized reenactment of events that occurred after the release of the blair witch project. it is based on public records, local maryland tv broadcasts, and hundreds of taped interviews. to protect the privacy of certain individuals, some names have been changed. ” it then cuts to a scream and, in rapid succession, kurt loder on mtv news, jay leno on the tonight show, conan o’brien and andy richter on late night with conan o’brien, roger ebert and gene siskel on siskel & ebert, and jules asner on e! news, all commenting on the culture - wide frenzy whipped up by the blair witch project. this makes book of shadows: blair witch 2 the first horror sequel in existence to open with gene siskel and roger ebert reviewing the original, explicitly positing book of shadows as the most meta of horror sequels. rather than deny the mania that accompanied blair witch project ’s release, the film deliberately makes that excitement and ambiguity its primary focus .
and here’s the really sad part: it did make money. though not nearly the hit that the original was, and a reputation not unlike that of the room and troll 2, book of shadows: blair witch 2 was made for about $ 15 million and made $ 26 million all told. even with marketing costs, the film made some change. still, while you’re in the movie, the frustration and confusion is oppressive and consistent, and in a way, that’s about as good as berlinger could have hoped for in all of this. the final scene of the film involves stephen looking at a climactic act on tape and refusing to believe that it’s what happened. one can imagine that berlinger had a similar feeling when he was talking with artisan and looking at their changes to a film that he clearly had personal feelings about. by the end of book of shadows: blair witch 2, the idea of simply yelling “this is fucking bullshit” makes a lot of sense, but one has to imagine a much longer, curse - laden tirade came from the man who is labeled as creating it .
at some point, someone decided this was what people wanted from a “blair witch” sequel: people acting bananas. so instead of three college kids, “book of shadows” follows a former mental patient (“burn notice”‘s jeffrey donovan), a witch who speaks to ghosts (erica leerhsen), and a goth chick with vaguely defined psychic abilities (kim director), plus a couple (tristine skyler and stephen barker turner) too dumb to survive in normal society (who brings the only copy of their manuscript on a camping trip to the haunted woods ?). the keys to “blair witch” were believability and relatability, being able to accept that the events of the film could have happened, and that if placed in a similar situation, we in the audience might have done the same. unless you happen to be a psychic witch, neither is true of “book of shadows. ”
after a strong, suspenseful start, the recent blair witch sequel devolves into silly, supernatural nonsense and unnecessary cgi. but it’s still a lot better than the original sequel to 1999’s the blair witch project, which ditched the found footage format for a goofy tale of a group of annoying people obsessed with, well, the blair witch project. is “that’s so meta” still a thing people say ?
the director is one of the guys behind the amazing paradise lost documentaries. the issue is that he wanted to do a film based around media coverage of crime and violence, aka similarly to what happened with west memphis three case. the problem is that no studio would entertain his script, and instead got the blair witch script, so it ended up being a weird hybrid of his and movies ideas meshed together, satisfying nobody. book of shadows is a great example why you dont always need to do something
fresh
and its best to stick to what works. had this been just blair witch 2: the return of the witch of 3 - 4 new people going into the woods and getting killed, it would have made tons of money .
simon: adam flew in from the last day of shooting death note to the official toronto premiere of blair witch. adam' s been working non - stop .
we also tried to not do anything that directly contradicted it, because i wanted to be respectful to the fan experience, whatever it is. now, i think it isn' t a huge number of people [ who are fans of book of shadows: blair witch 2, but i want to be respectful to that. it' s not like star wars, where everyone is like staring at you and waiting to see if you' re going to include the ewok movie in your continuity .
chuck scarborough: so now, blair witch fans are not only flocking to the multiplex, they’re flooding a little town of burkittsville, maryland .
pcn: with your admiration for the original film, and the reception of book of shadows, obviously you guys were aware of how the cards were stacked against you. did you have conversations early on about how you were potentially creating a no - win situation for yourselves ?
because the third time’s the charm, a new attempt at making a follow - up to “ the blair witch project ” is in the works — this time on tv. as both 2000’s “ book of shadows: blair witch 2 ” and last year’s “ blair witch ” proved to be disappointments, this small - screen venture both does and does not have to contend with high expectations. eduardo sánchez, who co - directed the original film, revealed the plans on the diminishing returns podcast. read more: life after ‘ blair witch ’: why the writer - director team waited years to make a studio movie “ for us, it’s a very natural thing to go and say, ‘hey, let’s do a frickin’ blair witch show,' ” he said, adding that “you can say it’s from the original creators and we can bring in a whole bunch of interesting directors to direct episodes. ” sánchez and daniel myric effectively launched the found - footage genre
nc (voiceover): so cheech and chong’s blair witch tour keeps on moving as they drop by a grocery store .
read up on the mythos sometime, that' s where the real horror is. i have the blair witch dossier .
suspense driven, rather than horror, the story contains very few chilling moments. one, where the spirit of a murdered child from the distant past appears before the hunt crew, actual brought a shiver to my spine, but the rest of this horror sequel isn' t really horrific, just shocking at times. there is some confusion in the way the events are portrayed, which has caused some negative buzz for bw2. it does require your attention and some contemplation afterwards, but, as sequels go, i' ve seen worse, much worse. (did i mention
the exorcist 2
and
the omen 2
?) i give
the book of shadows: blair witch 2
a c +
region: region 2 (this dvd may not be viewable outside europe. read more about dvd formats. )
each character offers a caricature of various blair witch fans, all of whom you likely encountered following the rabid reaction to the original film - perhaps one of them is representative of your own reaction. jeff is a film studio proxy, hawking replicas of cairns and stick men, along with branded merch to relentless fans who happily pay for these overpriced items, desperate to digest every piece of blair witch ephemera. stephen and tristen are scholarly researchers out to simultaneously prove and disprove the legend by dismantling fact from fiction. similarly, book of shadows further blurs the line established by the blair witch project, examining the deficit between what' s real and what' s fake, additionally delivering wry commentary on the perceived influence of horror and violent media on devoted fans .
this film basically takes place in our own world with the blair witch project screened as a film in it, and burkittsville being a real town with all the tourist attraction drawing fans and fanatics to the small town just for the hype of the
blair witch
.
it' s a year after the release of the blair witch project, a film consisting of footage shot by three students who were making a documentary about a witch in the woods near burkittsville, maryland. the town is overrun by sensation - seeking tourists. jeff, a local youth, hosts a blair witch - themed tour of the area. his first customers are graduate students stephen, who is writing a book on the blair witch phenomenon, and tristen, his pregnant girlfriend; wiccan erica, who argues that the film maligned her religion and is seeking communion with martyred witch elly kedward; and kim, a goth girl who claims to have psychic powers .
the title card that opens “book of shadows” reads “the following is a fictionalized re - enactment of events that occurred after the release of ‘the blair witch project.' ” and all the nutters in the film make their way to burkittsville, maryland to take part in a tour of the film’s shooting locations. that dumb couple is looking for evidence for their book, the witch wants to prove that witches are nice people, the mental patient is looking to profit from the “blair witch” craze. they all say things like “newsflash everybody! that was just a movie! ” but eventually they all get possessed, think they’re having sex with each other, imagine they’re being tormented by little children wearing eye shadow, etc .
book of shadows: blair witch 2 took the meta - sequel route, as it focused on a group of young people who saw the blair witch project, only to be inspired to travel to burkittsville, maryland themselves. of course, things don' t turn out all that peachy for our film fans, as they eventually find themselves in a situation so twisted, it leads to a hell of a finale. sadly, the more cerebral and meta nature of joe berlinger' s original vision has been widely documented, as well as it being overridden by the powers that were at artisan entertainment. keep that in mind as you watch the trailer for the finished product, included below.
book of shadows : blair witch 2 ( also known as blair witch 2 : book of shadows ) is a 2000 american psychological horror film directed and co-written by joe berlinger and starring jeffrey donovan , kim director , tristine skyler and erica leerhsen . the film was immediately greenlit upon pitch due to the surprising success of its predecessor , the wildly successful 1999 film the blair witch project . stylistically different from the first film , the story revolves around a group of people fascinated by the mythology surrounding the blair witch project movie and go into the black hills where the film was shot , and documents their subsequent psychological unraveling . originally conceived as a psychological thriller and meditation on mass hysteria , artisan entertainment re-cut berlinger 's original film , altering the soundtrack as well as making editing changes and adding additional footage . the film was released in theaters in north america on october 27 , 2000 to largely negative reviews from critics and audiences ; it was , however , a financial success , grossing $ 47 million worldwide against its $ 15 million budget . 
book of shadows: blair witch 2 (also known as blair witch 2: book of shadows) is a 2000 american psychological horror film directed and co-written by joe berlinger and starring jeffrey donovan, kim director, tristine skyler and erica leerhsen. the film was immediately greenlit upon pitch due to the surprising success of its predecessor, the wildly successful 1999 film the blair witch project. stylistically different from the first film, the story revolves around a group of people fascinated by the mythology surrounding the blair witch project movie and go into the black hills where the film was shot, and documents their subsequent psychological unraveling. originally conceived as a psychological thriller and meditation on mass hysteria, artisan entertainment re-cut berlinger's original film, altering the soundtrack as well as making editing changes and adding additional footage. the film was released in theaters in north america on october 27, 2000 to largely negative reviews from critics and audiences; it was, however, a financial success, grossing $ 47 million worldwide against its $ 15 million budget.
book of shadows: blair witch 2 (also known as blair witch 2: book of shadows) is a 2000 american psychological horror film directed and co-written by joe berlinger and starring jeffrey donovan, kim director, tristine skyler and erica leerhsen. the film was immediately greenlit upon pitch due to the surprising success of its predecessor, the wildly successful 1999 film the blair witch project. stylistically different from the first film, the story revolves around a group of people fascinated by the mythology surrounding the blair witch project movie and go into the black hills where the film was shot, and documents their subsequent psychological unraveling. originally conceived as a psychological thriller and meditation on mass hysteria, artisan entertainment re-cut berlinger's original film, altering the soundtrack as well as making editing changes and adding additional footage. the film was released in theaters in north america on october 27, 2000 to largely negative reviews from critics and audiences; it was, however, a financial success, grossing $ 47 million worldwide against its $ 15 million budget.