Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

"Damn, you're really running 'Bullshit Central', aren't you?"
"You know, if you don't believe in the Blair Witch, then why the hell did you bother to come?"
"I thought the movie was cool."

After a few years, I revisited Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. I didn't see the 1999 phenomenon in the theaters, but the Curse of the Blair Witch (sci-fi channel really did a swell job of promoting Blair Witch...) was quite spellbinding, building the "missing college students" and Blair Witch myth especially well. When I did eventually watch it, I thought it was a worthwhile experience. I won't spend a lot of time on that movie because at some point it will get the ole Scarecrow Treatment on this here blog.

To be honest, tonight's viewing was a mixed bag of frustrating, obnoxious, cool, and creepy. I actually think it is even sexy and has interesting ideas, but the overall product is just a rather schizo mess.

I found the inserted scenes of violence (telling us too often that our group may have been involved in some grisly activities) to be jarring and annoying. We don't need them. Yet they keep reappearing all the way until the end. I think the director mentions that these were the fault of other people who had their hands in the cutting of the movie, disappointed at the lack of horror included in the overall product. I don't know, it just seems like constant reminders of the obvious. I figure there could've been a more subtle, less intrusive way of handling their Coffin Rock massacre than how it is presented here.

What I love--yes, there are things I totally dig about this movie--are the uses of the Parr Ruins, remnants of a house where the fictional footage of Heather from the original movie was found, like the next morning after a night of partying (and the big blackout that weaves the ultimate mystery of the movie; five hours of unaccounted for footage will be found in the same location as the movie's footage, carefully revealing to us the "lost time" when our principles "behaved badly") you see a "snow" of ripped paper, the remains of the work/documents of boyfriend/girlfriend researchers, Tristen (Tristine Skyler, who has some of the eeriest scenes in the movie) and Stephen (Stephen Parker, who has a rather poor performance that often made me cringe), which I thought was a cool image. Fans of The Blair Witch Project agree to take the Blair Witch Hunt, conducted by "tour guide", and native of Burkettesville, Jeffrey (Jeffrey Donovan, later succeeding on USA Network's Burn Notice). He has this awesome pad, an old broomstick warehouse he remodeled into a home with lots of cool technical toys, like cameras, televisions, monitors, and other equipment he sells on ebay turning a cool profit (where he gets these items is up for debate...), also showing his tour group the *epicenter* where all the Blair Witch merchandise is located. All the space and how he's "decorated" this home near where his greatest passion is does produce a nice setting besides the tourist attractions which draw obsessive fans of The Blair Witch Project.

There are a lot of interrogation scenes that interrupt the movie's flow, three of the principles, Kim (Kim Director), Jeffrey, and Stephen often questioned by rather aggravated and angry police, led by the always pissed off, Sheriff Cravens (Lanny Flaherty), who barks and barks and barks. He communicates in hick-speak, mostly ridiculing those involved in anything Blair Witch, representing the general consensus of locals affected by the popularity of the movie's success. Much like the inserted violence, these really felt obtrusive and lent to the film's overall unevenness.

The soundtrack kicks a lot of ass; one scene has Rob Zombie's Dragula blaring away in the background. I loved the "hidden footage" buried within the mundane, "nothing happening" footage that revealed very little. Seeing the footage brought to life through a trick involving a sequence of codes inputted into Jeffrey's computer backwards really is my favorite part of the film; it is where we see the group releasing their inhibitions, sexually liberated, and seemingly not in control of their own faculties, which calls into question whether or not there's an evil at work, or if enough drugs and alcohol could fuel such an abandon of civilized normalcy. Especially spellbinding to me is Tristen's face and demeanor, a vision of wicked that is spooky, such as when she approaches the camera, as if indicating to our group that they were under her power. Also well done, is how the group responds to the lost hours and their behavior not remembered.

Paradise Lost, director Joe Berlinger's renowned documentary series on three kids put in prison despite evidence quite the contrary in Arkansas, makes its way into BW2 in that we see the camera over the woods of Maryland (I have always LOVED this effect, even if it has been overused the past ten years--yes, Twilight I'm talking about you...) and characters such as Goth Kim and Wiccan Erica wish for others not to judge them for their outfits/wardrobe and alternate lifestyle/beliefs.

This film goes out of its way to produce a sense of disorientation and madness, placing us into what the characters might be going through. Also fascinating is how can one dispute what is recorded on video for all to see. Interesting is that we see through their eyes and what seems like the truth, then the ending and interrogations tell us otherwise. I remember the audience I attended the screening with, when the movie came out, appearing, as I was, rather dissatisfied and irritated because there are moments that chill the bones, a visual style that is really arresting and impressive, and the documentary of how the Blair Witch movie has affected pop culture and the little town in Maryland is a real treat.

Then we see Jeffrey in the hospital and it kind of goes to shit, but the initial scenes prior to the black out aren't too bad, the mystery itself is rather elusive yet obvious (how it can be both says something in itself), but all the shouting and angst, the accusations and ill will, really got old to me, real fast. Horror has done this for ages. Characters all come together, party and joke about a subject they don't particularly take that seriously, then perhaps something sinister rattles their chains and eventually the bunch are at each others throats. You add visions of ghosts, voices and sounds that come and go, ominous and dangerous events that plague each and every character at one point or another, all happening within the environment of the mythical Blair Witch, you are certain to have these characters falling apart.

But, lemme ask you...how much of characters yelling at each other, cursing at each other, constantly bickering, can you stand? If Rob Zombie's Halloween had featured what happens in the first scene with young Michael's family, I wouldn't have been able to withstand it. And in this movie there's a lot of anger and confusion, disbelief and distrust, discord and unease...you have quite a toxic mixture here and it's no surprise how their lives wind up in interrogation rooms facing the music while a select few end up dead. I think the use of documented footage and the way the film fucks with your head are definite positives of the movie, but to me it's an interesting failure that doesn't quite succeed due to negatives levied against it in the way it was put together. I applaud them for not following directly Blair Witch Project, though.

 I love how, for the most part, the "woods of the witch" is considered a place of potential doom, even as the credits roll to Poe and Godhead, this place, regardless of whether or not Blair Witch exists, is one you might want to stay away from.


"Fear is the forerunner of failure."
"If people believe something enough, isn't it real? Perception is reality."
"They're not coming back."
"We brought something back with us."
"Something happened to us in the woods...something evil."