So much has been written and said about the first Blair
Witch film that became the sleeper hit of 1999 and revolutionalised the way that studios
market their films. The Blair Witch Project was as much
about hype as it was about movie-making which was a good thing because as a movie itself,
Blair Witch was ordinary to say the least. It was like watching home video's and
having to pay $8 dollars in order to do so. It wasn't scary, heck I've seen scarier
things on my own home videos.
What the first movie did have, however, was a very
spooky premise about a witch that supposedly haunts the woods outside of Burkittsville,
Maryland. The filmmakers, Daniel Myrick and Edurado Sanchez
(who serve only as executive producers on the sequel), took this premise and did what they
could with it considering their meager budget of only US$30,000. They were to be
admired for what they came up with, even it was built upon hype rather than them shooting
an excellent film.
The sequel, Book
of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, continues the myth of the Blair Witch and, while it doesn't
really explore any new ground that the first film did not, it is actually a far superior
film to the first.
The increased budget (US$15 million) certainly helps
because where the first film had to rely on the audience too imagine what was scaring the
living daylights out of the campers/documentary makers, the sequel can actually show it.
Blair Witch 2 does have some scary moments but at times
it seems that the filmmakers couldn't decide on what they wanted the film to be: a full-on
gore fest where the blood runs free or a toned-downed (violence wise) exploration of the
Blair Witch that relies on on its creepy premise (much like the first film) to provide the
scares. What we end up getting is a mixture of the both and, while it works
admirably enough, you get the feeling that it would have been much better had they decided
to go one way or the other.
Visually, the movie is quite impressive. Book of
Shadows marks director Joe Berlinger's first fiction feature film having previously honed
his craft making documentaries of real-life crimes such as Brother's Keeper
and Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.
Berlinger has shot a film that is, for the most part, very similar in appearance to the
visually-impressive House on Haunted Hill.
He intercuts the film with quite graphic sequences of
the slaying of a second tour group (it should be mentioned that the central characters of
the film are a Blair Witch tour group intent on discovering the truth behind the original
movie) and he also uses documentary style footage similar to the first film (watch out for
a clever re-do of the famous close-up shot of Heather talking to the camera from the first
movie, you know which one I mean). It all works quite well, especially when combined
with the excellent soundtrack that complements the film perfectly.
The first half of the film is great stuff but it is let
down by an ending that comes across as a bit of a cop-out. SPOILER: #
We still never get to actually see the witch, in fact the witch is
hardly ever mentioned or even eluded too. Instead, we see that the witch takes
control of the tour group and makes them commit the crimes without them being aware of
what they are doing. On some level, you can appreciate what the filmmakers were
trying to do but you should at least be able too feel the presence of the witch,
after all she is the one that is possessing the group. The film never impresses on
the audience the presence of the witch, which is immensely disappointing.#
Still, it is good to see another chapter of the Blair
Witch myth, even if it doesn't quite reach the level of intrigue that in could have.
Don't let this film's
disappointing U.S.A box office performance fool you into believing that Blair Witch 2
is a turkey of a film; it certainly takes the first film to another, more impressive
level. The Blair Witch myth still has plenty of chills to deliver and let's hope
that the third film, a prequel to the first film that is scheduled for release next year,
can become the mind-blowing, heart-stopping experience that this film threatens to become,
and one that the Blair Witch phenomenon deserves.
- Adam Matthews
