What a night...(BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2, 2000)

The Blair Witch Project was a huge sensation when it was released. Having made over $250 million on a budget of just $200,000, some sort of sequel would be inevitable. So did the filmmakers try to dupe audiences again? Send more poor schmucks out in the wilderness and create another huge fake campaign to question whether people really did disappear? No, that would have been a mistake. And that’s the smart thing about this flick; it knows to avoid the repetition of the first, as well as knowing the same ‘missing persons’ gimmick wouldn’t work twice. Instead, the premise of the movie actually mocks and makes light of the whole ‘media sensation.’ We see a group of campers, having been fans of the movie, set out to capture their own moments and explore the very remains of the actual Blair Witch legend. This sequel dons a meta-approach where the first Blair Witch movie happened and due to its popularity, shows the aftermath of folks wanting to check out the campsites for themselves. The movie is part horror, part psychological thriller, and part mystery. While some might not like the ending, or the fact that the movie doesn’t explain everything, I think it works due to the ‘paranoia’ aspect and that some of the unexplained events can be chalked up to the Blair Witch herself (himself? Itself?). After a group of individuals on a ‘Blair Witch tour’ (a couple writing a book, an ex-institution patient, a local Wiccan, and a goth psychic) wake up after spending the night in the woods, they find their equipment trashed and no memory of what happened the night before. Along the way, the film intercuts bloody sequences to give a hint of things to come with the big reveal. They hole up in the tour guide’s house in the woods while they fit the pieces together. The director has gone on record saying the studio interfered at the last second and re-organized some of the scenes involving the sheriff and interrogation. I go back and forth wondering if this was for the better as the original vision would have been a more linear narrative, instead of the ‘jumping around’ we got. Nonetheless, the movie works and is one of my fave underrated sequels that deserves more love. Point: When a packed theatre with a rowdy audience is dead silent during the scene with the Sheriff banging on the outside of the door while supposedly calling from outside. Jeffrey walks up to the door while the banging and yelling get louder from the other side. No annoying taunts at the theatre screen, no comments, no laughter. Just pure silence and suspense. Now that’s a theatre reaction (and feeling) that’s hard to capture nowadays. General comments: 1) Where was this 'Book of Shadows?' 2) We need more Kim Director in our lives...

SLASH SCALE: 4/5