Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

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Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

Movie poster
Directed by Joe Berlinger
Produced by Bill Carraro
Written by Dick Beebe
Joe Berlinger
Starring Kim Director
Jeffrey Donovan
Erica Leerhsen
Tristine Skyler
Stephen Barker Turner
Music by Carter Burwell
Cinematography Nancy Schreiber
Editing by Sarah Flack
Distributed by Artisan Entertainment
Release date(s) October 27, 2000
Running time 90 min
Language English
Budget $15m
Gross revenue $47,737,094
Preceded by The Blair Witch Project

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is the 2000 sequel to the hit film The Blair Witch Project, directed by Joe Berlinger. Another sequel was planned, but no mention has come of it recently.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot

The story is presented through a series of flashbacks, as some of the young adults are questioned at a police station about their time spent in the woods.

The story begins in Burkittsville, Maryland, where the release of the original Blair Witch Project has attracted a group of young tourists. They want to find the Blair Witch, and hire Jeff, who has made a business of leading tours into the Blair Witch's woods called the BlairWitch-Hunt. They venture into the woods to camp for the night.

They wake up the next morning with no memories of a five-hour period of the previous night, and videotapes shot during the time seems unclear. Over the course of the rest of the movie, several of the tourists are murdered, and the remaining individuals are suspected as the killers. It is never made clear whether the murders are caused by witchcraft, the still-never-seen Blair Witch, or some other cause. The people left alive claim to have no memory of most of the deaths, and recall instances of possession or suicide, but videotapes taken during the events all show the living tourists killed their friends.

The movie ends with the observation that memories can lie, but that video always tells the truth, implying that the movie itself (Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2) has lied to the audience, and only the videotape at the end of the film reveals the "true" story: that the remaining tourists are the murderers. The film shows Tristen, who has been "possessed" by the witch, shouting out demonic things and threatening to kill them all, so the other tourists kill her; however, the video reveals that the tourists were actually the ones possessed and what they heard was an auditory hallucination. In reality, Tristan was screaming for her life. She had been scared that she was going to be killed by the possessed tourists.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

After the massive success of The Blair Witch Project, Artisan was eager to produce a sequel while the film's popularity was still at its peak. However, Haxan Films, who created the original film, was not ready to begin work on a follow-up, preferring to wait until the initial buzz had died down.[2] Artisan decided to proceed without them, hiring Joe Berlinger, who had previously (and subsequently) only done true documentaries, to direct. Blair Witch directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez served as executive producers on the film, but later stated that they had little influence on production and were unsatisfied with the finished film.

Stylistically, Book of Shadows was the direct opposite of its predecessor: though the film occasionally utilizes the point of view camcorder/pseudo-documentary format used in the first movie, Book of Shadows more closely resembles the glossy, big-budget special effects-laden horror films that Blair Witch was a counter to. Berlinger has stated that he originally made the film with more of an ambiguous tone, but Artisan recut the film and re-shot certain scenes to add more "traditional" horror movie elements, thus creating what they saw as a more "commercial" film. Berlinger repeatedly expresses his dislike of the studio's changes throughout the film's DVD commentary.

Though Book of Shadows' marketing campaign made no attempt to present the film as a "true story", a promotional "dossier" for the film, compiled by D.A. Stern, was released, including fabricated police reports and interviews surrounding the events in the film as if they were fact (a similar "dossier", also by Stern, was released as a companion piece to the first film). Additionally, similar to the first movie, each of the main characters retain the first names of their respective actors, though their surnames are changed slightly.

[edit] Referenes in popular culture

[edit] Whose Line is it Anyway?

One of the most well known jokes in Whose Line is it Anyway? is the film's negative responses. Some examples are:

  • Drew saying, "The points don't matter. That's right. The points are like Blair Witch 2."
  • Once in a game of Scenes from a Hat, the scene was, "What the kids of The Blair Witch Project were really running from". Colin ran up to the camera, pretended to cry, and said, "There's gonna be a crappy sequel!"

[edit] Release and reception

Book of Shadows was released throughout the world in 2000-2002. In the United States, it debuted at number 2 with $13,000,000. After 8 weeks, it finished with $26,421,314[3] Overall, internationally the film made $47,737,094.[4]

Although its theatrical release made a profit, critical reaction to Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 was mostly negative. It currently holds a 13% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 101 reviews.[5] Metacritic reported, based on 34 reviews, an average rating of 15 out of 100, indicating "Extreme Dislike or Disgust."[6] Additionally, Book of Shadows was nominated for five Razzie Awards, including "Worst Picture", and won for "Worst Remake or Sequel".

Roger Ebert, who gave the first film four stars (out of four), gave Book of Shadows two stars, calling it "a muddled, sometimes-atmospheric effort that could have come from many filmmakers" and "not a very lucid piece of filmmaking."[7] Shawn Levy of the Portland Oregonian gave a mildly positive review, saying: "There are moments of pleasure, humor, and [...] terror to be had here."[8] Luke Y. Thompson of the Dallas Observer said the film "deserves points for creativity" but is "not entirely successful."[9]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly called the film "a flat [...] thriller."[10] Chris Kaltenbach of the Baltimore Sun said: "Gets credit for avoiding the easy path. Too bad the path it chooses doesn't lead us anywhere we want to be taken."[11] Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News commented that "the characters are boring, the violence generic, the suspense nonexistent."[12] Wesley Morris of the San Francisco Examiner called the film "throwaway megaplex fodder."[13] David Edelstein of Slate summed up his thoughts with, "Lordy, what a stinker."[14]

[edit] "The Secret of Esrever"

Much like the first Blair Witch, Book of Shadows also featured a marketing gimmick, although this one centered around the film's video release, fully exploiting video technology. The DVD and VHS releases came with a featurette detailing "The Secret of Esrever", a number of near-subliminal messages in the form of hidden words and images that were placed throughout the film. The featurette encouraged viewers to watch certain scenes in reverse and/or frame-by-frame in order to decode the "secret", and, through scrambled letters flashed throughout the program, offered five clues to where they could be found: "door", "water", "mirror", "rug" and "grave".

An example of these messages can be seen in a scene early in the film where the main characters are in a graveyard, standing behind a tombstone inscribed with the word "Treacle". The shot briefly cuts away and then cuts back, though the same tombstone now reads "Further". This is seen for approximately one second until it cuts away again, and the tombstone once again reads "Treacle" for the remainder of the scene.

When all of the clues were identified, the hidden words, when put in the correct order, spelled out "seek me no further", plus an extra hidden word, "or". Viewers could then go to the official Blair Witch website and type the words into a special search box: typing "seek me no further" would play an extra scene from the movie, and typing "seek me no further or" would enable them to add their name to a list of people who had also decoded the message. As of 2008, this function is no longer available.

[edit] DVD and Soundtrack releases

[edit] DVD

The DVD of Book of Shadows was released on September 18, 2001 on a double-sided DVD/CD disc. The DVD side included few special features, including the "Secret of Esrever" featurette, audio commentaries by Joe Berlinger and Carter Burwell, production notes and a live video of the band Godhead.

The CD side featured three cuts from the official soundtrack (Godhead's "The Reckoning", Tony Iommi/Dave Grohl's "Goodbye Lament" and Steaknife's "Tommy (Don't Die)"), Carter Burwell's entire instrumental score and a live recording of Godhead's "The Reckoning".

[edit] Soundtrack

Two soundtracks for Book of Shadows were released: the first was released through Priority Records on October 17, 2000. The second, released through Milan Records on October 24, 2000, consisted of Carter Burwell's instrumental score.


[edit] Track listing

  1. "The Reckoning" - Godhead
  2. "Lie Down" - P.O.D.
  3. "Goodbye Lament" - Tony Iommi/Dave Grohl
  4. "Dragula (Hot Rod Herman Remix)" - Rob Zombie
  5. "Mind" - System of a Down
  6. "Stick It Up" - Slaves on Dope
  7. "Suicide is Painless" - Marilyn Manson
  8. "Soul Auctioneer" - Death in Vegas
  9. "PS" - Project 86
  10. "Old Enough" - Nickelback
  11. "Feel Alive" - U.P.O.
  12. "Tommy (Don't Die)" - Steaknife
  13. "Arcarsenal" - At the Drive-In
  14. "Human" - Elastica
  15. "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" - Queens of the Stone Age

[edit] The Shadow Of The Blair Witch

The Shadow Of The Blair Witch was a documentary created for the DVDs special features. It aired on the Sci Fi channel in the U.S and Channel 4 in the U.K. The documentary follows the story of Jeff Patterson, a character in the movie but in the mockumentary, he is portrayed as if he was real. The mockumentary follows the murders that he committed which were in the movie.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "The Blair Witch Project 3: Interview". Webwombat.com.au. http://www.webwombat.com.au/entertainment/movies/blair_int.htm. Retrieved on 2009-07-03. 
  2. ^ Morris, Clint."Interview with Daniel Myrick and Ed Sanchez". Webwombat.com.au. http://www.webwombat.com.au/entertainment/movies/blair_int.htm. Retrieved on 2009-07-03. 
  3. ^ Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) - Weekend Box Office Results
  4. ^ Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
  5. ^ Rotten Tomatoes. "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2". http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/book_of_shadows_blair_witch_2/. 
  6. ^ Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, Metacritic
  7. ^ Review by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
  8. ^ Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 review, Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian, 2000
  9. ^ Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 review, Luke Y. Thompson, Dallas Observer, 2000
  10. ^ Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 review, Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, 2000
  11. ^ Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 review, Chris Kaltenbach, Baltimore Sun, 2000
  12. ^ Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 review, Jack Mathews, New York Daily News, 2000
  13. ^ Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 review, Wesley Morris, San Francisco Examiner, 2000
  14. ^ Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 review, David Edelstein, Slate, 2000

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Shadows:_Blair_Witch_2"
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