Review of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) by Evan J — 29 Sep 2016

As is so common with sequels of any genre, the follow-up is either rushed, uninspired, or goes so far out of its way to try something new that it becomes a shell of the original product; this is a mix of those three scenarios.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is one of the worst sequels I've seen to any film, no matter the genre, and the fact that the studio pumped it out to capitalize on the instant success of the original explains a lot.

This movie is not found-footage, and instead exists in a world where the original Blair Witch Project has already come out, and these new characters, much like the production company, want to make a quick buck by creating a supposed "tour" in the Black Hills Forest, which then goes awry.

The acting is atrocious in this film and it's clear that first-time, feature film director Joe Berlinger was out of his depth in reigning in these performers, who resort to going as over-the-top as possible with their line deliveries.

The editing is also terrible, with random inserts of exposition that don't connect to anything, as well as intrusive foreshadowing that really only exists to give the film some gratuitous violence.

The film is so lazy, it borrows every cliche from the horror playbook including random ghosts, jump scares, animals acting nuts, and of course, DREAM SEQUENCES! The only good that came from this film was the element of time displacement, which expands the mythology and answers some leftover questions from the first film.

Apart from that, this is a complete waste of time and the only enjoyment I reaped from it was rocking out to the Marilyn Manson song that plays during the opening credits, that's as "scary" as the film gets.