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Blair Witch 2 - Book Of Shadows - Special Edition 2 Disc Set [2000]

Director: Joe Berlinger
Actors: Jeffrey Donovan, Kim Director, Erica Leerhsen, Kurt Loder
Studio: Momentum Pictures
Category: DVD

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Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

23 reviews
Sales Rank: 19890

Format: Anamorphic, Box Set, Pal, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), German (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 89
Discs: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6

EAN: 5060021171160
ASIN: B00005QC3M

Theatrical Release Date: October 27, 2000
Release Date: October 22, 2001
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•	Poltergeist III [1988]

Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk Review
Sexier and pacier than its predecessor, but still occupying the same psychological horror genre, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 takes up the Blair Witch story one year on from the time when the three student filmmakers went missing in Maryland's Black Hills. Flashbacks and forward leaps are agitatedly and excitedly cut together, drawing us quickly back into the terror territory of the original movie. Once again, to blur the line between fiction and reality, the actors use their own names for their characters. Jeffrey Donovan is Jeff, a Burkettsville entrepreneur making a fortune from selling Blair Witch memorabilia. He has the bright idea of starting Blair Witch tours, but on his inaugural one the malign spirits of the wood make mischief once more.

Director Joe Berlinger previously worked on a real-life documentary about a Wiccan who was executed for murders he may not have committed. Parallels with this story and the plot of Book of Shadows are clearly visible and the influences cited by Berlinger--Rosemary's Baby and The Shining--shed their demonic shadow throughout. --Lorna Read

On the DVD: the film may have divided critics, but no-one can deny that this special two-disc edition of the Blair Witch sequel is positively packed with added value. Firstly there's the "Secret of Esrever" ("Secret of Reverse") which alludes to ghostly goings on during the filming and then challenges the viewer to find the secret apparitions dotted around the film--although whether it sheds any more light on the plot is open to debate. Director Joe Berlinger's commentary is informative, talking as he does about the personal issues (how he lost some editorial control over the project) and about bringing the myth to life. Book of Shadows is presented in its original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio, with a sharp-looking anamorphic transfer and intentional graininess that adds to the overall effect. The audio is also an important factor as the soundtrack uses disjointed voices, screams and the excellent music of composer Carter Burwell to build tension. There are also two "mockumentaries"--"Shadow of the Blair Witch" is about the events that the sequel is based on and "The Burkittsville 7" looks at the grisly murders of seven children by the hermit Rustin Parr. --Kristen Bowditch

Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 April 18, 2008
I love this movie as much as I loved the first one. I love wished they would make a third one to make a triloged

3 out of 5 stars

Why bother? January 7, 2008
I didn't hate this film, but i didn't like it much either. It had a good start, fast paced and hinted that it could be decent. The trouble is that for almost all the rest of the film it lost itself in the vast expanse that is "cheesy horror". It tries to pull on all the audiences strings, throwing in cuts of knifings, shots of one bloke going crazy etc..

I must say that i did like the ending. Perhaps because it was so unlike the BWP. A slow, anti climax that did make me wake up a bit. My only problem was that throughout the film you knew who was going to survive as they were in the interrogation rooms.

I would like to think that this film didn't try and fob us off that it was the "blair witch" controlling these peoples minds. The only reason i liked the end was that I had it in my mind that they went mad themselves, on hysteria of the witch, mind expanding drugs and overactive imaginations. Showing that cameras don't always tell the story that you think you've seen.

If this didn't have the BWP in it's name then it may have done better, but this was definitely a venture for the purposes of money and no other.

1 out of 5 stars

A TERRIBLE SEQUEL August 8, 2007
In all the print that has been devoted to the original `Blair Witch Project,' most of the discussion has been centered around the remarkable advertising strategy that managed to parley a quirky, low budget independent film into a multimillion-dollar box office success story. Of far greater interest actually is the arc the film traveled in terms of its critical and audience reception. Actually, this phenomenon can be easily charted by scrolling through the reviews of the film found on either imdb.com or amazon.com. If you look first at the earliest evaluations of the film - when it was still an unknown entity riding the film festival circuit - you will note the almost universally rapturous response the movie received from viewers caught off guard by the originality of its concept and the uniqueness of its execution. However, if you continue to scroll through the reviews with the passage of time, you will notice a rather extraordinary development that occurs. At about the time the film officially opens to immense media scrutiny and unprecedented box office success, the reviews suddenly undergo an amazing change in tone. Due to the buildup of expectations resulting from the above elements, viewers begin to tear the film apart, mercilessly declaring it to be cheapjack, annoying, hopelessly overrated and totally lacking in terror or suspense. Rarely have I ever seen such a violent backlash against any film (though just try to find someone who will admit to liking `Titanic' nowadays - one begins to wonder just who were all those people who collectively managed to fork over all that cash to the tune of $600,000,000 in the United States and Canada alone). In many ways, though `The Blair Witch Project' may have made a ton of money (it is easily the most profitable film ever made), it may ultimately have been a pyrrhic victory for its makers since an audience that feels it has been `ripped off' once is not one who will be favorably inclined towards your next project.

Perhaps this helps to explain the dismal box office performance of the sequel, awkwardly entitled `Book of Shadows: Blair Witch Project 2.' As one who actually liked the original film (and, yes, I saw it long after the initial media hype had died down), I can't say that I expected much from this newest addition to the franchise. The first film was such a unique work stylistically that, even less than most films, it definitely did not cry out for replication. Actually, this new film starts off rather well, choosing to acknowledge the reality of not only the original project but also the media ballyhoo and frenzy that attended it. The film cleverly lampoons the cottage industry that sprang up around the first film, catering to tourists who descended in droves on the once-peaceful town of Burkittsville, Maryland, where the original fictional `documentary' was set. Taking over the reins from the first film's creators, writer Dick Beebe and writer/director Joe Berlinger create a scenario in which a group of fans, obsessed with the original film, embark on a `Blair Witch' tour that, naturally, turns out to be more than they bargained for. By eschewing fancy special effects of any kind and hewing closely to the `reality' conferred by its documentary style approach, the original film managed to convey a real sense of mounting terror as the people involved became more and more terrified and confused by what was happening to them. The makers of the sequel attempt to create essentially the same impact here but with far less effectiveness. Part of the problem is that the demands made on a big budget studio production are obviously worlds apart from those made on a small independent film in which experimentation and imagination are often allowed - and even, at times, encouraged - to flourish. As a result, the makers of the new film violate the very less-is-more credo that made the original film work in the first place. Thus, as these new characters begin to spiral down into confusion, terror and madness, we are offered a plethora of quick cut glimpses of demons, ghosts, flashbacks etc. that are more distracting than terrifying. We could believe what was happening to the characters in the original film because the single-camera technique made it all seem so plausible and real. This film just feels like the typical stock horror film, filled with fancy techniques but little of the stuff that true nightmares are made of.

More often than not, the viewer feels more like laughing at the silliness of the proceedings than gasping. Eventually, even the dialogue seems to be providing an almost subconscious running commentary on the film itself as the characters yell out at various points such pearls of wisdom as `This is too weird' and `This makes no sense.'

The story does a nice job at the end showing how what is captured on film or tape may not necessarily correlate with the facts of history. And, I guess, we are also encouraged to read the film in two ways - as both a genuine horror story in which the Blair Witch is somehow exercising her supernatural powers or as a study of mass psychosis playing havoc with a group of emotionally off-kilter people. Yet, in the long run, `Book of Shadows' just doesn't seem worth the effort. Any way you slice it, a horror film that doesn't horrify has failed to live up to its calling. Stick with the original model this time around.

4 out of 5 stars

This is strange, it has almost nothing to do with the legend November 30, 2004
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

The blair witch two, is very strang! With a haunting score by carter burwell, the blair witch two i think is just about a group of sex and drug addicted, teens who hillusinate, and the drugs turn them crazy! Still a weird film worth seeing.

3 out of 5 stars

A good premise and then this one goes right down the tubes July 31, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Actually, the initial link between "Book of Shadows" and "The Blair Witch Project" is pretty good, especially when you think about the problems Hollywood would have coming up with a sequel to the most successful Independent film of all time (although it is about to get passed by "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which is just so ironic on so many levels). After all, you cannot simply find another bunch of film left behind from another bunch of young documentarians who disappear while wandering around lost in the woods. So the idea of having the second movie follow around a small group of people who thought the first movie was real is pretty inspired. I am sure we all know someone who swallowed "The Blair Witch Project" promotional routine hook, line and sinker (I will never forget the look on my oldest daughter's face when I told her the movie was a "fake"; after all, she saw the documentary on television...), so this is a pretty good idea. However, one good idea does not a good movie make.

My expectations for the second Blair Witch film as soon as I heard once was planned was simply that we were going to actually SEE something this time around. "The Blair Witch Project" is one of the great shaggy dog stories of all time. You keep waiting for something big to happen and it really never does. A ghostly white figure in the distance would have been something to freak everybody out, but the two big moments of that first film come down to untying a dirty bundle (and saying to yourself "ewww...what the hell are those things?" because you are not sure) and a guy standing in a corner (which is set up by the only post production bit of filming in the movie). So, I figured that like the difference between "Halloween" and "Halloween II," we would be seeing a lot more in "Book of Shadows." While this is certainly true on one level, in terms of half naked bodies at least, this sequel ends up resembling "Halloween III," the infamous horror film sequel that had pretty much nothing to do with the original. Think about it: take away the opening of this film where the Blair Witch tour begins and the connections between the two films becomes extremely tenuously, especially once these poor young things end up holed up in a building rather than being lost in the woods.

Yes, "Book of Shadows" certainly has a more explicit punch line than "The Blair Witch Project," but once again you end up sitting there going "Wha-at?" This is not only becomes the film has been messing with your mind (seeing is not to be confused with believing), but also because whatever evil is behind the bad things that happen in this film is clearly not the same evil that was behind the first one. You have to admit that there is a qualitative difference between hanging stick figures from trees in the deep woods or leaving a bunch of cut up corpses on Coffin Rock and the mondo mind-bending that happens in this film. However, I do have to admit that there was one other good idea it this film, which was that this group does indeed find some film of their jaunt through the woods: but it is of themselves doing weird, wild, wacky things the night before that none of them remember. Unfortunately, this is not a set up for something great, but rather a clue as to what is "really" going on. After this effort it should be impossible for them to come up with a "Blair Witch 3" off of this one, which is no big loss. The original has its nice little niche in horror film history and that will just have to do