Blair Witch 2 Reviewed

ROVIN' AND RAVIN' WITH MIKE

When Bad Films Happen to Good Witches

Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows

Starring—

Kim Director

Jeffrey Donovan

Erica Leerhsen

Tristine Skyler

Stephen Barker Turner

Directed by Joe Berlinger

Written by Joe Berlinger and Dick Beebe

Rated R for violence, language, sexuality and drug use.

Runtime: 90 minutes

The summer of 1999 was brightened, perhaps darkened, by the release of three horror movies within about three weeks: The Haunting, The Sixth Sense , and The Blair Witch Project. We can look back on The Haunting, with its outrageous excesses, as an example of how not to make a horror film, and The Sixth Sense was so moving (thanks especially to the precocious Haley Joel Osment) that it was so much more than "just" a horror movie. And then, there was The Project, with its eerie rumors about actually being what it was presented as, a documentary about three young film-makers lost when they encountered something out in the Maryland woods.

The truth is almost as amazing. A group of film-school friends pooled their resources, mainly credit cards, and sent three non-actors into the woods to improvise and film themselves playing themselves, even using their own names. The images recorded by the unsteady, handheld camera caused nausea for some people. It created almost a trancelike state. The film was a masterpiece of terror, of suggestion, with accretions of dread and fear with nothing ever made definite. The film was a landmark in the history of the low-budget independent film in this country, and it was also a landmark in the use (almost exploitation) of the Internet. By the time the Witch landed at the suburban megaplexes around the country, she was almost as legendary in fact as she was in the film.

I’ve put it off as long as I can, and I must tell you now that there is a sequel to The Project, and I don’t believe that anyone is going to be happy. This is perhaps the first time we’ve had any sequel about people who saw the original film, two of whom are writing a book about it. So, having seen the film, they all head for the woods to see where it took place… and, oh yes, in about all that is left of the original film, the actors use their own names… real names and really loud music, too.

I'm not spoiling anything (it would be hard to spoil this film) to tell you that they all get out of the woods this time. But Witchie hasn’t really let them get away and sets about working her or his or its magic, which, I’m sure the studio interprets as making as much money as the previous film did.

It’s not going to turn out that way. Consider that your trick this Hallowe'en. The treat is a very different film, Remember the Titans, which continues to demonstrate that a family film can succeed at the box office. Director Jerry Bruckheimer had three films released in about as many months. The other two were Coyote Ugly (set in a bar) and Gone in Sixty Seconds (about stealing cars), and together they did not reach the audience that Titans has. Conclusions, anyone? Limited to one film to review a week, I passed up the opportunity to see and write about both of them.

Sorry I haven’t given you more to reflect upon, but for once, I’m going to blame it on the writers and director of the film. Blair Witch 2, certainly compared to its predecessor (or, perhaps, just namesake) gave me the least of any film I’ve seen in a long time. I'm not even going to give you a link to a critic offering a second opinion. Frankly, most critics share my view, and for once, I'm going to say that I want to protect you from any who don't. So, let me drop into your bag links back to last year’s ravin’ about "Tricks and Treats on the Calendar", and, dare I say it, its sequel?

Keep your feet dry and your heart full of noble thoughts, and when you go in the woods, your witch radar tuned up for whatever is really out there. It will take a much better film than this to tell us.

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