Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
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| Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 | |
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 DVD Cover |
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| Directed by | Joe Berlinger |
| Produced by | Bill Carraro |
| Written by | Dick Beebe, Joe Berlinger |
| Starring | Erica Leerhsen Kim Director Jeffrey Donovan Tristine Skyler Stephen Barker Turner |
| Music by | Carter Burwell |
| Cinematography | Nancy Schreiber |
| Editing by | Sarah Flack |
| Distributed by | Artisan Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | 27 October 2000 |
| Running time | 90 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15,000,000 |
| Preceded by | The Blair Witch Project |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is the sequel to the movie The Blair Witch Project. Released on October 27, 2000, it was directed by Joe Berlinger, who previously (and subsequently) had only directed true documentaries.
Although its theatrical release made a profit, it is largely considered a failure. Its failure has been blamed, in part, on its R rating, which was strictly enforced by theatres due to contemporary political pressures. Others (including director Joe Berlinger) believe that the incoherence of the film caused its failure. Desiring a more "commercial" film, the studio (Artisan) recut the film and re-shot certain scenes to add more "traditional" horror movie elements. Berlinger repeatedly states on the DVD commentary that he does not like the changes that were made and that they ruin the ambiguous tone of the plot. The film was nominated for five Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture.
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[edit] Synopsis
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 real memory of the night before, lack memory of five hours, and videotape shot during the night 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, Tristen was screaming for her life. A prequel, Blair Witch 3: The Prequel, was originally planned, but appears that the project has been dropped due to the sequel's failure.
[edit] Miscellanea
The director has said that he wanted to leave the end interpretation up to the viewer.
The film's theme song is from the album Haunted by singer Poe.
Ben Rock, production designer for The Blair Witch Project, writer of Sci Fi Channel special Curse of the Blair Witch and writer/director of Showtime special The Burkittsville 7 was brought on to write and direct Shadow of the Blair Witch, a "true-crime" style documentary shot in the style of Joe Berlinger's documentary films, to hype the Blair Witch sequel.
[edit] Cast
- Kim Director - Kim Diamond
- Erica Leerhsen - Erica Geerson
- Jeffrey Donovan - Jeffrey Patterson
- Tristine Skyler - Tristen Ryler
- Stephen Barker Turner - Stephen Ryan Parker
- Lanny Flaherty - Sheriff Cravens
[edit] External links
- Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 at the Internet Movie Database
- Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
- The BlairWitch-Hunt - Fiction or reality?
- The Secret of Esrever - Spoilers
- BBC Interview
