Book of Shadows Blair Witch 2
USA 2000
Reviewed by Kim Newman
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
It's a year after the release of The Blair Witch Project, a film consisting of footage shot by three students who were making a documentary about a witch in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland. The town is overrun by sensation-seeking tourists. Jeff, a local youth, hosts a Blair Witch-themed tour of the area. His first customers are graduate students Stephen, who is writing a book on the Blair Witch phenomenon, and Tristen, his pregnant girlfriend; Wiccan Erica, who argues that the film maligned her religion and is seeking communion with martyred witch Elly Kedward; and Kim, a goth girl who claims to have psychic powers.
The group venture to the ruined house where the original Blair Witch footage was found and run into a rival tour, whom they misdirect to another witch-related site Coffin Rock. While camping overnight, the group black out for several hours and wake to find Stephen's manuscript in tatters and Jeff's camera equipment smashed. Tristen has a miscarriage. The group retreat to a nearby disused factory to examine the tapes shot during their blackout. Erica disappears and is discovered stabbed to death. The local sheriff calls to tell them the rival group has been found murdered at Coffin Rock. Later, ghost children cause Kim to crash a van.
The tapes apparently reveal that the group, possessed by the spirit of Elly Kedward or her tormentors, destroyed the equipment. Tristen, transformed into the Blair witch, taunts Stephen into killing her. The survivors are taken into custody and the tapes prove them collectively guilty of murdering the rival group and individually of separate killings - Kim of a grocery-store clerk, Jeff of Erica, Stephen of Tristen.
Review
Although no one involved in the making of Book of Shadows is a household name, there's a lot of classy talent behind the follow-up to a film which derived much of its potency from its apparent emergence out of nowhere. Director-writer Joe Berlinger comes from the documentary tradition The Blair Witch Project so cunningly imitated, having won plaudits for Brother's Keeper and Paradise Lost The Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills. To build on the improvised dialogue, thrown-together artefacts and minimal soundtrack of the first film, the sequel calls in co-writer Dick Beebe (who wrote the remake of House on Haunted Hill), art director Vince Peranio (who does wonders with the witch's new lair, an abandoned broom factory), composer Carter Burwell (a Coen brothers regular) and musician Marilyn Manson (who assembles a selection of goth-rock tracks). The film may not have a blockbuster budget, but it's clearly well-funded in an independent sort of way, with the money saved from hiring an unfamiliar cast used to haul in behind-the-camera expertise.
The Blair Witch Project could only ever have been a one-off, but in the year that's followed its release there's been a flurry of spoofs (The Bogus Witch Project), some disreputable footnotes (The Erotic Witch Project), blatant rip-offs (The St. Francisville Experiment) and the first of what one dreads will be a slew of shaky camcorder killer-in-the-woods quickies (Camp Blood). Artisan, the US distributor who hit big with Blair Witch, and Haxan, the production company, put the sequel project out to tender and went with one of several suggested continuations (the film follows a small group of Blair Witch fans on a tour of sites connected with the original movie). Probably wisely, Berlinger breaks from the faux-documentary framework of the first film; although we see a lot of video footage apparently shot by the characters (or even by the unseen witch), most of the movie sticks to the formal rules of mainstream film-making. Though there are no on-screen monsters, there are some gruesome special effects in flashes or close-ups and the dialogue is solidly competent (lacking the improvisary feel of the original).
There are interesting ideas throughout: by replaying certain characters' actions on videotapes that show radically different versions of incidents we saw earlier (in a conventionally shot sequence Blair Witch fan Kim has an argument with a grocery clerk; a security camera later shows the same scene, although this time she stabs the woman to death), the film unsettles some of the assumptions underlying The Blair Witch Project. After all, if the witch can manipulate video and film footage, then what status can the material that made up the original have? The sloppy but amusing opening of Book of Shadows, with Burkittsville residents who live near the witch's stomping ground jeering at a flood of Blair Witch fans or trying to hawk them souvenirs, already blurs the film's status as a fiction - in the narrative universe of Book of Shadows, is The Blair Witch Project a film by Heather Donahue, one of that movie's characters, or by credited directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez? Tellingly, the local sheriff complains about the unethical use of the word documentary. Given this confusion, even what seems like a plain lapse (the tapes contain footage of the tapes being buried) might be another manifestation of the witch's influence, like the witch marks that sprout like poison ivy on the characters' bodies.
Like Berlinger's Paradise Lost, Book of Shadows is about the search for scapegoats. Each of the characters is set up to take the blame for the murders: Kim, the goth girl, claims that in her home town she is treated like a mad killer because she wears black clothes and make-up; Erica, a real witch, insists on arguing with the media's misrepresentation of her beliefs and shares the pain of Elly Kedward, the witch from the original film, during her protracted execution; Jeff is a released mental patient and net-nerd; and Stephen is consumed by his research on a book entitled Blair Witch: Hysteria or History? As the film comes to a close, after the bodies have inevitably piled up, a news commentator claims "sadly, as so often in this country, violent art has inspired real-life violence". The moment comes too late, after too much ordinary or uninspired business, but again the Blair Witch franchise is asking its audience to think again about its definitions of "violent art" and "real life".
Credits
- Director
- Joe Berlinger
- Producer
- Bill Carraro
- Screenplay
- Dick Beebe
- Joe Berlinger
- Director of Photography
- Nancy Schreiber
- Editor
- Sarah Flack
- Production Designer
- Vince Peranio
- Music/Muic Recordist
- Carter Burwell
- ©Artisan Film Investors Trust
- Production Companies
- Artisan Entertainment presents a Joe Berlinger film
- Haxan Films
- Executive Producers
- Daniel Myrick
- Eduardo Sanchez
- Associate Producer
- Kevin Foxe
- Production Co-ordinators
- Alison Sherman
- New York Crew:
- Ellen Gannon
- Unit Production Manager
- Bill Carraro
- Location Manager
- Kathleen Ash
- Post-production
- Supervisor:
- JoAnn M. Laub
- Associate:
- Shawn Nuzzo
- Co-ordinator:
- Jacquey Rosati
- 2nd Unit Director
- Bill Carraro
- Assistant Directors
- H.H. Cooper
- Dale Pierce Nielsen
- Joe Incaprera
- 2nd Unit:
- Robert Rooy
- New York Crew:
- Glen Trotiner
- Dean Garvin
- Script Supervisors
- Lisa Katcher
- New York Crew:
- Linda Hafiel
- Casting
- Bernard Telsey
- Will Cantler
- David Vaccari
- Baltimore:
- Pat Moran
- Baltimore Associate:
- Jonah Wortman
- New York Associates:
- Helen Marshall
- Lori Saposnick
- Los Angeles:
- Joe Adams
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Craig Haagensen
- Director of Photography
- New York Crew:
- Robert Bukowski
- Camera Operators/
Steadicam - P. Scott Sakamoto
- Ross Judd
- New York Crew:
- Bruce McCallum
- Technocrane Operator
- Stuart Allen
- Visual Effects
- Balsmeyer & Everett, Inc
- Special Effects
- Co-ordinators
- Steve Kirshoff
- Will Caban
- Puppeteers
- Jake McKinnon
- Mark Tavares
- James Hirahara
- Scott Patton
- Additional Editors
- Janice Hampton
- Alan Oxman
- Art Director
- Rob Simons
- Set Decorator
- Susan Kessel
- Storyboard Artist
- Helen Williams Ward
- Costume Designer
- Melissa Toth
- Costume Supervisor
- Catherine Fletcher Incaprera
- Make-up
- Key Artist:
- Gina W. Bateman
- Artists:
- Cheryl 'Pickles' Kinion
- Joseph A. Campayno
- Special Make-up Effects
- John Caglione Jr
- Animatronic Owl
- KNB EFX Group Inc
- Hair
- Key Stylist:
- Janice Kinigopoulos
- Additional Stylist:
- Charmaine Henninger
- Main Title
- Balsmeyer & Everett, Inc
- Opticals/End Credits
- Title House Digital
- Optical Co-ordinator
- Jose Avitia
- Music Performed by
- Carter Burwell
- gman
- SPLaTTeRCeLL
- Music Supervisor
- Ed Gerrard
- Music Editor
- Todd Kasow
- Music Scoring Mixer
- Michael Farrow
- Music Consultant
- Deirdre O'Hara
- Soundtrack
- "Disposable Teens" - Marilyn Manson; "Streamlined" - Sunshine; "All or Nothing" - Julie Reeves; "Feel Alive" - U.P.O.; "Mind" - System of a Down; "Goodbye Lament" - Tony Iommi featuring Dave Grohl; "Human" - Elastica; "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" - Queens of the Stone Age; "Old Enough" - Nickleback; "I'm a Doggy" - Marvin Pontiac; "Lie Down" - P.O.D.; "Dragula" - Rob Zombie; "The Reckoning" - godhead; "Ps" - Project 86; "Soul Auctioneer", "Dirge" - Death in Vegas; "The Lord Is My Sheperd" - Diamanda Galas; "Forest Ranger" - Plexi; "Haunted" - Poe; "arcarsenal" - At The Drive-In
- Sound Mixer
- Jay Meagher
- Re-recording Mixers
- Tom Fleischman
- Peter Waggoner
- Re-recordist
- Christian Castellano
- Audio Post Co-ordinator
- Malaika Langa
- Supervising Sound Editors
- Paul P. Soucek
- Warren Shaw
- Dialogue Editors
- Dan Korintus
- Jack Rubenstein
- Marc Laub
- Sound Effects Editors
- Tony Martinez
- Branka Mrkic
- Jeffrey Stern
- Loop Group
- Speakeasy
- Actor/Leader:
- Sondra James
- Actors:
- Danielle Acarino
- Samantha Bloomfield
- Andrea Bowen
- Cameron Bowen
- Grahm Bowen
- Jessica Bowen
- Stephanie Byer
- Richard Feiner
- Nick Giangiulio
- Jessica Kavanagh
- Karen Tse Lee
- Madeline Lee
- Pamela Lewis
- Alissa Magrill
- Spike McClure
- Sean Oliver
- Jennifer Perito
- Peter Pamela Rose
- Craig Sechler
- Zak Todd
- ADR
- Engineers:
- Paul Zydel
- David Boulton
- Bobby Johanson
- Editors:
- Kenton Jakub
- Lisa Levine
- Foley
- Supervisor:
- William Sweeney
- Artist:
- Brian Vancho
- Engineers:
- Ryan Collison
- Joe Doner
- Editors:
- Steven Visscher
- John Werner
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- George Aguilar
- New York Crew:
- Peter Buccossi
- 2nd Unit Helicopter Pilot
- Al Cerullo
- Cast
- Kim Director
- Kim
- Jeffrey Donovan
- Jeff
- Erica Leerhsen
- Erica
- Tristen Skyler
- Tristen
- Stephen Barker Turner
- Stephen
- Kurt Loder
- Kurt Loder, MTV newscaster
- Chuck Scarborough
- Chuck Scarborough, newscaster
- Bruce Reed
- Bruce, Burkittsville resident 1
- Joe Berlinger
- Joe, Burkittsville
tourist 1 - Sara Phillips
- Lauren, Burkittsville tourist 2
- Lynda Millard
- Lynda, Burkittsville resident 2
- Deb Burgoyne
- Deb, Burkittsville resident 3
- Andrea Cox
- Andrea, Burkittsville resident 4
- Lanny Flaherty
- Ronald Cravens, Burkittsville sheriff
- Pete Burris
- MBI man 1
- Briton Green
- Erik Jensen
- stoners
- Peggy K. Chang
- Tony Tsang
- Anja Baron
- foreigners
- Kevin Murray
- doctor
- Keira Naughton
- nurse
- Lauren Hulsey
- Eileen Treacle
- Ed Sala
- MBI man 2
- Tyler Zeisloft
- Richard Kirkwood
- Justin Fair
- teenagers
- Raynor Scheine
- Rustin Parr
- Brilane Bowman
- ham lady
- Kennen Sisco
- Peggy
- Robert M. Kelly
- MBI man 3
- Dina Napoli
- WBAL reporter
- Landra Booker
- Fox 45 reporter
- Jacqui Allen
- reporter
- Sloane Brown
- WJZ 13 reporter
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Momentum Pictures
- 8,123 feet
- 90 minutes 16 seconds
- Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
- Colour by
- DeLuxe
- End credits' title
- Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows