Review of Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

Introduction

What`s the truth behind the Blair Witch phenomena? Why are so many people obsessed with something that was a work of fiction? Is there some truth to the mythology that was encountered in the first film? Amongst our intrepid explorers are goth chick Kim (Kim Director), Wiccan witch Erica (Erica Leerhsen) with a couple of cynical student types all led by their entrepreneurial Blair Witch tour guide Jeffrey (Jeffrey Donovan). They camp out in Black Hills to do some research of their own, and are determined to capture something on videotape.

They`ve set up a few video cameras to record evidence of the spooky-kooky and then they decide it`s time to cut loose and get seriously hammered. When they awake the following morning, their video cameras are all damaged, the tapes are missing and they have no recollection of the previous nights goings on. Once they find the tapes, they discover there`s hours missing and they have no recollection of what happened. They`re not alone and something is affecting them, all of them. They suffer from a collective delusion and one by one descend deeper into paranoia and fear. The previous nights events are unfolded and it`s worse than anything of them thought resulting in multiple deaths.

Video

Presented with a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, this is a departure from the first film since it`s shot on 35mm. The quality is good with solid well balanced colours and contrast and minimal grain. Minor flecks of dirt but generally pleasing to watch. It`s intercut with videocamera footage too.

Audio

You have a choice of either English DD5.1 or DD2.0. The 5.1 soundtrack is very good. It`s punchy, dynamic and sounds very clear. Dialogue is well recorded and there weren`t any problems that I could hear. There`s a good sense of spacing with the sound and you`re pretty wrapped up in it. Nice ambient sound effects too. When you hear the opening grungy Marilyn Manson music it sounds very aggressive, perhaps a taste of things to come. And so the rest of the music is equally as loud.

Features

Nice looking animated menus with a genuine feel of something eery going on.

The audio commentary with director Joe Berlinger started off as interesting, then he became a little boring and repetitive. He mentioned his wanting to make a film to show the blurring of reality and fiction over and over that I just fell asleep. He does say some interesting things about the production, especially how he was forced to make certain changes and bow to the studio, Artisan. He clearly loves a good rant does our Joe, and there`s no shortage of it here.

English subtitles are encoded and that`s pretty much it. Except for the gimmicky `Secrets of Esrever` feature (`Esrever` is `reverse` spelt backwards). At the end of the feature, there`s a three minute segment pointing out the sublimal images in the film such as the lockers arranged in a pentagram, or a spooky painting which appears to change in tone. While you`re watching this segment there are letters which seem to cycle in the bottom right corner of the screen. You`re instructed to hit reverse on your remote and then these letters spell out locations in the film where there are more clues to the subliminal messages. See what I mean about gimmicky? I have to confess that I couldn`t be bothered to do this, I`m tired enough as it is after watching this twice, I need a break!

Unfortunately we didn`t receive the supplemental disc for this release so we can`t write and rate it accordingly. The extras listed are: Cast and crew interviews, Theatrical trailers, `Shadow of The Blair Witch` documentary, `Burkittsville 7` documentary, Biographies and Music from `The Blair Witch Hunt`

Conclusion

Even though this is called Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, this isn`t a true sequel. None of the characters remain from the first film and what we have instead is the mass hysteria caused by the first film, and exploited by the media, and how it`s blurred the lines between reality and fiction. Blair Witch Hysteria, for want of a better term, is what the film covers.

This film has had its problems. It seems that the original team (writer/director) behind Blair Witch had nothing to do with Book Of Shadows and didn`t endorse it in anyway. Director Joe Berlinger is happy to be quite open about this on the commentary as well as talk about some other stuff, and if you listen to it you`ll also learn that this cut of the film is not representative of his vision. He was forced by Artisan to do some things for this film and he`s clearly not happy about the final product. He wanted no gore at all, and I think if this element was taken out it would have been a better film. That`s test audiences for you...

What`s it like as a film on DVD then? Well, believe it or not, I actually enjoyed watching this. It is ambiguous but it`s still enjoyable nonetheless. As to what really happens in the end, I`m still not certain but I watched it again and still enjoyed it. I think Berlinger directs it well and I was certainly intrigued to get to the bottom of the story, but still to no avail. The fact that the ending isn`t resolved as you might expect it to be works in favour of the film. There are blurry lines here and it was fun to watch the cast deal with this. The build up of panic is done well and it`s good to see that you don`t really need gory scenes to feel afraid. Building this sense of losing ones grip on reality is eminently more disturbing. None of the original cast from Blair Witch are here, so these are new faces, and they do quite well.

Despite some of the production problems of the film, I still think Book of Shadows is a decent enough film to watch and I enjoyed seeing it. It didn`t stop me from watching it again either so at any rate I think it`s definitely worth a rental.