Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 Reviews

A meditation on horror movie conventions and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, this sequel to the low-budget phenomenon proceeds from an intelligent take on the material and works through its conceits cleverly. But the whole is less than the sum of its parts; it never actually coalesces into a movie. It opens with a BLAIR WITCH-fever recap constructed from snippets of real media coverage and interviews with beleagured "real life" Burkittsville, MD, residents. Native son Jeff Patterson (Jeffrey Donovan), who's doing a thriving business in witchy tchotckes, has organized "The Blair Witch-Hunt," a guided tour of the Black Hills. His first group of BLAIR WITCH freaks comprises spacey Wiccan Erica (Erica Leerhsen); Tristen (Tristen Skyler) and Stephen (Stephen Barker Turner), who are writing a book about Blair witch history and hysteria (or hysteria and history, depending on who you ask); and psychic goth-girl Kim (Kim Director), who wants to groove on the spooky vibe. After a drunken, pot-fueled night in the ruins of child-murderer Rustin Parr's house, surrounded by video cameras and marred by sharp words with a group taking the competing "Blair Witch Walk," who go on to camp at nearby Coffin Rock, the Witch-Hunters awake to find their campsite a shambles, the camera equipment gone and their memories of the preceding night oddly incomplete. Having salvaged a handful of tapes, they repair to Jeff's rambling place in hopes of figuring out what occurred while they slept. Director/co-writer Joe Berlinger's manipulation of conflicting stories is canny, but his flash-forwards seriously defuse the tension that should come from wondering who survives and what will be left of them. And while it's an interesting idea to have the characters piecing together their own story from recorded sources, it plays out in a forced and hollow way. Viewers familiar with Berlinger's documentary PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS and its sequel will detect eerie echoes of their story of murder, bigotry and media-fueled frenzy; frankly, in this context those reverberations are slightly distasteful.