Blair Witch 2: The only scary thing is the lame plot

by James Fowler
FOR THE POST

The time has arrived. After months of rumors and speculation, the sequel to The Blair Witch Project is now in theaters nationwide. Once you watch Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 it will be clear why this film deserves a spot alongside such great sequels as Batman and Robin and Weekend at Bernie's 2. Where is that spot you ask? The dumpster of course.

Don't go into this film expecting to see anything resembling the brilliance of The Blair Witch Project. The gritty, documentary feel of the first film has been replaced with flashbacks and bizarre hallucinations. Those mysterious sticks and stones? Replaced by sex, nudity and a lot of unnecessary blood.

The continuation of the highest grossing independent film of all time ($140.5 million) begins with a recap of how moviegoers were sucked into believing the first film. It shows The Blair Witch Project fanatics combing the woods for evidence that the witch exists and how Burkittsville residents made a nice profit by selling worthless debris to gullible tourists. That takes about five minutes, then the movie begins its quick descent to hell.

Instead of focusing on Heather, Mike and Josh from the first film, the sequel quickly acknowledges that the The Blair Witch Project was just a movie and deals with the resulting mania.

Four Blair Witch fans, again using their real names, sign up for a tour conducted by Jeff (Jeffrey Donovan) who recently has been released from an insane asylum. The fans are a modern day Morticia Adams (Kim Director), a Wiccan (Erica Leerhsen) and a couple (Stephen Barker Turner, Tristen Skylar) researching a book on the Blair Witch hysteria.

While roaming in the woods, the group encounters a competing tour of international Blair Witch fans. After scaring the groupies off with a few scary stories, the quintet sets up camp and finishes off the evening with booze and drugs. The group blacks out for five hours, but they leave a video camera running. Upon awakening and learning that the international fans have been murdered, the quintet hurries back to Jeff's weird compound to study the tapes and learn what happened.

The film's concept is an intriguing idea, but it is poorly executed. With the exception of the eerie flashbacks that don't make any sense, the movie lacks genuine suspense. The cast is hardly memorable and the characters lack, among many things, common sense. For example, Tristen is pregnant, yet she joins in on the drinking and drugs before the blackout.

Once again, the police are depicted as incompetent detectives in a small town. The sheriff is ignorant for the most part, and he is convinced that Jeff and his group had something to do with the murder of the Blair Witch fans. As far as lawmen go, this guy barely belongs in the same league as Barney Fife.

At least the film's ending is somewhat satisfying. After the police arrest Jeff's group, Stephen tells the cops that, "This is wrong, this is wrong!"

Stephen's right; it was wrong for Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 to have been made.