Rating: 
Summary: BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL!
Review: As everyone knows sequels rarely, very rarely, surpass the original...well "Book Of Shadows" far surpasses the original "Blair Witch", on every level. Where the original is boring, and down right silly, this sequel is original and creepy.Taking place a year after the opening of "The Blair Witch Project", four fans of the film, a young man with a mysterious psychiatric past, a gothic girl with powers to "see" things, a sexy, beautiful witch, and a couple doing research on "The Blair Witch", decide to take a tour of the cemetery grounds where the movie was filmed, and stay over night. As the night carries on, the four, will pass out, and awaken with strange markings on their bodies, and no memory of what happened. Luckily, the evenings events were videotaped, but there are strange lapses in the time, so the group must decipher the collage of videotape to make sense of what has happened. As they go through the tapes, each one will decend into madness, and murder. "Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch Project 2" is an original, thought-out sequel. Taking the success of the original "Blair Witch Project" movie, and incorporating it into this new film, director Joe Berlinger, has come up with a suspenseful, creepy film. Instead of following in the footsteps of it's predecessor, "Book Of Shadows" goes in an entirely different direction by adding an interesting plot, likable characters, above average acting, a killer soundtrack, and some hollywood glitz, to make a horror film that is entertaining. Many people have trashed this movie, and I can't see why...sure, it's not the best horror film, but it is WAY better than the original "Blair Witch", which in my opinion is THE most overatted horror film ever. Like it, or not "Book Of Shadows" is a very watchable movie, complete with a surprise ending. Nick Gonnella
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best...but not the worst
Review: After viewing the DVD for the first time(I skipped the theathers) I was a bit disappointed. I have not seen any of Joe Berlinger's previous works, but have read and heard alot of good things about it. To me the movie seemed very rushed...the writing, the acting, and so forth. I watched the DVD again, this time listening to his commentary. After that viewing I came away with a better appreciation for the film. It's quite sad to hear Berlinger talk about scenes he "had" to include in the movie because the studio insisted they be put in. I think he had a certain premise he wanted to show in the film and the powers that be from the studio basically killed all of that. In the first twenty minutes of the film he says over and over there are parts that are included that he specifically did not want in the movie. Its pretty sad to hear from the director, one minute into the documentary of the film, that he was basically "forced" to add parts that he didn't agree with. With that in mind, I take away much of the blame away from him for this being a sub-par sequel. Obviously it is near to impossible to expect to be able to compare to the first, but when a directer doesn't have the backing from the studio to make the film he wants, its even harder. (and no, I'm not related to Joe) I highly recommend the DVD format...if not for the movie, definitely for the commentary by Joe Berlinger!
Rating:
Summary: Psychological Horror
Review: Of course it's not the Blair Witch Project. And it wasn't supposed to be. The director wanted to get away from that, which is why he stated at the beginning that it was a re-enactment and made it clear in the film that the original was a fake. I once heard a review saying that this movie did was the original did not. It made it clear that a witch did the killings and not some deranged psycho. That is totally false. Since it's a re-enactment, it shows the movie from the suspects' POVs. Who claimed it was a witch that did the killing despite evidence against them. In the end, it's up to you to decide. Was it Elly or are they liars? The only thing bad I have to say about the film is its lack of mystery behind-the-film and its lack of content on the dvd. So it's a cd-dvd. So what!? That's just ripping off those who actually bought the film soundtrack and score. Other than that, all you have is the secrets of esrever (which is way too easy to solve) and audio commentary. Where are all the juicy tidbits that we love!?
Rating:
Summary: Calm down ...
Review: Naturally, the sequel didn't engage viewers and critics like the first one. It rarely ever happens. More typically, as is the case here, the long knives are out BECAUSE it's a sequel. (Case in point: "Fire Walk With Me," a great movie, was savaged because David Lynch had the audacity to revisit "Twin Peaks.") The main problem with "Book of Shadows" is the acting, which ranges from acceptable to pretty bad. Presumably, the director wanted a no-name cast for that cinema verite feel, but these guys aren't at Heather Donohue's level. But if you can look past that, the script did an excellent job of not botching the mythology (leaving the door open for more movies, if that's still financially possible), and exploring interesting themes about perception, group hysteria, possession, cultish behavior, obsession, etc. Not a lot of great dialogue, but a fascinating premise that is not deserving of the routine dismissal the film got.
Rating: 
Summary: Hollywood works it's "magic"
Review: This is a prime example of Hollywood taking a successful cult film and making a sequel that doesn't have any of the attributes that made the original so good. It's also a prime example of Hollywood throwing a lot of money at a project without earmarking some of it for a decent script. Did the filmmakers get greedy or lazy? It's hard to tell. Probably both. Even if you conveniently forget this is a sequel and try to look at it as a standalone movie, it's still missing a lot. Like a plot. Anyone who favorably reviews this film should not be allowed to review films.
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood works it's "magic" once again
Review: This is a good example of Hollywood taking a successful cult film and making a sequel that doesn't have any of the attributes that made the original so good. It's also a good example of Hollywood throwing a lot of money at a project without earmarking some of it for a decent script. Did the filmmakers get greedy or lazy? It's hard to tell. Probably both. Instead of rehashing what was bad about it, I'll tell you the one good thing about it: it's over.
Rating:
Summary: It was ok
Review: When I was entering the movie theatre for thismovie, the poster on the wall had sort of freaked me out, but I was ready for anything. The music pretty much annoyed me because it had no help whatsoever into helping the movie seem scarier. I don't see what the fuss all of those people who thought this movie was bad are about. I mean, it wasn't THAT bad!! I just think that the movie didn't really have a point and it just got you to work your brains a little harder than usuall tý understand what was happening. If you like unnerving horror movies, this movie is for you.
Rating:
Summary: I should bill Artisan Entertainment for my time...
Review: My wife and I were rather skeptical that any sequel to the Blair Witch Project could pass muster -- Blair Witch was hugely successful partly due to the story and partly due to the truth-or-fiction hype surrounding it. We really didn't expect much when we went to see Book of Shadows, however we were surprised at just how bad this film actually was. Being enthralled by motion pictures, I've seen thousands of films in my time, and this was the first one in which I've ever fallen asleep. The drama was strained and mechanistic, the suspense was anything but suspenseful, and the dialog was akin to a second-rate episode of MTV's The Real World. I've certainly seen true dogs in my time -- End of Days, Hudson Hawk, and the ultra-boring My Dinner with Andre, to name a few -- but I'd rather watch all of these than have to sit through another showing of Book of Shadows. Are there positive things I can say about the viewing experience? Sure -- the seats were comfy and I had a nice nap. In conclusion, Artisan Entertainment should feel ashamed for making such tripe and then hawking it as a sequel to a good film.
Rating:
Summary: Oh the horror. . .
Review: This is definately the worst movie I saw all year, except for Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. I liked the first movie only the first time I saw because it was a fascinating display of group dynamics. It didn't have the same magic when I tried to watch it again. This movie was a bad idea and was cheezy and confusing. Every character in the movie was a stereotype. Cookie cutters of the world unite! I mean we have the token Goth, the token Wiccan, the token believer, the token non believer. . . And these are the good points! Unfortunately this movie is hard to truly review it's the kind of foulness one must view on their own, so when it becomes a Blockbuster favorite and if you're a Gold Member like me, get free on some idle Tuesday and witness it for yourself. This was not scary is was a display in a good idea gone horribly wrong and it has absolutely no redeeming features. I mean gone wrong in the way being a free agent in the NBA was a good idea and now has become, what it is today. . . Even the title is a slap to the Pagan community. Not that I am getting on a high horse about discrimination at all. It's just no one thought at all, they just threw it together to try and cash in on the phenonmenon.
Rating:
Summary: Just plain bad
Review: Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows was not a good movie in any way what so ever. From the hilariously bad acting to the horrible editing and the even worse directing, this movie was just plain and simply bad. Sometimes I don't understand why good movies need sequels. Yes, there have been darn good sequels like The Godfather, Lethal Weapon, and in my opinion the second Jaws. If you are going to make a sequel, don't just make one to make one. Spend a couple years on it, and actually make it a real movie by itself instead of taking everything that worked in the original and using in it. Well, Blair Witch 2 took nothing from the original besides the premise. Usually sequels go back to the same environment as the first, but this movie took a totally different approach. That isn't such a bad idea, but it just didn't work. Also, there are some very disturbing scenes, which I think added to the demise of the movie. They had no establishing shot, which made it very hard to know what the heck was going on. I really can't think of anything positive to say about this movie. Overall, Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows is another typical sequel that fails in every way to entertain you and make you come away with a sense of time well spent. 1 Star
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