Rating: 
Summary: a modern classic and you know it!
Review: BOY OH BOY, IF THE POWERS THAT BE WOULD HAVE ONLY LEFT "BLAIR WITCH 2" OFF OF THE TITLE, THIS FLICK WOULD STILL BE IN THE THEATERS. IN FACT THEY SHOULD HAVE NAMED IT SOMETHING LIKE "SPOOK-FEST", SOMETHING FUN, BECAUSE THAT WHAT THIS MOVIE IS... FUN. THERE IS NO "BOOK OF SHADOWS" HERE. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT? NO BOOKS, NO BOOKS, NO BOOKS! MY NUTSHELL REVIEW OF THIS UNJUSTLY POORLY REVIEWED CLASSIC: THINK THE BREAKFAST CLUB MEETS SCOOBY DOO MEETS THE TWILIGHT ZONE IN THE WOODS. TWO VERY SEXY WOMEN, ONE PLAIN JANE, ONE DOPEY FRAT BOY, ONE ANNOYING POT HEAD, AND ONE TICKED OFF "EVIL SPIRIT" ALL PARTY DOWN IN THE WOODS. AFTER AN HOUR OF SO OF WHISKEY, POT AND BEER EVERYBODY BLACKS OUT, WHEN THE MORNING COMES AROUND EVERYTHING IS TRASHED. ALL THE CAMERAS, TENTS, BLAH BLAH BLAH. THE TAPES ARE FINE THOUGH AND LOCATED IN THE [CUE SPOOKY MUSIC:] SAME PLACE THE VIDEOS WERE FOUND IN BLAIR WITCH 1. LUCKY FOR THEM THE GOTH GIRL IS PSYCHIC OR THEY WOULD HAVE NEVER FOUND THEM [HANDY LIKE THE PROFESSOR ON GILLIGAN'S ISLE][THERE ALSO A WICCAN IN THE BUNCH TO EXPLAIN WITCHY STUFF]. SO AWAY THEY GO HALF DRUNK AND CONFUSED. THEY HEAD TO THE POT-HEADS CRIB TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE TAPES TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED. I WON'T RUIN IT WITH ANY MORE DETAILS, THE REST OF THE FILM DEALS WITH REALITY V.S. FICTION AND YOU HAVE TO DECIDE WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE BLACK OUT. ACTUALLY THE END TIES IT ALL TOGETHER AND SAVES THE FILM FROM BEING TOTALLY TONGUE IN CHEEK. I AM ONE OF THOSE HYPE-HATERS. I DIDN'T SEE THIS MOVIE UNTIL IT CAME OUT ON DVD. I WANTED TO HATE IT, BUT I CAN'T. IT BORROWS FROM ALL OF MY FAVORITE TYPES OF FILMS AND MAKES FOR ONE HELL OF A GROOVY CHEESEBALL RIDE . AS A SEQUEL TO THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT IT FAILS. AS A VERY FUNNY, SEXY, SILLY WITCH ROMP WITH A THOUGHT PROVOKING ENDING IT IS HARD TO BEAT. THE SCORE ON THE SECOND SIDE OF THE DVD IS VERY NICE AS WELL. I KNOCKED ONE STAR OFF OF THE RATING FOR THE SILLY FLASHES OF STOCK FOOTAGE GORE THAT POPS UP HERE AND THERE IN THE FILM. IT WOULD HAVE FLOWED MUCH BETTER WITHOUT SUCH DESPERATE ATTEMPTS TO "SHOCK".
Rating: 
Summary: Good companion to the original but poor overall....
Review: Book of Shadows is not a great movie and it barely borders on being an ok movie. It does play nicely with the original, which was not all that great to begin with. The characters of this poorly written film go to the woods where the first one took place, only to fall victim to the witch herself. There is actually more story in the special that aired on Sci-Fi (when the first film was released) than either of the two films. I don't know which is to blame for the poor acting, the writing, the director or the actors. The only one who shows any potenial to have a job after this film is Kim Director, who plays the gothic Kim. The performaces actually invoke un-intentional laughter. The story is very faulted. The biggest fault, and once you see the film you'll understand, is all the video tapes where buried under the rocks, but yet they SHOW the tapes being buried. Who was filming all of the characters during their missing time??? The directing was ok, but showed little creativity. If you rent it, have your expectations really low. Hopefully they will try to make the third one a little bit better. But then anything seems to be an improvement over this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Horror Movie
Review: Okay, the best way to enjoy this movie is not to compare it to the Blair Witch Project. The movie itself really has nothing to do with it. It just uses the Blair Witch as a basis for a good horror movie. If you don't expect it to be the same as its predecessor, then you might like it very much. I did. The main things about this movie that amuse me is the way it exposes Gothic/Wiccan wannabe teens. I don't mean the real people who are into the dark, but those who pretend to be powerful and persecuted when they're just being stupid. The Gothic movement was originally about individualism but in the beginning of the movie when all the Goths are flocking around the Burkittsville cemetery, it's funny how they all look and act the same. Notice any contradictions? Then when our Gothic character goes into an old country store all dressed up in her black outfit, black lipstick, white painted face, and collar around her neck, she actually gets really upset when the backwoods hicks treat her badly. Hello? Why wouldn't they? That's like walking into a vegetarian gathering and chomping on a big bloody steak right in front of them. If you walk into another culture and push your image on people who you know they won't understand, you should expect some resentment. Then there's our Wiccan friend who jumps on her soapbox for half the movie talking about what a devoted witch she was. She went to the Blair Witch site to get spiritually intuned with the Witch. Well, anyone who's looked at your typical "Wicca for Dummies" handbook would know that she'd need to keep her spirit clean of alcohol to perform such a task. So why does she get wasted on beer? You tell me *cough* hypocrite! *cough* There's also the pregnant girl who gets drunk as well. Sure she didn't want the baby but her boyfriend did so why would he let her drink like that? And of course our lead who was only into the whole thing for money. So don't take the characters seriously. Enjoy watching the real Witch put these people through hell. I found it thoroughly enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Simply Great!
Review: I wish people would stop analyzing every tiny detail. Movies were not created to imitate reality. If they were we'd have an awful lot of boring movies. I think this movie was great. The ending was a complete surprise. Things may not be as cut and dry as they appear. The plot was quite clear and the movie did indeed have one. If people would stop looking at every small detail like the lighting wasn't perfect and gee it just didn't have the same scare factor as it's predesesor, they'd see that for a sequel this was in fact a really well done movie. You simply have to relax and enjoy the movie for what it is, a movie. I saw nothing wrong with the acting and I think they did a really good job.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful
Review: The major characters in this movie are losers. What kind of people are so obsessed with a movie that they will acutally go to the site where is apparently happened? They must have no lives. When a movie starts off with characters you don't like, you know the rest is downhill from there.
Rating:
Summary: I would have given 1/2 a star, but that was not an option
Review: Blair Witch 2 is the antithesis of everything that made Blair Witch 1 so great.
Rating:
Summary: Brought goosebumps on my arms!!!!!
Review: I liked this movie for what it is...a horror movie.I know the acting is kinda bad,but you don't watch horror movies just for great acting.Its different from the 1st movie but all in all not a bad movie like others would have you to believe.You want to see a bad movie watch Battlefield Earth....HEHEHEHEHE
Rating:
Summary: Below average sequel
Review: I don't really know what I was thinking when I picked this DVD up. I had already seen it in the movies and thought it was just plain watchable. The following month, we had to write a paper in my film class about the worst film we've seen so far that year. I chose Book of Shadows; which is an oxymoron, I guess. Because I did enjoy it somewhat. But after seeing it, I told myself that I would certainly NOT buy it once it was available to own. Well, I bought it. And after watching, I've come to realize that if you didn't like it the first time, you're not exactly going to love it a second time. This movie lacks basically everything which made the first Blair Witch Project so great. The acting in this film was almost laughable ("She's the witch, MAN!"). But I guess I can't blame it entirely on the cast, considering the awful script they had to work with; the actors in the first movie had no script, and they did a fantastic job. Another little comparison I can make between Book of Shadows and the Blair Witch Project is the visuals. I could be wrong, but something's not quite right when the visuals taken from an 8mm camera are more provocative than those taken from a studio camera. The bottom line is that this movie was below average. It wasn't exactly a bad movie; it did have some scenes of horrific brilliance. But if you're a big fan of the original and expect this sequel to live up to the Blair Witch standard, you're in for a major disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Reefer Madness in the Woods
Review: Five twenty-somethings go to the woods to have a party. They smoke some bad grass and drink too much alcohol. They have a bad trip, kill some bystanders and a few of their own. They sober up the next morning and face the stern gaze of authority. Basically, this movie is a long anti-drug message. During the overlong passage between the start of the party and the dry-out, nothing you see actually happens. Why film it at all? (I give this film two stars because The Haunting (with Liam Niesson) is actually much, much worse)
Rating:
Summary: Tepid, pointless sequel to a modern classic.
Review: The original 'Blair Witch Project' was ground-breaking entertainment, mixing reality-television with 50's style horror mentality to create a truly unnerving and memorable experience. Anyone who thought that a sequel... ANY TYPE OF SEQUEL... to the 1999 blockbuster would be good should be checked into some kind of hospital somewhere and treated for chronic stupidity. 'Blair Witch' was the kind of film that could not be reproduced or followed-up. It was based on a concept that dictated against it. Any kind of follow-up would be unnecessary since all the damage was done in the first film. Had it not been sequelized, 'Blair Witch' would have gone down in history as a brilliant shot-in-the-dark. But leave it to Hollywood to ruin things. Here we have 'Book Of Shadows' a movie which not only hurts the good name of the first film but also does not feature a book of shadows. The film concerns a tour group lead into the Black Woods of Maryland in search of the Blair Witch. They encounter another tour group and a rather unconvincing fight ensues. When the morning comes they cannot recall what happened to them the night before. Their campsite is destroyed, camera smashed, paper strewn everywhere. They simply have no idea what happened to them. The rest of the film follows them as they try and piece together what happened to them by watching the footage from their cameras. It's an intriguing concept weighed down by stupid dialog and predictable characters (right down to the one psychic goth chick whose role in the film is simply to progress it when the writer gets stuck ie. 'What do we do?' GOTH CHICK: 'We have to watch the tapes in reverse'. 'How do you know?' GOTH CHICK: 'I just do'.). The performances in the film are all fair but only get real near the end. The last half-hour is strong stuff but by that time we just don't care anymore. We're waiting for something to happen along the way to wake us up. We miss the strategy, the dread, the innovative story-telling of the first film. Director/writer Joe Berlinger should know better. He is responsible for creating one of the best documentaries in recent memory, the brilliant 'Paradise Lost: The Child Murders At Robin Hood Hills' but to no avail (Berlinger finds room however to assert his views about the case explored in 'Paradise Lost' though... one character states 'Back where I come from people think you're a killer because you wear black'... nice plug Joe). This could have been interesting. It says something about violence in the media and explores obsession with urban legends. But the message (and plot) gets lost somewhere in the third reel. The DVD is nice, though, and contains a lot of the movie's soundtrack on one side of it. The only real extra is 'The Secret Of Eserver' which, when you watch it backwards, allows you to see things you could see if you watch the movie forwards anyway (???). Only pick this up if you desperatly NEED every sequel ever made. Other wise just rent it.
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