Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
The sequel to the most profitable movie ever made (with a 4,683% profit margin according to a recent Premiere magazine article), and also one of the few films not starring Pauly Shore to send viewers into on-the-spot paroxysms of uncontrollable upchucking (thanks to the endless shaky-cam videography) has as much going against it as for it. “No, it’s not going to be more kids vanishing in the woods and then the whole found-footage deal,” says director Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost) when I spoke to him last fall. That’s about all he’d say, though the film, which takes place in the same Burkittesville, Maryland, locale as the original, does focus once again on a passel of teens stirring up the evil forest phantasms. This time out, the project, with the support of Artisan Entertainment, has a relatively massive $10 million budget, professional actors, and a barrage of eerie special effects work that should have fans and the just plain curious alike taking off the pre-All Hallow’s weekend in search of things that go “ick” in the night. Perhaps the only people dead set on getting rid of the whole Blair Witch phenom once and for all are the wearied residents of Burkittesville itself, who have loudly complained that the original film and now its sequel have disrupted the daily tenor of their small Maryland town to an uncontrollable degree. Favorite Halloween costume around town last year? Original directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez on a stick, I’d imagine. (Oct. 27)
This article appears in September 1 • 2000.