Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
In my honest opinion, arguably the most underrated film of all time. It is a sequel to The Blair Witch Project, and is set in live action as opposed to the handycam filming of the first.
Directed by Joe Berlinger, the film is metaphorically about the craze and phenomenon of the Blair Witch Project a year or less after it is released. Five obsessed fans go on a tour in the Maryland town the film is set in, led by a man (Jeff Donovan) who is recovering from a stay at a psychiatric ward. After a long night of partying, the group find their campsite demolished and make base at the tour guide's massive house/factory, in an effort to use their film and piece together what happened that night. Before their final revelation, the psychological paranoia and "group hysteria" begins to set in, along with something else.
Also, the film is intellectual and speaks on many different levels. The way the tour guide says to a tourist, "Video never lies, but film does" sets the goal for the film, and explores the dangers of blurring the line between fiction and reality (as many did with the Blair Witch Project), and the film makes you question what's really happening, what's real and what's not. On top of that, the question is invited if the Blair Witch is actually messing with the protagonists's minds, or if it's simply group hysteria. In the end, the events of the film which are videotaped by the tour guide reveal to be slightly different from what the stars think they saw...or perhaps the events happened, but the tapes have been altered by the Blair Witch. On another deep level, the film's stars, the five fans of the Blair Witch phenomenon seem to represent different types of fanbases, for example a Wicca girl trying to set the record straight for what the Blair Witch hysteria really means, a Goth girl doing it mainly out of it being a fad, a tourist couple just interested in the subject without much inner knowledge of it, and mainly the tour guide, representing the ones trying to make a buck off a fad, further distorting our lines between fiction and reality, which is what the film is mainly about.
Directed by Joe Berlinger, the film is metaphorically about the craze and phenomenon of the Blair Witch Project a year or less after it is released. Five obsessed fans go on a tour in the Maryland town the film is set in, led by a man (Jeff Donovan) who is recovering from a stay at a psychiatric ward. After a long night of partying, the group find their campsite demolished and make base at the tour guide's massive house/factory, in an effort to use their film and piece together what happened that night. Before their final revelation, the psychological paranoia and "group hysteria" begins to set in, along with something else.
Also, the film is intellectual and speaks on many different levels. The way the tour guide says to a tourist, "Video never lies, but film does" sets the goal for the film, and explores the dangers of blurring the line between fiction and reality (as many did with the Blair Witch Project), and the film makes you question what's really happening, what's real and what's not. On top of that, the question is invited if the Blair Witch is actually messing with the protagonists's minds, or if it's simply group hysteria. In the end, the events of the film which are videotaped by the tour guide reveal to be slightly different from what the stars think they saw...or perhaps the events happened, but the tapes have been altered by the Blair Witch. On another deep level, the film's stars, the five fans of the Blair Witch phenomenon seem to represent different types of fanbases, for example a Wicca girl trying to set the record straight for what the Blair Witch hysteria really means, a Goth girl doing it mainly out of it being a fad, a tourist couple just interested in the subject without much inner knowledge of it, and mainly the tour guide, representing the ones trying to make a buck off a fad, further distorting our lines between fiction and reality, which is what the film is mainly about.
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 by TheLiberalWhoIsACatholic January 14, 2009
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