The act of combing through the footage is a further comment on dedicated fandom, the need to sift through minutiae until we find what hasn't yet been found - or until we begin to see things that aren't really there. The plot becomes a Scooby mystery as they examine their own "found footage" to discern what took place in those woods during the hours they lost. There is, of course, an actual narrative, one that's deliriously wacky - the gang gets wild with drugs and booze in the middle of the woods, collectively blacking out and awaking to discover that their equipment and research has been destroyed. Similarly, Book of Shadows further blurs the line established by The Blair Witch Project, examining the deficit between what's real and what's fake, additionally delivering wry commentary on the perceived influence of horror and violent media on devoted fans. Stephen and Tristen are scholarly researchers out to simultaneously prove and disprove the legend by dismantling fact from fiction. Jeff is a film studio proxy, hawking replicas of cairns and stick men, along with branded merch to relentless fans who happily pay for these overpriced items, desperate to digest every piece of Blair Witch ephemera. It's about nature."Įach character offers a caricature of various Blair Witch fans, all of whom you likely encountered following the rabid reaction to the original film - perhaps one of them is representative of your own reaction. And Erica, a self-professed Wiccan who acts like a 13-year-old who just saw The Craft and decided she was a witch, spouting all-too familiar phrases like "Wicca isn't evil. Stephen and Tristen, a white bread couple working on a book about the history of the Blair Witch and the hysteria provoked by the film. Kim, a frequent Hot Topic shopper and stereotypical goth who claims to be psychic and likes to chill in cemeteries. The sequel follows a variety pack of Blair Witch devotees: Jeff, a former psych ward patient and opportunist who's directed his obsessive energies toward the legend of the Blair Witch (though he's only seen the film 17 times, which seems tame). The film itself is almost Godardian in the way it taunts its audience, though its approach is far more joyful and lacks that specific aggressive and cynical tone. It's exceedingly rare for sequels to improve upon their originals - more often than not, additional entries offer diminishing returns.īook of Shadows reacts to that demand by satirizing The Blair Witch Project fan base. That a film can inspire such rabid devotion and desire to know more is proof of its triumph, but often our inclination to extend the life of a property is selfish and unreasonable. As fans, we desperately want the story to continue in a sequel because we love that world so, so much, and at the same time, our high-brow selves would prefer that the filmmakers left well enough alone because these films are great as a singular entity. ![]() There's a duality in our response to immensely successful properties. ![]() Book of Shadows disappointed audiences who just wanted more of the same, and although the commercial and critical response would indicate otherwise, this sequel is not a failure.īerlinger's film is a metatextual reactionary piece - a reaction to the reaction. In 2000, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 hit theaters, offering a different approach to deepening the mythology - instead of repeating the found footage format, director Joe Berlinger presented the sequel as a fictionalized retelling of real events that took place after the release of The Blair Witch Project. Even now, as found footage and POV horror films have remained prolific in the wake of the 1999 film, only Paranormal Activity has managed to replicate that success.Īnd, as with all highly successful pop culture entities, building a franchise to exploit the fan base was inevitable. ![]() As with most major pop culture entries, it was satirized, spoofed, often mimicked but never successfully replicated. Understandably, thanks to its forward-thinking viral campaign, unique (at the time) format, and legitimately scary storytelling, The Blair Witch Project was a massive success. The Blair Witch Project is not only single-handedly responsible for popularizing the found footage horror sub-genre (and later, its sibling, the baffling POV footage sub-genre), but for revitalizing the horror genre in the pre-millennium days of Scream and I Know What You Did wannabes.
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