"Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2" (2000)

Am I the only one who prefers this film to the original? I rewatched it for the first time in years the other day and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It has its share of "early 2000s" moments, but the whole movie has an extremely creepy, oppressive atmosphere, and the writing is fairly clever. I also LOVE the bitchy goth character, Kim. It gets additional bonus points for having a cute, pre-fame Jeffrey Donovan. I know that Joe Berlinger's original cut was butchered by the studio, so I can only imagine what it looked like before.

I've never seen it. Could you describe how it relates to Blair Witch, OP?

I saw a midnight showing of Blair Witch and I did find it unnerving. Horror movies don't scare me per se but I was tense throughout waiting for the ball to drop, and the mysteries of objects hanging from trees, etc. kept my interest.

But I never really wanted to see it again. Ultimately, the tension was the reason to watch and I guess I rewatch usually for story.

Does the sequel have more of a story or is it more found-footage mystery with no real revelation at the end?

The novel House of Leaves is Blair Witch-like in nature but very sophisticated and much more thought provoking.

R1 no, "Blair Witch 2" is not a found footage movie—it focuses on a group of fans of "The Blair Witch Project" who go to tour locations referenced in the film. Things naturally go awry, and the people involved seem to either lose their minds or be under a supernatural force. It's a psychological horror movie at its core, and Berlinger bases it all around the themes of group hysteria and individual subjectivity of events.

I also love "The Blair Witch Project", but that film is an entirely different type of unnerving experience. A lot of people hated "Blair Witch 2" because I think they expected something more akin to the first one; what they got was something more in the realm of metafiction.

Also, I LOVE House of Leaves—which, perhaps not so coincidentally, was written by the brother of singer-songwriter Poe, whose music is in "Blair Witch 2" in the closing credits.

That first film was made for less than a half million and grossed $250M. It kicked off a whole new era of horror films (as well as "found footage" movies) that relied less on movie stars and more on "realism." Movies like Paranormal Activity followed, and more budget-quality movies like Saw and Insidious arrived. I haven't liked a lot of horror films released since. Only Let the Right One In, Drag Me to Hell, The Conjuring, Get Out come to mind, as well as The Others and The Skeleton Key with their clever endings. But, most of those films follow more traditional storytelling methods.

I never saw either Blair Witch. It didn't appeal to me. I liked the Scream movies more just a few years before.

I didn't mind this movie. I preferred it to the remake (drones aren't scary). But i like some of the found footage movies that spawned from this like the first Paranormal Activity or REC. The problem is they always have to run these types of franchises into the ground.

And now the next thing to ruin is social media e.g Unfriended, Countdown and Slender Man.