The first Blair Witch was both a phenomenon commercially and creatively. Book of Shadows had the same potential, but was ultimately was let down by its high aspirations. The director could not decide if he wanted to make a straight documentary or a straight movie. In my eyes, the combination of the two cost this movie. The choppy editing had a huge factor in this as well. If only the first hour had been as carefully assembled as the last half hour, this would have been a true masterpiece. All in all this is not a super bad movie and is worth a viewing - just not multiple times. Bottom line: Good story, poor execution. My score: 4/10!

Blair Witch 2 is an obvious cash-in on the success of the first movie. The film makes no attempt at hiding it either, as that fact is the motivation of the characters! In this film's universe, "The Blair Witch Project" was an actual recording, not a movie. Intrigued and curious, various tourists come to the area where it was shot to find out more. The film centers around a small circle of tourists visiting the area. Among them is the typical cool young male archetype, the horror-obsessed goth girl (who, surprisingly enough, doesn't show signs of mallgoth-ism) and the boring, ditzy girlfriend. Also among them is the easily-offended, fundamentalist Wiccan girl, surely a result of so-called "witches" who were offended at the original film.

As for the plot, there hardly is one. A circle of clueless tourists stay in a house in the woods and some weird stuff happens. Anything that's supposed to be scary isn't (at least not to me). Just as an example: near the beginning of the film, there's this huge tree in the woods. The tourists come back to it later and it's not there anymore. Oooh, scary! Phantom tree! But if you know the motivation behind this sequel, you know what to expect. It's a ridiculous attempt at crowd pleasing.

Was I the only one left with the feeling that this was another horror story that someone decided to graft elements of the Blair Witch onto to make a quick buck.

The plot is that the town in MA where the original film was filmed has been overrun by tourists. And our title group of five stereotyped characters then proceed to have strange encounters that we all know ended badly by the intermittent splicing of police interrogation scenes.

I give the movie credit for its style and the locations picked out. I just wish it gave us characters we cared about even a little. The Goth Chick and the Wiccan Babe were clichés more than characters, and it showed. Let's throw in the "redneck sheriff" for extra points.