The Movie Guys: ‘Inevitable’ ‘Blair’ sequel lacks originality

Friday, Oct. 27, 2000 | 10:22 a.m.

The Movie Guys, starring Jeff Howard and Dave Neil, appears Fridays in the Sun. They can also be seen on the 11 a.m. Friday newscast on KVVU Channel 5. Plus, check them out online at lasvegassun.com/sun/sunlife/visual and themovieguys.com.

Grade: Jeff D, Dave C-

Starring: Erica Leerhsen, Jeff Donovan, Tristan Skyler, Stephen Turner and Kim Director.

Screenplay: Dick Beebe and Joe Berlinger.

Director: Joe Berlinger.

Rated: R for adult themes, graphic violence, drug use, brief nudity and profanity.

Running time: 90 minutes.

Playing at: UA Showcase 8, UA Rainbow Promenade 10, Century Orleans, Century Desert 16, Century Cinedome 12 Henderson, Rancho Santa Fe 16, Las Vegas Drive-in, Regal Cinemas Sunset Station, Regal Cinemas Colonnade 14, Regal Cinemas Texas Station 18.

Synopsis: Based on the success of the 1999 thriller "The Blair Witch Project," a resident of Burkittsville, Md., where the film took place, creates the Blair Witch Hunt, an adventure tour of the haunted woods. When the first four customers arrive and pitch a tent for the night, however, strange, terrifying and uncontrollable things start to happen. They try to escape the woods, but something is following them.

Dave: In one word: inevitable. That best describes any excuse Artisan executives could have had for their feeble attempt to capitalize on "The Blair Witch Project," one of the most spectacular horror films to influence the genre since slasher flicks. You can't blame them. They lucked into a gold mine. Hollywood is simply supplying the demand for fright films and the public wastes no time getting in line. And, so, the weekend before Halloween comes "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2," a spooky premise that follows a group of twentysomethings camping in the Black Hills Forest. Looking to document any strange anomalies, they black out at some point during the night and awake to discover their camp has been destroyed and cannot recall what had happened. With a $10 million budget and documentarian-turned-fiction filmmaker Joe Berlinger (1996's "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills"), what we wind up with is an entirely different kind of horror, in every sense of the word.

Jeff: I wish I could have blacked out during the screening of "Book of Shadows" and awakened to remember nothing. This film is simply a dreadful, incoherent, disorganized heap of undeveloped characters and cheap carnival tricks. Borrowing generously from horror films such as "Halloween," "The Dead Zone" and many others, nothing original or scary ever emerges to resemble the first "Blair Witch." Hollywood had to go and stick its corporate nose into one of the most promising film franchises to come along in years.

The original sparked such debate and discussion among moviegoers. We were stopped 10 times a day to discuss the workings of "Blair Witch." You either hated the first film with all of your soul or embraced it as a masterpiece -- no middle ground. Dave and I fortunately embraced it and its crude filmmaking style and unseen horror which sparked many a restless night.

The opening shot in "Book of Shadows" is an elaborate helicopter shot (drenched in metal music) over the Burkittsville woods. An expense I'm sure cost more than the entire first film. The sequel (if I can call it that) has had a glossy makeover with its teams of professionals at the helm. Gone is the guerilla filmmaking and the pseudo-documentary style, and in its place is a Hollywood farce, obviously turned out on a cinematic assembly line. What a disappointment.

Dave: The undeveloped characters that my colleague, Jeffrey, speaks of are comprised of unknown actors. Lead by Jeff (Donovan), an entrepreneur of sorts with a hidden past, he has taken the idea of "The Blair Witch Project" (for those who still believe the film to be truth) and devised a profitable business via the Internet. In addition, he promotes a tour of the cursed woods where the legend unfolded. Which brings us to his customers. Stephen (Turner) and Tristen (Skyler) are the couple researching a book that will either catalog or debunk the phenomenon as pop culture; Kim (Director) is a goth-girl whose telepathic abilities contradict her own skepticism; and Erica (Leerhsen) is a practicing Wiccan hoping to become a kind of protege of the celebrated Blair Witch.

Jeff: These "Real World" rejects fight and squabble over every little item, and give the notion that they have been friends for years when they have known each other for only a day. Novice director Berlinger shows his difficulty in making the leap from documentary to feature films. He chose to use a glitzy and colorful setting, dropping the independent black-and-white look. You're expecting the little graphics to pop up at the corner of the screen, a la MTV, because the film's heavy-metal soundtrack is forced down your throat and it all looks like a music video. At times you feel as though you're watching an infomercial with brand-name video cameras, websites, bottles of Wicked Ale and Kentucky Fried Chicken littering the sets. You can't escape the commercialism.

Dave: Never do the writers Dick Beebe and Berlinger delve into our characters, nor do they have any regard for a narrative structure. Instead, loose dialogue and flash-forward cuts make for a confounded mess. "Book of Shadows" is everything one expects from a sequel: a lame attempt to capitalize off of the first. And, unfortunately, that attempt is even lamer due to the fact it bases itself around its predecessor.

Jeff: The thought of "Blair Witch" executive producers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez as sellouts quickly comes to mind, but I could understand the pressure they must have endured with Artisan calling the creative shots. But to sell out so quickly? Go down swinging, guys! With "Book's" constant flashbacks, lack of any coherent story, no thrills or chills and no suspense of any kind, this is sure to disappoint diehard "Blair Witch" fans. The quaint independent film that curdled my blood is gone forever, and has succumbed to the grasp, entwined between the evil tentacles, of the Hollywood system. Blues master B.B. King said it best: "The thrill is gone."