MovieChat Forums > Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) Discussion > One of the most underrated horror films

One of the most underrated horror films

posted 12 years ago by darklydreamingrahu
3 replies | jump to latest

This film starts out poorly. I can understand how that turns people off to the entirety, especially since The Blair Witch Project so drastically divided moviegoers....while shocking Hollywood with record profits.

However, Book of Shadows has a turning point. It's represented by the owl in the film. In fact, Book of Shadows has an impressive amount of symbolism chocked into its running time. Once the owl is seen by Kim during the campfire montage, the next scene is a quiet and serene dream sequence with Tristan drowning her baby. From that point on, I found Book of Shadows to be intense, funny, and conceptually brilliant.

Even the humor is conceptual. Book of Shadows constantly pokes fun at its hokey and cheap predecessor, while also acknowledging its impact on the horror genre. Early in the film, when the group is hiking out to the campsite where they "found" the Blair Witch footage, with the psychic goth and the always defensive witch, I was all but ready to start my own personal MST3K commentary. Until I realized that the point of these people are to be caricatures. When the day-after horror hangover begins, the characters awaken.

I could go on with very in-depth analysis of why I consider Book of Shadows to be one of the most underrated horror films of all time, but there's really no point. Just the mention of this film lures in the trolls and pure haters. It's almost like no meaningful discussion of the film's content can be had. Does anybody else feel this film to be so underrated, or this like my one film that I should absolutely hate, but love anyways?

Edit: One of the user reviews summed it up nicely. This was a no-win situation - The people that hated The Blair With Project wouldn't be interested, and the people who loved it, and would end up seeing it and rating it, would despise the second. Critics didn't like it either, but it's a horror movie.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] KennethWasHere 12 years ago

It's almost like no meaningful discussion of the film's content can be had.

This certainly seems to be the case. Part of the problem is its label as a "horror movie" (and in the fact that it's a sequel to a horror movie). And it's the problem that always rears it ugly head when you confine things to genre, and that's a certain shallow dismissiveness. "A traditional horror film follows these rules, and this is a horror film, so it fails as a horror film and therefore fails as a film". This is, as much as I'd hate to say it, especially true of Internet film criticism. Something gets slapped with a "worstest movie ever", or "worstest sequel ever" label enough times and all actual critical conversation is shut down.

What Berlinger made with Book of Shadows is a unique accomplishment that should be judged on its own merits, certainly not as a sequel and not even as a horror film (the best art is the kind that discards the rigid rules of genre and aggressively pursues its own ideas). And what the film is on its own merits is a complex and audacious, if certainly flawed, piece of work that has gone sadly unappreciated.

The bitter thinkers buy their tickets to go find God like a piggy in a fair

[–] ElectricWarlock 12 years ago

Thank you so much for saying that. I think Exorcist II: The Heretic receives such much hatred on a daily basis for the exact same reasons. I think it all boils down to people's expectations. People watch sequels (especially horror sequels) expecting to see the first film all over again, only this time with the events happening to different characters. But when a sequel goes against people's expectations by establishing it's own identity, then there is almost always a tremendous backlash and is called, as you said, the worst sequel ever.

Come, fly the teeth of the wind. Share my wings.