Why It Wasn't Scary: This is the polar opposite of the terrifying original: little feels fresh or unique, the characters are generic and stock, and the filmmakers clearly hope that raking over some of the same locations from the first movie will be enough to satisfy viewers. Nope. If the original movie was suspenseful and terrifying because of what it didn't show, Book of Shadows takes the opposite approach, being too literal rather than allowing our minds to do most of the work. Also, the links to the first film are tenuous at best, there's little plot to speak of, and crucially, not a single character to care about. This is very much the sort of bland, forgettable horror flick the original Blair Witch was rallying against in the first place. How To Improve It: A difficult one to fix without just completely overhauling it. Perhaps retaining the found footage look of the first movie would have been more fruitful (especially in 2000, when the format was still relatively rare), as well as hiring stronger actors and giving them less-irritating characters to inhabit. Keep the ending, though, because it's basically the only truly effective part of the movie.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
