YMMV / Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Invoked by the director. Were the protagonists possessed by the spirit of the Blair Witch? Perhaps their delusions were brought on by the woods themselves? Did the Witch alter the tapes, or their memories, in order to frame them? Maybe, since this is meant to be a dramatisation, the kids were just obsessed with the movie. As for Tristen's miscarriage, was it the drugs, or the Blair Witch?
• Complete Monster: In this Alternate Continuity, this version of Elly Kedward, aka the Blair Witch, is depicted as being less mysterious in favor of being more upfront and personal. Elly is the spirit that haunts the woods of Burkittsville and is responsible for centuries of death and disappearances, especially of children. When Erica theorizes that Elly was an innocent victim of persecution and makes contact with Elly, the witch is revealed to be a malicious being who starts off tormenting the tour group with visions of her child victims, and is implied to caused Tristen to have a miscarriage. Later it's revealed the witch has been possessing not just Tristen and Erica, but the rest of their group as well, with an addition of gaslighting; having them slaughter a group of tourists in a ritualistic orgy; having Kim kill a woman she had an argument with; and seemingly having Jeff kill Erica. When the group confronts a seemingly possessed Tristen, who goads them into hanging her, a tape later reveals that the witch had them under a delusion while killing a terrified Tristen, ruining the lives of her friends.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Upon playing the tapes in reverse, it reveals that the protagonists themselves were possessed or went mad and proceeded to kill five people. This is preceded by a wild orgy scene that looks a hell of a lot of fun.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: One good thing that is said about the movie is the character Kim, with fans saying she makes the movie worth watching.
• Ham and Cheese: Jeffrey Donovan is probably the hammiest cast member, Chewing the Scenery quite a bit.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Joe Berlinger's original plan for the film (at least, before Executive Meddling kicked in) was to create a story about people who, in their obsession with a made-up urban legend about a supernatural killer, go on a killing spree. This horrifying scenario played out for real on May 31, 2014, when a pair of adolescent girls in Waukesha, Wisconsin lured a friend into the woods and stabbed her repeatedly due to their obsession with The Slender Man Mythos.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Jeffrey Donovan spends half the film in trouble with the law, which seems very prescient of his role in Burn Notice.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some hardcore Marilyn Manson fans say the film is worth watching solely for his soundtrack.
• Narm:
  • "Yes, Erica, they're all goddamn my tapes!"
    • "Excuse me, I'm not done YELLING AT RANDOM!!"
    • "Somebody named McGuffin wrote his name on these, but yes, they're my tapes!"
  • The majority of Stephen Barker Turner's performance is quite big and overblown in a lot of parts (his infamous "I swear to Christ!" sticks out). He was previously a stage actor, and this was his first film, explaining this somewhat.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • Steven discovers that the tape shows him and the others savagely killing an innocent Tristen - in stark contrast to what he thought had happened. As put by someone else "video never lies, but film does."
  • Kim discovering that she had murdered Peggy from the grocery store.
• Sequelitis: While the first film is divisive, this sequel was trashed by critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the first movie a 85% Fresh rating and this movie a 13% Rotten rating, while their IMDb scores are, respectively, 6.4 and 4.0.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Upon hearing the original vision for the movie, it's widely agreed that it had a lot of potential. It was originally intended to start out as a satire of the Blair Witch hysteria, only to unravel into a massive Mind Screw - over whether or not the Blair Witch was real and messing with the protagonists, or they were all having a shared delusion brought on by the media. The studio wanted a more traditional horror movie - resulting in a lot of extra violence and gore that had very little to do with the story.
  • The Shout Outs to classic horror movies - Erica spinning around the tree to The Evil Dead (1981), Kim eating the owl to Night of the Living Dead (1968), the barking dogs to The Omen (1976) and playing the tapes backwards to The Exorcist. The intent was to show how the protagonists are so obsessed with media that they've brought delusions from horror films into their reality - which is a pretty neat idea. The studio's insistence on more gore and violence gets rid of the context however.
• Tough Act to Follow: Numerous fans of the first movie were upset that there was a sequel in the first place, as the hype was so strong, it was doubtful that any sequel would measure up to their standards. Haxan Films in fact wanted to wait until the hype had died down before making the sequel, but Artisan overruled them and it was Christmas Rushed.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: The scenes of Jeff in a mental hospital add nothing to the film, and were put there at the request of the studio to make Jeff into a Red Herring.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The film perfectly captures the hype surrounding The Blair Witch Project's 1999 release - and it's dated to that time by the fashions on Jeff in particular (his Pop Punk wardrobe and soul patch goatee scream the Y2K era). Jeff shoots everything on video tape, and his cameras are all late 90s/early 2000s models. Steven and Tristen carry their manuscript with them, and there's mention of them using a computer just to back up notes - when even a few years later, the unfinished thing would be on a laptop. The twentysomethings communicate through email, with a noticeable lack of cell phones (except on the sheriff).
• Values Resonance:
  • The intended message was lost under Executive Meddling, but director Joe Berlinger intended it as a film about viewers' relationship with horror movies and the line between reality and fiction. Following the Slender Man incident...
  • The portrayal of Erica is well-researched when it comes to Wiccans, drawing a distinction between Wicca and Satanism, and emphasizing she worships nature rather than the Devil. She also discusses how witches were persecuted and scapegoated, which still happens in the modern day, since her own religious family disowned her.
• The Woobie: Tristen loses her baby while in the woods, and must deal with either possession from the Blair Witch or a shared delusion. She's ultimately killed by the others, and it's unknown if she was ever really possessed.

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