Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

This movie exists for one reason and one reason only: Greed. Quality and integrity don't enter into the equation. Co-writer/director Joe Berlinger at least started with a novel idea: A group of obsessed "Blair Witch Project" fans (goth chick, Wiccan, researcher, girlfriend, nutcase) take a tour of the woods where the first film took place and they run afoul of something supernatural. But then this lame sequel dives headlong into flashy, pathetically familiar and frequently nonsensical standard horror movie fare, as the dolts hole up in a big empty warehouse with only one exit and start hallucinating, pointing fingers at each other and turning up dead while things go bump in the night. Certainly a departure from the shaky-cam, semi-docu style of its predecessor, "BW2" looks eerie and exquisite, but it completely lacks the originality, the ambition, or even a hint of the terror inspired by The Blair Witch Project, a film that unquestionably stood alone. (R. Blackwelder)