I thought I would go back and see if this movie is as horrible as I remember it being. It is. I can only hope that few other people have had the misfortune of seeing this celluloid monstrosity twice. One is hard pressed to say which is worse -- the overdramatic acting or the hopeless script.

The promos promised to take us back into the woods, but we spend almost the whole movie knocking around an old abandoned warehouse converted into a home by the local psycho. The four people making up the Blair Witch tour group are possibly even more annoying than the guide -- a spooky-looking goth girl with an attitude, a disbelieving writer and his seriously disturbed, recently impregnated girlfriend, and a hot redheaded wiccan whose nude scenes are the only positive contribution anyone makes to this film. Then there is the constantly fuming Sheriff Craven, yelling and cursing and adding even more misery to the experience. The frequent time shifts between past and present serve only to make a nonsensical plot completely incomprehensible.

Don't count on a big finish; this thing just ends suddenly, as if the filmmakers suddenly ran out of money and had to shut down production.

This DVD does have a bunch of special features, but so did Titanic, and we all know how that journey turned out. The most important thing to keep in mind about this film is the fact that, despite its promises, it really has nothing to do with the Blair Witch. Oh, they talk about her and show us Coffin Rock and the foundation of Parr's house and a few ghostly images of children, but The Book of Shadows does little more than parody everything that was so fascinating and innovative about The Blair Witch Project. Thanks to Heather, Josh and Michael's incredible, unscripted performance in the original, the legend of the Blair Witch may indeed never die -- this will only be despite the determined attempt made to kill it by the makers of this atrocious sequel.

- Rambles
written by Daniel Jolley
published 20 August 2005