31 Days of Halloween: Day 5

Day 5

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)



Utter disappointment. The original Blair Witch Project was a classic: the first to really use the handheld look and documentary style. And that ending, awesome. If you've never seen it, pay attention near the beginning and you will see why. I think its one of the best endings out there. I didn't really care during the rest of the movie...its was kind of the usual scare tactics...but the ending made the motion sickness worth while.

For the second movie, they let it all go. There's a little hand held action, but the majority of the movie is a freak show of weird characters that don't belong together. There is no continuity throughout the movie and you never find out why everything happened. There wasn't reason that everything happened...it just happened.

The movie starts off with news reports about the after effect of the first movie and how people were flooding the town where the movie was said to take place. You think that maybe it will be a similar scene, with newbies going out in search of the same kinds of phenomena. Sadly, this is where the movie disappoints.

There are clips and snippets of scenes from the past and the future intertwined within the present. Its not done well for certain. Again, like the original, if you pay attention, you will see the payoff...its just nowhere near as grand as its predecessor.


Similar Movies:

The Blair Witch Project (1999)


Up Next:

SECRET WINDOW (2004)

31 Days of Halloween: Day 4

Day 4

Hocus Pocus



Who doesn't like this movie? Sure...its hokey, involves singing, really bad uses of 'thee' and 'thou' and includes scenes with a witch on a flying vacuum cleaner. But come on! Those are part of the reason's why this is a great Halloween movie.

First of all...its the first Halloween movie of the 31 Days of Halloween series that I'm working on, so there's a plus. It's just plain fun. With The Crucible playing at work, I felt that this would be a fun homage to the Salem Witch Trials and lo and behold...it was. Though the timeline doesn't really work (Salem Witch Trials ended in 1692...and this movie begins in 1693), it's more about the 1993 time frame that makes this movie.

When the Sanderson sisters come back to life in the current century (current at the time), their interactions in the new world are hysterical (with firemen, buses, children in costumes and their 'master' - aka Garry Marshall as the Devil). My favorite scene is at the town party where Bette Midler character, Winnifred, breaks into "I Put A Spell On You" to cast an actual spell on the adults of Salem. Oh...the Divine Miss M.

Fun fact: If you are an NCIS fan (the show about Navel CSI), you will enjoy the fact that good 'ol probie McGee is our dear Thackeray Binx in this movie. He's come a long way.

Similar Movies

Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride (2005)
Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)


Up Next:

BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2

Stay tuned.

PS...happy 100th post to me!