As a fan of the horror genre, I find it increasingly discouraging that no one can seem to put a decent scary picture together. A couple of years ago, I was completely delighted by the innovation of The Blair Witch Project, a film that I actually felt delivered the goods. Many were put off by it's hand held camera technique and it's lack of explanation. These are two qualities that I felt made the film work. After huge hype, brilliant marketing, and gigantic box office, a sequel seemed inevitable.

Enter Book of Shadows, yet another horror film sequel that can't seem to cut it. This time out, the director is documentarian Joe Berlinger (the brilliant Paradise Lost films). Original Blair Witch film makers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez merely serve as Executive Producers but will apparently return with a Blair Witch prequel.

On a plus side, this sequel doesn't rehash the first, but rather creates a new sort of phenomenon in the Burkittsville woods. Of course it's all done in a post modern fashion as Burkittsville is constantly bombarded by gawkers who are obsessed with the events that took place in the first film. This compels a young man name Jeff (Jeffrey Donovan) to form Blair Witch Hunt, a tour that takes it's customers into the heart of the woods to hopefully get a glimpse of the nasty beast that did away with the victims of the last installment. So our band of one-dimensional characters decide to take the tour but don't get what they bargained for. As they awaken the next morning, five hours of their lives are unaccounted for. This is to say that they can't remember what happened, and although Jeff was videotaping, his footage seems to be missing. Through the course of the film, Jeff and his unsuspecting crew try to piece together what went on the night before.

The bottom line is, Blair Witch 2 isn't scary, and you come to expect a few jolts or an unsettling vibe in a film of this nature. The premise itself is actually a somewhat interesting one, but the film plays more like a weak Tales from the Darkside or Twilight Zone episode. As in the first film, we never actually see the supernatural force in the woods nor do we get any explanation. In the first film however, that actually made the story work. This sequel by comparison, is so dull, that you find yourself clamoring for an explanation. In Book of Shadows, this creature of the night likes to psychologically torture it's prey as it did the first time around, but it never really adds up to anything.

Berlinger sets up some nice shots but doesn't have much of a cast to work with. He also seems a bit lost in the realm of conventional storytelling. If this really were a documentary, perhaps it would of been more interesting. What we're left with is a low-rent Scooby Doo episode in which our meddling kids don't solve the riddle. Hopefully the proposed Blair Witch prequel will be more effective, because Book of Shadows was so boring--I feel like two hours of my life are unaccounted for.