Книга теней: Ведьма из Блэр 2

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is a 2000 American horror film directed and co written by Joe Berlinger and starring Jeffrey Donovan, Stephen Barker Turner, Kim Director, Erica Leerhsen, and Tristine Skyler. Its plot revolves around a group of people fascinated by the mythology surrounding the film The Blair Witch Project; they go into the Black Hills where the original film was shot and experience supernatural phenomena and psychological unraveling. Originally conceived by Berlinger and co writer Dick Beebe as a psychological thriller and meditation on mass hysteria, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 was significantly altered in postproduction, which Berlinger would later claim compromised his original vision. Among the changes were a new soundtrack, additional editing, and the integration of entirely new sequences. The film was released in theaters in North America and the United Kingdom on October 27, 2000. It received negative reviews from critics and grossed a worldwide total of $47.7 million.

The film is contextualized in the beginning blocks of text as a dramatic reenactment of events that occurred after The Blair Witch Project was released into theaters. In November 1999, tourists and fans of The Blair Witch Project descend on the small town of Burkittsville, Maryland, where the film was set. Local resident Jeff, a former psychiatric patient and obsessed fan, orchestrates a group tour of locations featured in the film. Among the group are graduate students Stephen and his pregnant girlfriend, Tristen, who are researching mythology and mass hysteria; Erica, the Wiccan daughter of an Episcopal minister; and Kim, a goth with psychic proclivities. They camp for the night in the ruins of Rustin Parr's house, where Jeff has placed surveillance cameras, hoping to capture supernatural occurrences. Jeff becomes unnerved when he notices a large tree located in the center of the house's foundation, claiming it was not there before. That night, another tour group arrives to camp at the ruins, but they are misdirected to Coffin Rock by Jeff and Stephen. After drinking and smoking marijuana all night, the group awakens in the morning to find Stephen and Tristen's research documents shredded and strewn through the woods and Jeff's cameras destroyed; his damaged tapes are uncovered beneath the house's foundation, the same spot the Blair Witch Project tapes were found in 1995. Tristen suffers a miscarriage, and they rush her to the Burkittsville hospital. In her hospital room, Tristen sees a young girl walking backward. After she is discharged, the group retreats to Jeff's home, an industrial building that was once a factory. While Tristen rests, the group reviews Jeff's tapes, which uncover an image of Erica circling around a tree, nude. Distraught, Erica claims she has no memory of such an event and goes to pray in another room. When Kim tries to console her, Erica reveals rash like symbols covering her body and proclaims the group has been marked for death. Kim borrows Jeff's van to pick up coffee and alcohol in town. At the country store, she gets into an argument with the cashier. While driving away, she swerves to avoid a group of children in the road and crashes the van into a tree, denting the fender. The children disappear when she exits the van. Later, Kim finds a bloody nail file stuck among the bottles of beer she purchased. The following morning, Jeff looks outside and sees the front end of his van entirely caved in, to the point that it is undrivable; Kim insists that the accident was minor. The group realizes Erica is absent and searches the house. They attempt to call her father at his office but are told by his secretary that he has no children. Meanwhile, Tristen's disposition grows increasingly bizarre. The county sheriff, Cravens, calls Jeff, informing him the other tour group was found disemboweled on Coffin Rock, and threatens him. Later, while searching through a drawer, Kim finds a set of surveillance dossiers on herself and the others. She confronts Jeff, but he denies knowing the source of them. Shortly after, the group discovers Erica's corpse in a closet. Tristen begins chanting about widdershins and speaking backward; this leads Kim to suggest they play Jeff's tapes in reverse. Upon doing so, they find the footage shows the high and drunken group descending into a demonic ritual and frenzied orgy led by Tristen, culminating in the murder of the other tour group at Coffin Rock. When they confront Tristen, she alternately pleads and goads them. Jeff, convinced Tristen is possessed by the Blair Witch, begins filming the confrontation, attempting to elicit a confession for Erica's death. The three follow Tristen to the second floor, where she ties a rope around her neck and taunts Stephen, daring him to push her. In a fit of rage, he pushes her over the balcony, killing her. Later, Jeff, Stephen, and Kim are arrested and interrogated by police. Each claim that a possessed Tristen was responsible. Their accounts are contradicted by various video footage: Security cameras captured Kim murdering the store cashier with her own nail file, while Jeff's home monitors show him, nude, hiding Erica's body in the closet; the DV footage Jeff filmed during Tristen's confrontation shows her pleading for her life as they accuse her of being a witch, ending in Stephen mercilessly pushing her to her death. Meanwhile, as Jeff, Kim, and Stephen are shown this footage by police, funeral mourners arrive in the woods to remember the other tour group that was murdered.

After the massive success of The Blair Witch Project, Artisan was eager to produce a sequel while the film's popularity was still at its peak. However, Haxan Films, who created the original film, was not ready to begin work on a follow up, preferring to wait until the initial buzz had died down. In December 1999, Artisan decided to proceed without them, hiring Joe Berlinger, known for his work on true crime documentaries (this was his first and last narrative film for nineteen years), to direct. While developing the screenplay, Berlinger spent time in the real town of Burkittsville (the setting of The Blair Witch Project) undertaking research and interviewing locals on how the release of the film had impacted their lives. Many of the individuals Berlinger interviewed served as direct inspirations for the characters featured in the film. His core theme when composing the screenplay with Dick Beebe was that the evil attributed to the Blair Witch may "be human in origin as opposed to supernatural". According to Berlinger, the character of Erica represented an aspect of this, specifically the frustrations that the Wiccan community voiced after the release of The Blair Witch Project, which some felt misconstrued the tenets of Wicca and showed their religion in a negative light. Berlinger was also inspired by the "lazy consumption of media" that led many to accept The Blair Witch Project as a true documentary; specifically, "how readily [the public is] willing to accept that something shot on video is real". He elaborated: "On one hand, Blair Witch 2 works as a standard horror movie but it also is a meditation on violence in the media, and the nature of fanaticism and obsession and the dangers of blurring the lines between reality and fiction". Additionally, Berlinger incorporated elements of real life subjects and places featured in his 1996 true crime documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, as well as narrative components of the stage play Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello.

Berlinger based his casting decisions largely on group chemistry between the actors, as the film was anchored exclusively in their collective experience. The casting period, according to Berlinger, only lasted for six weeks, in New York City. Originally, Tristine Skyler auditioned for the role played by Erica Leerhsen, while Leerhsen auditioned for the role played by Kim Director. Upon casting Leerhsen, who in reality was a short haired blonde, Berlinger fitted her with hair extensions and had her hair dyed red for the part. Jeffrey Donovan had also originally auditioned for the role played by Stephen Barker Turner, but Berlinger felt him a better fit for the leader of the group.