Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

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Agent Sam Stanley
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Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

Post by Agent Sam Stanley »

Given the fact that the internet is talking again about the Blair Witch films thanks to Adam Wingard’s new entry on the franchise, I’ve decided to take a shot on my own Blair Witch Project and recut the 2000 sequel Book of Shadows, which I’ve been a fan of since its original release.

Book of Shadows is considered one of the worst horror sequels ever made. The movie has fans but they’re very few. In my opinion it’s a very misunderstood film that tried to base its story in the hype surrounding the original film and its fans and create a psychological and ambiguous horror film in the same molds of the first one. More importantly, it tried to create a new concept and expand the franchise instead of doing the first film all over again. Unfortunately fans were not keen on the idea of establish the first film as fiction and appalled the film.

The studio behind Book of Shadows certainly didn’t help it either and ironically may be the biggest villain in this story. Despite being a major box office success, there was a lot of complains from viewers that the Blair Witch Project ‘had a terrible pace and didn’t have any really scary scenes’. The studio decided to make sure the sequel would provide those scares so they made director Joe Berlinger add a lot of gore and “on your face” scary scenes to the film during post production. Not only that, a lot of scenes that were originally meant to appear at the end were scattered through the film to make it more “dynamic” so viewers wouldn’t complain about the pacing.

The decisions ended up blowing up in their faces. The extra scenes and the weird editing made the film look weird, confusing and disconnected. The editing was all over the place intercutting nice bonding scenes between the characters with bloody murder flashbacks. Critics thought it was messy, viewers thought it was confusing. It ended up being a major bomb. The sad thing is, behind all the mess you can see a film that had a lot of potential. The concept is still interesting and the actors were very much in their characters.

Since the chances of a ‘Director’s Cut’ getting a release are rather slim given the film’s bad reputation with horror fans, I've decided to assemble my own Director’s Cut and share it with other fans like myself. My idea is basically try to rebuild Joe Berlinger’s original vision of the film cutting out all the unnecessary gore and cheap scare scenes and placing some scenes in their correct order.

I’ve recently uploaded a preview on Vimeo comparing my reworked intro scene with the original intro seen in the film just to show a small sample of what I’m trying to do. I’m still not finished with my edit so I would like to hear comments and suggestions of other horror fans regarding the reworked intro or maybe the idea as a whole. Don’t be shy and speak up.

Here’s the preview with the intro comparison:

Last edited by Agent Sam Stanley on Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Soolsma
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Re: Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

Post by Soolsma »

Hmmmm, I'd actually like to see your version of the movie. I've always been a huge BW fan (and yes, always hated book of shadows). It's overarching lore stories of a mysterious forest can be just as tantalizing as those of TP's.

So yeah, I'd like to give it a try.
Carrie Page: "It's a long way... In those days, I was too young to know any better."
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mfleite
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Re: Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

Post by mfleite »

I'd like to see it too.
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Gabriel
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Re: Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

Post by Gabriel »

So many interesting films are ruined by studio interference. Legion from 1990 was reworked into Exorcist III and the joins between the low-key original Legion film and the gory sequences to change it into Exorcist III are obvious, as is the frequently obviously shifted around scene order.
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sylvia_north
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Re: Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

Post by sylvia_north »

I'm a huge book of shadows fan!

I thought it had many strange an amazing moments and was altogether really creative and trippy. Funny, great performances. Spooky but not jump out and scare you cheap thrills.

Id watch a recut but can you improve on perfection?
Too Old to Die Young > TP S03
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Agent Sam Stanley
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Re: Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

Post by Agent Sam Stanley »

Resurrecting this thread to post the trailer I did for my recut :mrgreen:

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Novalis
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Re: Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

Post by Novalis »

Good work.

I'm not usually a big supporter of fan edits but this piques my interest. It probably helps that I am one of the few that actually liked BoS (more than Blair Witch itself, strangely enough) but I always felt it was marred by too much spectacle. Beneath the surface was a really creepy idea, about how a found footage horror film had somehow become possessed and was leading a life of its own, then began to seep into and rewrite reality. This was a film that had such a good idea behind it, if it hadn't been for the heavy-handed treatment it could easily have become cult. I loved the expanded-frame sequel aspect of it, and the good old fashioned fun of frightening and punishing the curious, but didn't love the clunky, fumbling and inept noise-and-fury of the editing, which is an editing style that really dates the film now. When Blair Witch was remade (and I can't see what that really added), I wondered if this ever would be.

Best of luck in any case. I would love to see the full re-edit.
As a matter of fact, 'Chalfont' was the name of the people that rented this space before. Two Chalfonts. Weird, huh?
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Agent Sam Stanley
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Re: Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

Post by Agent Sam Stanley »

Novalis wrote:Good work.

I'm not usually a big supporter of fan edits but this piques my interest. It probably helps that I am one of the few that actually liked BoS (more than Blair Witch itself, strangely enough) but I always felt it was marred by too much spectacle. Beneath the surface was a really creepy idea, about how a found footage horror film had somehow become possessed and was leading a life of its own, then began to seep into and rewrite reality. This was a film that had such a good idea behind it, if it hadn't been for the heavy-handed treatment it could easily have become cult. I loved the expanded-frame sequel aspect of it, and the good old fashioned fun of frightening and punishing the curious, but didn't love the clunky, fumbling and inept noise-and-fury of the editing, which is an editing style that really dates the film now. When Blair Witch was remade (and I can't see what that really added), I wondered if this ever would be.

Best of luck in any case. I would love to see the full re-edit.
One of the things I like about the first two BW films (please let's forget the new one ever existed) is that they're so different from each other and have very different goals.
That's why I like both films almost equally and think they're very creative pieces of horror.
Yep, I can't stand the noise and fury editing with that blaring rock music all over the place. I did try to take some of that out in my edit, but the film somehow still feels incomplete. There's a lot of stuff that was cut from the Director's Cut that would give the characters more layers and purpose. It's really sad that we'll probably never get to see the original version.

I can send you a download link to my edit if you want, I just need to correct a few details first lol
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Novalis
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Re: Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

Post by Novalis »

I gave this a watch (thank you kindly) and I have to say, it feels almost like a different film completely -- much smoother and more polished compared with the original, which I also watched again recently.

I don't completely agree with one or two of the choices you've made concerning what to leave out, but overall I think you have obviously given this project a tremendous amount of thought and have delivered a tighter and more compact film that holds together exceptionally well.

I'll be keeping hold of this recut to watch in future when the Blair Witch mood takes me. Impressive work!
As a matter of fact, 'Chalfont' was the name of the people that rented this space before. Two Chalfonts. Weird, huh?
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Agent Sam Stanley
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Re: Blair Witch 2 Re-Cut

Post by Agent Sam Stanley »

Novalis wrote:I gave this a watch (thank you kindly) and I have to say, it feels almost like a different film completely -- much smoother and more polished compared with the original, which I also watched again recently.

I don't completely agree with one or two of the choices you've made concerning what to leave out, but overall I think you have obviously given this project a tremendous amount of thought and have delivered a tighter and more compact film that holds together exceptionally well.

I'll be keeping hold of this recut to watch in future when the Blair Witch mood takes me. Impressive work!
Thank you a lot for your feedback and for your kind words Novalis.

I have to say I'm not completely satisfied with the edit. I did get rid of a lot of stuff I didn't like, but at the same time I think the film now is too short and sort of rushed.
I wish I had a few interesting deleted scenes to insert in, preferably scenes that would develop the characters a bit more. But this is what I had to work with so I did my best.
Btw, I'm curious to know which scenes you think I should have left in and why.
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