"The Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows," has just been released by ARTISAN.  To be fair,I hated "The Blair Witch Project", but I did expect this one to be better for several reasons.  To begin with: 1) This one's got a bigger budget.  2) Director Joe Berlinger's two previous films, both documentaries, were excellent.
The film starts off horribly, describing, but still leaving unexplained the
horrors of the first film.  While there are some interesting ideas here, the
film is buried under its own weight.  Berlinger is trying to appease too
many people here, ultimately failing everyone.  The most interesting theme has to do with "perception."  Berlinger raises the question,"is what we're seeing "what's" actually happening?" "Is what other people are seeing "actually" occurring?"  The idea of being convinced you're sane while everyone else is insane, is truly a scary premise, and it does make the film disturbing.
Save for a young couple,( the girl is pregnant)none of the characters are
that interesting or likeable.  The acting is also problematic.  While the
script doesn't call for "Shakespearean" actors, at least the actors in the
first film seemed somewhat realistic.  However, little dialogue sounds real here, and even the few lines spoken by a small town cop sound like a bad impersonation(unintentionally) of Jackie Gleason's Sherrif from "SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT!"
One can't fault the director too much here, as he points out within the dvd insert that much of ambiguity he sought to create, was superceded by ARTISAN's demand for graphic violence.
ARTISAN has presented a decent looking transfer for this dvd release.  The colors are generally quite vivid and there's little oversaturation.  The contrast is fair, but in the darkest scenes, of which there are many, detail is compromised.  The 1.85:1 aspect ratio is intact with 16:9 enhancement, but the resolution isn't nearly as detailed as on many other ARTISAN releases.
ARTISAN has provided an outstanding soundmix!  The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundmix is excellent!  While the first "BLAIR WITCH" film had little in terms of separation, this one thrives on it!  There are layers of discreet effects, and there's great frequency range as well!  The dialogue is always intelligible and free from distortion.  While this isn't one of Carter Burwell's best scores, it's still pretty darned good, and it's well complimented here.
ARTISAN has packaged this release as something special.  It's their first "DVD plus CD presentation.  The film is presented on one side, and the CD music soundtrack is offered on the opposite side of the same disc.  There aren't really many supplements here, although the commentary with writer/director Joe Berlinger is actually quite good.  Berlinger comes off right away as a likeable guy and he's quite open about his major disagreements with ARTISAN about the way the film was cut and marketed. Whether you like the film or not, this is one of the more interesting commentaries we've heard in a long time.
Composer Carter Burwell also provides a brief commentary, discussing his approach to the film score in terms of three individual scenes.  His
commentary, while appreciated, isn't that enlightening. We'll be more than happy to have him simply go on composing terrific scores,..eg. "FEAR", "ROB ROY", etc.
The other supplement, "THE SECRETS OF ESCREVER" is a 3 minute featurette, focusing on three scenes with hidden images, and some gimmicks that make it unworthy of commenting upon.