If people believe something enough, isn't it real?

In Christchurch, where I live, bad things happen. Underneath a happy facade, overflowing with tourists, one can feel the history. The land on which Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme bashed their mother to death with a brick in a sock is shadowy, even in bright sunlight. You can walk there and feel something, history, underneath it all. It is equally as easy to wander the city streets post-earthquakes and sense a completely tangible paranoia. How can a road be schizophrenic? How can trees have split personalities? I may not believe in witches (not in a literal, magical, supernatural sense) but I do believe in the concept of haunting (being haunted by history,…

I love the BW movies and decided to rewatch all them this weekend because hello fall! Due to some insane greediness, this poor sequel came out way too quickly after the first movie and it never really stood a chance, but it’s still good in spite of what all the haterzz might say.

I understand and even respect the decision to forego the found footage aspect because there was no way the same magic would be captured, especially with this coming out so soon after the first one. There was so much hype around the first movie. So much. Like, if you were around at the time, then you know what I’m talking about and if you weren’t, I don’t really…

I was making a lot of jokes while [re]watching Book of Shadows and Lords of Salem last night (in preparation for a podcast we're recording tomorrow) and after the day I've had, I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't have been such a sarcastic jerk? I've spent my entire day cleaning up after myself because I've been even more klutzy than usual, knocking over full cups of ice water, just had to clean up coffee that I spilled all over a white god damn wall, knocked the shower head down twice/had to put it back together, what's next?! Am I going to wake up tomorrow with rune-shaped wounds all over my body?

From what I can remember, this was probably…

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 often feels like the Blair Witch was an afterthought. Look at the title it seems so tacked on in a last minute manner. Yet, it still feel like a sequel. It feels like it is a part of the Blair Witch mythos. Weird right? 

I had the pleasure of watching the first movie and this one started up right away on my tv. Who was I to say I didn’t want to watch this to the ever powerful television set? I am a mere human compared to the powerful internet fueled television. Instantly, I am reminded about the Blair Witch buzz by a Kurt Loder MTV News spot, an Ebert clip and a regional…

BOOK OF SHADOWS : BLAIR WITCH 2
Regia di Joe Berlinguer, 2000.

Poco tempo dopo l'uscita del geniale THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, film indipendente che sbancò totalmente al botteghino ecco che Joe Berlinguer decide di dare al film un sequel, eliminando la parte mockumentary ma realizzando un vero e proprio film horror che si incentrava nella stessa location poco dopo l'uscita nelle sale del film succitato.

Un esperimento di meta-cinema difficile da realizzare se non si ha un idea ben precisa su dove si vuole andare a parare ed infatti il buon BW2 é un film parecchio claudicante specialmente per quanto riguarda la scrittura dei personaggi che risultano fin troppo stereotipati, specie quelli femminili ma anche a livello di sceneggiatura,…

Am I still watching this movie? Because it literally didn't have an ending.

Structurally it's a mess. There are flashes between two time periods that never made sense. The film has no idea of what it's about. The characters stay together in a group for no reason. All the women are psychic for no reason. Creepy shit happens for no reason other than: "there's a witch probably, I guess". The plot wanders around like a confused little duckling. "Is Mama over here? … No?" Quack, quack. Wander, wander. "Is Mama over here? … No?" Quack, quack. Wander, wander. 

I liked that it had a goth woman being a goth because some people are just goth. You barely ever see that…

The first Blair Witch film will always have a really special place in my heart, not in the least because it is one of the only films to ever truly scare the living hell out of me during, and more importantly had an effect that lasted a bit after, watching it.
One of the main reasons for that being, that the house I grew up in had a (small) Forrest area behind it, and that came with many of the sounds you expect, creaking wood, nocturnal animals, echoing,...
And Blair witch, even though I very much was aware of the fakeness of it ,quite literally felt like it hit all the beats and sounds I knew, and scared me as…