"Get out of the woods! There is no g*d-d*mned Blair Witch!" The Sheriff of Burketsville shouts at a horde of over-zealous, trespassing fans of the Blair Witch Project.

Five young people take an overnight tour of the woods in which the Blair Witch Project was filmed. When they wake up the next morning their equipment has been smashed and they've mysteriously lost five hours of their lives. They band together temporarily to try to find out what happened to them during that time, but when they return back to civilization they find they've brought something�evil back with them.

The Blair Witch Project has had its share of compliments and criticism both of which it has richly deserved, but however you feel about it no one can deny that as a film it was certainly different and that as a financial endeavor it was an amazing success. In contrast, there is nothing particularly unique about Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 nor, I suspect, will it be as successful, but for all of that it's still an excellent horror film that is a surprisingly fitting sequel to The Blair Witch Project. Where The Blair Witch Project was filmed in a minimalist style, making an argument for less being more, with no special effects, no soundtrack and no sex or gore. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, in contrast, has all of these things making it a very different, and more conventional horror film, but it does share one important element with its famous, or is that infamous, predecessor. From the moment things begin to go wrong for the film's protagonist the actors convey a sense of helplessness in the face of some menace they can't see, can't fight and don't understand, but whose presence is palpable. There is a constant sense that something so far beyond the bounds of comprehension or even sanity that at first it almost seems absurd or perhaps even silly is toying with them. Jason, of Friday the 13th is just a big zombie with a knife. Freddie Krueger is simply a demon in your dreams that, under the right circumstances, can be hurt. When his chainsaw runs out of gas Leatherface, from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is nothing but a bully. But fight the Blair Witch? How can you fight what you can't see, can't touch and which can control your very perceptions of reality? Or, conversely, how can you fight what just might be nothing more then the madness in your own soul? H.P. Lovecraft would be proud of the entire concept.

My biggest problem with the film is that the ending was an anticlimactic letdown. Still, I can't think of any ending that would've been satisfying to this particular film. What happened would almost certainly have happened had the film been true and the fact that this is unsatisfying is probably just as it should be.

Go see Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, but stay out of the Burkitsville woods. Otherwise you might make someone, or something, other then the local sheriff angry.