Trivia / Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

• B-Team Sequel: 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. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez were given an executive producers credit, but both men later stated that they had very little creative input, and disliked the final film.
• Cast the Runner-Up: All the actresses cast auditioned for a different role; Erica Leerson was auditioning for Kim, Tristine Skyler was auditioning for Erica and Kim Director was going for Tristen. Jeffrey Donovan was also auditioning for Steven.
• Christmas Rushed: Joe Berlinger had a meeting with Artisan in November, being told they wanted to release a sequel by next October and to be ready to shoot in February.
• Creator Killer: Sort of. Joe Berlinger was primarily a journalist and documentary filmmaker anyway, and returned to that after the film’s scathing reception. He wouldn’t direct another feature film, however, until 2019’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile.
• Creator's Oddball: Joe Berlinger had only done documentaries beforehand. After this film, he went back to them for nineteen years.
• The Danza: All the characters - Kim, Jeff, Erica, Steven and Tristen — share the same first names as their actors. In the script they all had working names that would be changed upon casting — Kim was Domini, Jeff was Cotter, Steven was Nick, Tristen was Anna, and Erica was Heather.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Erica Leerson auditioned with short blonde hair. After she was cast, she had her hair dyed red and wore extensions to give the character long hair.
• Executive Meddling: The director wanted to make the film more psychological thriller exploring the relationship between media, fiction and reality that would also be a commentary on the media frenzy and fan community around the first film. The film would start out lighthearted, and slowly grow stranger and darker, with the end remaining vague about whether the main characters committed horrible acts due to actually being under the influence of the Blair Witch or if they lost touch with reality while getting too deep into the fiction. The studio initially liked this take, but upon seeing the director's first cut, they wanted to add more gore and violence earlier on in the film, which included scattering around some revealing scenes from the end, and adding a completely new scene where the characters massacre a group of foreigners visiting the site of the first film. To make the mood of the film darker, the studio also changed the soundtrack to hard rock.^note For example, the original cut used "Witchcraft" by Frank Sinatra for the opening credits as Soundtrack Dissonance, but the studio replaced it with "Disposable Teens" by Marilyn Manson. Finally, that "Book of Shadows" in the title which is nowhere to be seen in the actual movie was added by the studio.
• Franchise Killer: A trilogy was planned. The second film performed so badly that the third film was scrapped until 2016.
• Reality Subtext: Kim says she's only on the tour because she enjoyed the movie. Kim Director indeed was a huge fan of The Blair Witch Project - seeing it on its opening weekend.
• Troubled Production: As noted here, the actual shooting went mostly smoothly - as the cast and crew all got on and, despite the quick turnaround, everything was completed on schedule. However, Joe Berlinger faced a lot of Executive Meddling to Recut the film to make it a more conventional Slasher Movie; his original intent was a film that started out light-hearted and to gradually descend into a Mind Screw. He was also forced to add scenes of gore that he was ashamed to have his name attached to; some of these scenes had to be hurriedly shot in his backyard, and the tacked-on scenes of Jeff in a mental hospital (another studio mandate to turn him into a Red Herring) were shot weeks before the film's release. Although the film just about turned a profit at the Box Office (actually grossing triple its budget), it was eviscerated by critics and halted any plans for a third film.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Haxan Films, who produced the first film, wanted to wait until the hype had diminished before working on a sequel. Artisan had the rights and produced it without them.
  • The scenes of Jeff in a mental hospital were added at the request of the studio to make the audience think that Jeff would turn out to be the villain.
  • The tour group that the protagonists bump into at Rustin Parr's house weren't slated to die in the original script. Their purpose was just to show the global obsession with the Blair Witch. Studio mandated re-shoots had them murdered to insert more traditional horror movie elements.
• Word of God: Joe Berlinger feels that the protagonists did kill everyone themselves and were not possessed; just driven mad by a shared delusion.
• Write What You Know: Joe Berlinger based each protagonist off real life reactions to the first film. Erica in particular was inspired by real-life Wiccans who were frustrated that the film showed their religion in a negative light.
• Writer Revolt: Joe Berlinger was offered three scripts to choose to direct. He disliked all of them, as they were similar found footage retreads of the first film. Artisan then asked what he would like to do, and he came up with a story that was more metatextual - addressing the hype surrounding The Blair Witch Project (as he had disliked the viral marketing campaign attempting to fool people into thinking the footage was genuine).
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The script was still being written as shooting went on, due to the quick deadline.

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