This weekend, “Blair Witch,” a sequel to “The Blair Witch Project” and an attempt to reboot the franchise, arrived in cinemas and flopped. Hard. Earning $9.6 million, it was nearly double the budget of the $5 million movie, but it was the worst opening in the series history, and it also took a beating from critics and audiences (who tagged it with an abysmal D+ Cinemascore). And the occasion led to filmmaker Joe Berlinger, who helmed “Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2” over fifteen years ago to equally disastrous results, to hit Twitter with what some could perceive as a #hottake:
READ MORE: ‘Blair Witch’ Can’t Capture The Mystique Of The Original [Review]
. #BlairWitch had far worse opening w/e at box office then my 2000 BW sequel. Maybe folks were a tad too hard on me? https://t.co/XlMerqYlQJ
— Joe Berlinger (@joeberlinger) September 19, 2016
However, as he clarified in an interview with Deadline, his point wasn’t to throw shade at Adam Wingard, but put to bed the notion that ‘Book of Shadows’ was a financial failure. Moreover, he says his film was rushed and compromised by the studio, and didn’t reflect his intentions for the film.
“The studio recut the film and inserted scenes of gore against my will and I didn’t have the courage back then to just remove my name from the film. And then to be eviscerated by critics on a cut of the film that I did not sanction was doubly painful,” he told the trade about what actually went down with ‘Book Of Shadows.’
“That’s not to say that my director’s cut would have garnered a better reaction from critics per se, but at least I could have stood by the film for representing my vision and if people hated that version, it would have been less painful because it’s what I would have wanted to be seen. But why I tweeted today is this: there is also this myth that the film was a financial disaster… In fact, it was still Artisan’s second highest grossing film in their history, the highest being the original BW. It grossed $48 million worldwide on a $10 million budget and did over $25 million on DVD… Pure gravy on DVD,” he explained. “I know because my DGA residuals on this film paid for my daughter’s college education. It was one of the first DVDs to be a dual disc of soundtrack on one side and movie on the other. That doesn’t excuse the rushed production, the desire to monetize and capitalize on the first film’s success by a new studio that was only interested in their IPO and the mediocre end creative result, but people talk of this film as a total failure and franchise killer.”
His point? ‘Book Of Shadows’ made plenty of money, and furthermore, anyone expecting his picture or Wingard’s to repeat the phenomenon of the original — which was lightning in a bottle — was perhaps a bit delusional. All that said, it is a bit remarkable that no one has been able to make a good sequel to the first movie yet. Perhaps that’s the true horror of the franchise.
Thoughts? Was ‘Book Of Shadows’ underrated? Let us know below.