Let me preface this by saying that I am not one to seek out ‘fan edits’. To me, the movie that comes out is what was intended, or as close as we’re apt to get. Movies evolve as they are made. Stories, change, focus changes, actors change, and the film goes through many different cuts in the process. There are films that are cut without the director’s blessing and luckily we get to see some of these films from time to time. Essentially though, I am not some movie truther that thinks that it’s the right of fans to go back and edit films to make them more palatable to them. It isn’t for fans to make their own versions of movies so they are more to their liking.
It happens.
I get it.
Just not my thing.
This is a case though of wanting to see how the film was meant to be.
Well, as close as we’ll ever get.
For those that don’t know, the producers of BLAIR WITCH 2 intervened and had the film re-cut and had a new beginning inserted, as well as tying it to a bunch of music so they could sell soundtracks. Being a huge fan of the original BWP, the concept of a sequel was always really enticing. I was surprised by what we got – a straight-ahead narrative that acted like the original was just a movie and that the events of the second film were ‘real’ – but I appreciated what it was trying to do.
Even when I saw it I felt like it had ham-handedly been fooled with in the process. The director was a a well regarded documentary filmmaker and this was his first fictional film. Boy did it go wrong for him. I have always wanted to see what director Joe Berlinger meant the film to be but sadly, despite the era we live in that has let directors go back and give us their versions of films, this isn’t one that that will ever happen to.
I had read that there were ‘fan edits’ out there that did their best to try to reckon with what there was and what was intended, and it seemed as if it was as close as we were going to get to the intended version. With the wonders of the internet I was able to view a fan edit of the film and have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.
What we have with the fan edit, this one at least as there are many out there, is a more straightforward story structure that let’s the film play out so that the mysery is upheld. The film opens with news footage about the original films and how much it seemed to infect popular culture and the way people went on makeshift trips to Burkittsville to hunt for the witch. I remember the time well and it was fascinating and weird to see how many people were faked out by the film. The film picks up where the original does, with four people signing up with a local to Burkittsville to tour the Blair Woods. The four are all interested in the witch for their own reasons, each being a stereotype of sorts, and each with their secrets. The group comes across more strangers to the area who are on their own tour, showing how popular the area and its tourism has become. The group stays the night in the remains of Rustin Parr’s home and during the course of the night they lose several hours they cannot account for, and the cameras that had been set up to capture any strange occurrences have all been damaged. They find though that the footage remains, hidden in the foundation of the old house. What is on that footage though they will they never discovered.
As I said, the film streamlines things and lets the story unfold as a mystery, as it was meant to. The original opening that gave away part of the plot has been removed. A lot of the extraneous music has been removed. There’s been a deleted scene of one of the ghost children inserted into the film. The quality of that scene is dodgy but it fits the scene in question.
The intenion of the film was to ask the question – are the members of this group part of a sinister supernatural happening or were they prey to a group psychosis brought on by the fervor of a movie they all got too obsessed about. It’s an interesting idea, and the story plays out in a way in the fan edit that leans more towards psychosis but still leaves more shadows for you to suss through.
The film itself is messy. It’s got awkward dialogue, a heavy-handed plot, and it didn’t use what worked in the first one, and that’s the mystery of the unseen and unknown. Still, the movie is a fascinating What If that I still am fond of, though it’s the least of the three movies for me by far. The fan edit doesn’t do anything other than let the film play out as it was meant to, removing the violence of the intro, inserting that deleted scene, and cutting it in a way that puts all of the police interiews at the end of the film. It’s not entirely satisfying but it’s a better experience than it had been before.
The film is what it is.
It’s not great.
It was a really interesting idea that just didn’t come together and the heck of it is that the mockumentaries of the day to promote it were better than the film, and that stings.
If you are a fan of the film though it’s worth looking around for.
It’s out there – several versions of this fan edit are – but it will take some digging.
It won’t change your life but it’s nice to see the film as it was mostly meant to be.
2.5 out of 5
(The edit is decent, really decent. The film is pretty so-so).
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 