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A drama, a comedy?. There's a bit of both in this film. It starts out quite seriously, but as it goes on, the filmmakers appear to be commenting on and making fun of a certain macho attitude that is all too prevalent in our society. The plot is simple: a guy's girl is supposedly raped by his best pal, and each side's account of what transpired is entirely different, so we can't accept either as the final truth. But that's not what's important here: the main plot line is the escalating feud between the two friends and how they immaturely try to solve their differences: with violence, of course. This is when the film turns hilarious, as all the vengeful plotting goes totally out of whack. Despite its one-note premise, the film is never boring, it's realistically acted and scripted and it leaves us questioning the wrongheaded social attitudes that are passed from one generation to another and it does so while keeping us entertained. Highly recommended.

I'm surprised this film got such a critical beating, it certainly didn't deserve it. I always thought the public looked down on sequels because they are usually more of the same, but it seems that's what they were expecting with this one and since it isn't, they were disappointed. Instead, it's an interesting meditation on the Blair Witch phenomenon, and its possible effect on a group of fans who venture into the Maryland woods to get a feel of the place where the original movie was filmed and to indulge in some of their fantasies involving the fictitious witch. What transpires is a descent into an apparent nightmare from which they can't seem to wake up. It's a horror film that works on a purely psychological level and it counts on the audience's intelligence to put the pieces together and give the story closure - the film itself doesn't - and it's all nicely and efficiently realized. Good photography is one of this film's assets, another one is the tight, tense direction. This must be the first time that a sequel (although only in name) has been shunned because it dared to be different from the original, and it's unfortunate. The public is fickle indeed.

This is the kind of movie that gives independent filmmaking a bad name. An amateurish, pretentious mess mixing angsty drama a la Bergman and surrealistic imagery a la Fellini (my apologies to the masters for mentioning them here). We are asked to sit through 90 minutes of two uninteresting, very nasty sisters talking their heads off about their unhappy childhood caused by their very creepy, comic book parents. Every recrimination cliche is thrown in, and the surreal asides do absolutely nothing but bring needless and meaningless visual chaos to the film. The film just sort of expires at the end, having run completely out of gas. A true endurance test.