"Shadow" is canon, "Shadows" is not

[twana]

The events of September 1999 (Shadow of the Blair Witch) are canon to the events of October 1994 (The Blair Witch Project) while the film "Book of Shadows" is not canon because it is only a "re-creation" of the Jeff Patterson case.

Anyone with questions or concerns?

[gator]

this is true

[darktruth]

However, it's a recreation "based on public records, local Maryland TV broadcasts, and hundreds of hours of taped interviews."

Thus, it's canon to the story line of the Patterson case, as it's based on source material. In turn, some (myself included) would argue that these events are canon to the first movie.

There are a few deep flaws in Shadow of the Blair Witch. For example, we see Kim Diamond convict Jeff Patterson on camera. She says that it's possible he had lured them out there and chosen which ones would be victims and which ones would be accomplices. She goes onto say that she would have never done anything like this unless she had been under someone else's influence.

Wait - what? Is this the same Kim Diamond who was a first-hand witness to all of the supernatural weirdness that surrounded them that weekend? What about the incident when she found files inside Jeff's desk that would later turn out to be the police files developed on them by the Burkittsville Sheriff's Office and shown to them after their arrests? How could drugs, alcohol, and Jeff Patterson induce that hallucination? What about the fact that all of them saw a massive tree at the foundations of Rustin Parr's home, and later found that it wasn't on the video footage of that night? Kim had taken specific interest in the tree (with Jeff), seemingly because of some kind of psychic tip-off. What about the fact that Kim had to swerve to avoid seven children on the road, and heard the sound of a child crying after getting out of the truck? Or the fact that she simply damaged the front vendor, but later found that the entire truck was destroyed? What about the weird markings on her (and the others) that disappeared after their arrests?

And what about the murder of Peggy, the convenience store clerk? At the time it was committed, Kim was buying alcohol at the store while Jeff was some distance away at the factory. How would Jeff had made her commit that murder, while also trapping her in a perceptive hallucination in which she simply has a heated argument with the clerk and leaves her alive? Is Jeff a master hypnotist?

I wouldn't throw Shadow of the Blair Witch out of the record. Rather, I'd suggest that by this time (well after the events), police and psychiatrists have basically brainwashed her into believing that it was all in her head.

I think that by this time, the sheriff's department was engaged in a cover-up of the true nature of the murders. They are the main source for our information on what happened in Shadow of the Blair Witch. Book of Shadows is based on a wealth of evidence (public records, television footage, taped interviews, etc.) that we (the fans ) don't have access too.

[twana]

EDIT: I don't agree. You're totally confusing the re-enactment with the murder case as well as the public showing of the student's found footage.

Anyhoo, I'd say Kim said that in the documentary just to save her own ass
(place the blame on the Tour Guide, Jeff, who she already knew
the town wasn't happy with)

[Tweek]

I don't consider any of BoS canon.  It doesn't exist in the same universe as the first film.  Shadow is canon to BoS.  But nothing more.  That's my opinion.

[Sz]

Sept 21, 2013 11:45:18 GMT -6 Tweek said:

I don't consider any of BoS canon.  It doesn't exist in the same universe as the first film.  Shadow is canon to BoS.  But nothing more.  That's my opinion.

That's not an opinion it's a statement of fact.

[anarchangelic]

Yes, Book Of Shadows cannot be in the same canon as the tale within The Blair Witch Project. It has to be secondary universe, as it was completely intended to be by the creators.

It exists in a universe which acknowledges that The Blair Witch Project is just a movie, but then uses true historical events which happened after that movie came out to form a second fictional scenario of the effects that stories like this can have on people.

This is why I have always appreciated this film, because in my opinion it manages to do exactly what the first did . . . in the next dimension as it were. Where the first was so effective it convinced many people it was real, the next admits the fiction of the film but then still goes on to explore the possibility of whether certain things surrounding the films mythology or effects on the world have truth to them, and what that might mean in either way.

But yes, it it definitely a second level of fiction which cannot really be linked except by accepting it as what it is: a film made by a studio which is only based on exploring the possibilities of what occurred in an unknown event which is canon (Shadow). So in this way, the actual events in Book are not canon, but its production as a film can be.

[twana]

No. Shadow never says that Heather, Mike, and Josh are only actors. It only says their footage was shown, which is part of the original story: Angie Donahue brought in Haxan Films. The movie is only a re-enactment of the events of the Jeff Patterson case. The re-enactment leads the viewer to feel that the legend is involved, even though the woods only become active every fifty to sixty years. Most likely Jeff, Stephen, and Kim murdered without any supernatural involvement. The Black Hills Murders are the aftermath to the found footage being shown to the public.