You might recall, a little over ten years ago, the unprecedented success of an experimental, micro-budget horror film called ‘The Blair Witch Project’. Brilliantly marketed via cryptic websites (the internet at that point was still a high-tech mystery to many) and relentless word-of-mouth, the film became a phenomenon despite it’s unprofessional, stripped-down aesthetics. It was the ‘Paranormal Activity’ of the 1990s.

To a much lesser extent, you might also recall the studio-budgeted blunder that followed ‘Blair Witch’ — the now notorious ‘Books of Shadows: Blair Witch 2′. It was a half-cocked, poorly acted, overly glossed piece of junk thats soul reason for existence was to cash-in on the success of its predecessor. In retrospect, that film could never have succeeded. It tried take the audience back to a place that they could only go once: the unknown. After all, until the media got ahold ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and gave up all its secrets, the terrifying unknown was exactly what audiences were getting into.

Apparently, in Hollywood, no lesson was taken from the failure that followed the fortune. The LA Timesrecently announced that Paramount Pictures had dropped Kevin Greutert (the ‘Saw’ sequels) as director of the sequel to last year’s shocking success story, ‘Paranormal Activity’, and decided to replace him with a more high-profile filmmaker who could buff the horror franchise to a higher shine. Topping off the short list that includes Akiva Goldsman (currently working on the Fox series ‘Fringe’) and Brad Anderson (’Session 9′) is none other than Brian De Palma.

If the film does indeed land in De Palma’s hands (who is by no means at the pinnacle of his career), I can foresee two scenarios playing out: (1) A prepackaged, over-indulgent thriller that might as well be another film entirely if it weren’t for the popular title and (2) a Hollywood hotshot’s dire attempt to seem uncompromisingly indie by recreating the do-it-yourself-shaky-cam effect audiences can identify the original with.

In any case, the film is almost designed to fail from its inception. There are too many striking similarities to the cautionary tale of ‘Book of Shadows’ to insist otherwise. Hopefully Paramount decides to do something drastic and original… and quickly! Though the cast and crew are still be shuffled through by studio bosses, the film is still set for release by this Halloween.

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