A FICTIONALISED account of what happened after the release of the first Blair Witch Project, director Joe Berlinger's film is essentially a straightforward shlock-horror flick with a thumping soundtrack and gallons of gore.

Which is great news for those hardy souls who found the original movie a celebration of horror-lite; and a big disappointment to those who prefer their terror to be more psychological than visceral.

Here's the deal. In the wake of the much-lauded mockumentary, the unassuming town of Burkittesville is over-run by sundry freaks and geeks who believe in the legend. Whole industries have sprung up - from the woman who sells rocks from her garden to the guy flogging the home-made stick men who says there are "a lot of nay-sayers who come and say nay"! Then there is the Blair Witch Hunt, a two-night tour of the woods organised by shady ex-con Jeff Patterson (Jeff Donovan). He gathers a band of four around him and takes them to the ruins of Rustin Parr's home where the crazy hermit murdered seven children decades earlier in a crime that echoed the activities of the so-called Blair Witch.

Accompanying the happy campers - couple Tristen (Tristen Skyler) and Stephen (Stephen Barker Turner) goth Kim (Kim Director) and white witch Erica (Erica Leerhsen) - is a dazzling array of camera equipment. After a long night of weed and booze, the stunned gang awake to find their gear trashed, a huge tree disappeared and none of them with any memory at all of what happened. Having found the tapes, they adjourn to Jeff's backwoods home to see what they got up to.

But there is a five- hour gap that none of them can account for. Before they know it, the local sheriff is on their backs about five murdered tourists up on Coffin Rock; and they're all a bit worried about the burn marks appearing on their bodies. And all the while they are sharing increasingly- nightmarish visions.

It all heads towards a dark-hearted, hopeless conclusion via a stroll down Buckets of Blood Boulevard. As a vaguely satisfying horror movie, it is a complete success given the huge problems of making a sequel to the first film, but the sticky stuff is rarely frightening (just nasty).

Although the opaque visions of children in distress present genuine shocks, Book of Shadows is most interesting when it ditches the genre baggage. It makes no bones about the fact that The Blair Witch Project was a work of fiction; and yet it features characters seem to be possessed by the Witch in an oblique comment on life copying art.

It also repeats the theme of the first film by blurring the lines between fantasy and reality with characters named after the actors who play them and the use of vox pops with real people from Burkittesville in the opening sequences.

Not without enjoyment then, it just depends whether you prefer to be shaken or stirred.