Misled by the packaging, I thought this take on Poe's "Tell-tale Heart" would be a dark and disturbing puppet animation a la Jan Svankmajer (what was I thinking? of course there's only one Svankmajer!). I was wrong, horribly wrong. This is a total bore, and it's about as cutting edge as your grandmother's collection of beanie babies. Stick the puphedz in the fireplace where they'll do some good.

I rented Blair Witch 2 because of Berlinger's involvment in the project. Berlinger, the director of BW2, also directed the extremely important Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. Both of these documentaries tell the tale of 3 boys who allegedly embarked upon a ritualistic, occult killing within the seclusion of a wooded area.

The three boys who supposedly committed these crimes were convicted for the following reasons:

1) They wore black clothes and wore their hair long
2) They read books on wicca
3) They listened to hard rock music

Needless to say, these 3 boys did not receive a fair trial. Meanwhile the real killer likely walks the streets.

So here comes BW2, a film that exploits Berlinger's previous involvement with the Paradise Lost documentaries. After all, what is BW2 about? It's about a group of young people (including a gothic girl dressed in black and a wiccan) who embark upon a ritualistic killing in a wooded area.

One of the boys featured in the Paradise Lost film sits on death row, and may very likely be executed if a federal appeal is denied. Berlinger's fictional exploitation of his documentary work serves only to feed the fire that sent these 3 boys to prison in the first place.

Berlinger should be ashamed. His involvement with BW2 is in such horrible taste that I am forced to question the integrity of his work on the Paradise Lost films. You would think that a filmmaker who documents the imprisonment of 3 boys due to hysteria sounding the "reality" of satanic cults would avoid such shlocky, vulgar material.

At one point in BW2, Berlinger coyly self-references his earlier work, as the goth girl states, "I come from a town where wearing black clothes can get you accused of being a murderer." BUt then, of course, the statement is nullified as the goth girl really is a murderer (in Berlinger's film, that is).

BW2 is so narrow minded that it might as well have been made by the people who put the West Memphis Three in prison in the first places. Unfortunately, it would appear that Berlinger is more interested in making a name for himself than he is in honoring the plight of the West Memphis Three.

And that's an unforgiveable compromise.