FILMMAKERS PERPETUATE 'SHADOWS' ONLINE.

Byline: David Bloom Staff Writer

Last year, ``The Blair Witch Project'' was something of a stealth film, sneaking up on mainstream media through an almost accidentally brilliant online site that explored the fabricated legend behind the movie, ginned up huge underground interest and boosted the low-budget sleeper to $140 million worth of blockbuster status.

This year, there will be no such surprises when ``Book of Shadows Blair Witch 2'' hits screens Oct. 27. But there will still be a massive online presence for the movie, including a three-day, live ``Webfest'' that begins today.

That's not all that's happening, as Artisan and its partners hope to conjure up millions of dollars from bewitched ``Blair'' fans by offering three eagerly awaited computer games, a book released this summer, and another hourlong TV special on the Sci-Fi channel that again layers a patina of police-investigation reality on a purely fictional world.

It's all about fleshing out the fearsome bones of the Blair Witch mythology, said Amorette Jones, worldwide marketing executive vice president for Artisan Pictures, which is distributing the ``Blair Witch'' movies.

And because that mythology is so rich, there are many ways new movies, games, books and Web sites can be spun out into still more Blair Witch tales, Jones said.

``That was the concept when we went out to do deals with publishers and gaming developers: 'This is something your readers will be entertained by,' '' said Jones. ``You can even extend that to the TV specials. Each is entertaining and intriguing, and then you couple them with a feature movie. You've got to connect the dots, basically.''

The Webfest, which runs from 9 a.m. PST today to 1 a.m. Oct. 21 at www.blairwitchwebfest.com, will feature a variety of both text-based and 3-D avatar-based chat rooms, focusing on not only the movie but also related science-fiction, supernatural and horror subjects.

To spice up the conversations, the film's cast and director, science-fiction buffs, investigators of the supernatural and followers of Wicca, among others, will join in, Jones said.

The Webfest also will feature online performances by bands that appear on the ``Book of Shadows'' soundtrack, including Godhead and Poe; conceptions of the Blair Witch by ``Spawn'' comic creator Todd McFarlane; and specialized content from Fangoria magazine, Jones said.

More than 20,000 people had already registered at the site for the Webfest by the end of last week, Jones said. And once the Webfest is over, some of the highlights of the three days will be ``canned'' and made available over the next several weeks on the main movie site, www.blairwitch.com.

For people with high-speed Net connections, broadband site StreamSearch has just launched a Blair Witch ``channel'' that will run its own bandwidth-hogging goodies, including behind-the-scenes video, film clips, contests, premiere footage, even material on related science- fiction and horror topics, said StreamSearch's Molly Mulloy.

The channel can be reached through http://bw.ss.com, and will remain in operation throughout the film's first run of the next several weeks, Mulloy said.

A more intriguing exegesis began hitting store shelves a couple of weeks ago, with the arrival of the first of three computer games based on older parts of the Blair Witch Mythology.

The first game, Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr, is set in 1941, decades before the two movies, and follows the story of a hermit who lived in the Blair Witch woods and was hanged for killing seven youths. A book titled ``The Confessions of Rustin Parr,'' which hit stands in mid-August, further explores that story line.

The next two games, which arrive in the next four weeks, are Blair Witch Volume 2: The Legend of Coffin Rock and Blair Witch Volume 3: The Elly Kedward Tale.

The Blair Witch games are the product of an unusual collaboration by three game development companies, working under the auspices of the game publisher/collective, Gathering of Developers.

The companies - Terminal Reality, Ritual Entertainment and Human Head Studios - shared technologies so they could complete the games quickly enough to debut about the same time as the sequel. But each company was responsible for making its own title, based on different corners of the Blair Witch mythology, and on different gaming genres.

``We've got a very tight relationship with them,'' Jones said of Artisan's work with the developers. ``They will be premiering elements of the second game during Webfest.''

The games are based in part on the excellent gaming ``engine'' at the heart of a previous G.O.D. game, Nocturne. Like that creepy ``horror- survival'' title, Rustin Parr involves a dark supernatural detective story following a member of a shadowy government agency called the Spookhouse.

Vol. 2 is set after the Civil War, while Vol. 3 goes back to 1786, when the title character, Elly Kedward, is banished from town for witchcraft. A possible third ``Blair Witch'' movie also may be set in the same time frame as Vol. 3, Jones said.

``Actually what we did, based on that long-standing legend, were some principal parts of the story,'' Jones said. ``What we did is take the essential elements of the legend, the bullet points, and gave them to G.O.D. Games. We allowed them to take the parameters and apply them to the gaming elements that we know would appeal to their consumers.''

As with the first movie, this year's release will be preceded by an hourlong TV special depicting a police investigation of Blair Witch disappearances on the Sci-Fi Channel, on Oct. 22, Jones said.

This time, the special follows the faux investigation of one character's shady dealings after he leads the winners of a gimmicky contest on a search for the original movie's three missing main characters.

``Those are really the cornerstones,'' Jones said of the various other Blair Witch creations debuting alongside the movie. ``Especially when you talk about weaving the intricacies of this mythology. You're able to relate the complexity of the backstory, whether you're playing the games, or exploring the Web site, or reading the books, or watching the TV special.''