The Blair Witch Project (1998)

"It's totally like a filtered reality, man. It's like you can pretend that everything's not quite the way it is."

A caption appears:

In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary.

A year later their footage was found.

What follows purports to be an assembly of the footage that was discovered.

Heather Donohue, a young student filmmaker, is planning a trip to the Black Hills Woods to shoot a documentary on the legendary Blair Witch. She is joined by cameraman Joshua Leonard and sound recordist Mike Williams and together they set off for Burkittsville, the nearest town to the Black Hills. They stop off for supplies before shooting their first scene, an introductory sequence set in a graveyard where Heather explains that Burkittsville was once known as Blair and that "an unusually high number" of children appear to have been buried in the graveyard during the 1940s. No-one, it seems, can remember anything unusual having happened at that time - or at least they don't seem willing to talk about it.

Heading back into town, they shoot several interviews with locals who fill in some of the details about the legend. In the 1940s, a hermit named Rustin Parr had lured several children to his remote house in the woods where he had murdered seven of them. Another local tells of how two hunters had vanished in the woods near where the Blair Witch is supposed to lurk. Still others talk about ghosts that haunt the area and that the Blair Witch is all too real.

One lead points them in the direction of local eccentric Mary Brown and the trio set off to get an interview with her. Mary reveals that she had once encountered the Blair Witch out in the woods - while fishing at a creek with her father, Mary had been resting when an old woman with extremely hairy arms and hands had approached her. The woman had removed her shawl to reveal that she was hairy all over.

As they drive away, Heather and Josh discuss Mary's eccentricities and her bizarre claims to be a ballerina, to be in the movie industry and to be writing a book on American history. They also discuss the problems of using a camera that has its lens measurements in metres rather than in feet.

That night, they retire to a local motel where they check that the equipment they've bought with them is working and then rest for the night knowing that the next day they have a very full day ahead of them. Heather obsessively films everything they do.

Next morning, the trio set off to hike through the woods in search of the Blair Witch herself. Along the way they encounter two fishermen who tell them a story about a young girl in the late 1800s, Robin Weaver, who had wandered off into the woods and had vanished. Three days later she had reappeared on her grandmother's porch telling a wild story about the old woman whose "feet never touched the ground." One of the fishermen also tells of seeing a strange vapour that had risen from the creek one night.

The students park their car by the roadside and gather up their cameras, sound gear and camping equipment before setting off into the woods. They are heading for coffin rock, scene of a tale that may be related to the Blair Witch legend. They have no problem finding the rock where Heather reads from a book recanting the tale of how five men had been found tied to together and tortured to death on coffin rock. The bodies had vanished when the search party who found them had gone looking for help...

Satisfied with the footage they had shot, the team set up their tent for the night as the rain starts pouring down. They retire for the night and are still in high spirits, despite Mike's flatulence problems!

Next morning, Josh reveals that he had been woken in the night by strange noises - one of them may have been an owl, but the other, he claims, was a definite cackling sound.

Consulting their map of the area, the team decide to press on further into the woods in search of an old graveyard but Josh and Mike are a little concerned about the accuracy of Heather's map reading having got them a bit lost the day before. They set off, still in high spirits, kidding with each other and generally enjoying their weekend. Heather remains confident that they are on the right trail and that they will reach the graveyard in an hour and a half.

But it soon becomes clear that they are in fact lost and tensions begin to mount, particularly between Heather and Mike. With relationships beginning to break down (Mike resents Heather filming everything) they press on, braving an arduous river crossing over a log bridge. They soon come across a clearing where they find strange piles of rocks neatly stacked on the ground. Heather recalls something that Mary Brown had said about a pile of rocks in the bible, but can't remember exactly what it is. They find seven piles of stones in all.

That night, they build a fire and cook food, some of the tensions having dissipated a little. During the night, Heather takes them back to the rocks to film more footage and one of them knocks over the pile of rocks. Later still, the trio hears strange noises from the woods and they set off to investigate. Something is clearly moving around them, but Mike refuses to leave the tent to help look for it.

Next morning, it's raining harder than ever and the trio discuss the events of the night before. Josh suggests that the noises were caused by local rednecks and Mike agrees, worrying that if someone was prepared to come this far out into the woods just to frighten them, they must be seriously disturbed.

The group decides to head back for the car, Heather continuing to insist that she knows where they are going. As the day progresses and they fail to find their way back to the car, tensions again start to run high and, as the day turns into evening, Heather suggests that they camp for the night. Mike is starting to get increasingly stressed by their predicament, though Heather maintains that they aren't far from where they left the car.

That night, they are again disturbed by strange noises around them in the dark. They again go outside to see what's causing it and hear what seems to be trees being knocked over and other strange sounds. Josh suggests that it's probably deer, but Heather isn't so sure, noting that "it's on all sides of us" and that the sounds are like footsteps.

Next morning, they find three piles of rocks that have mysteriously appeared overnight surrounding their tent. Heather films the rock piles, to the dismay of Mike and Josh who just want to get home. But things are about to get worse - the map has disappeared. Heather had it in her trousers the night before, but it's gone now and the two men deny having seen it. They are now completely lost and have no way of finding their way back to the car... Josh implies that Heather has deliberately lost or hidden it to keep them all in the woods to complete her movies.

Unwilling to give up, the trio keep on following the creek hoping that it will eventually lead them somewhere. Josh reasons that someone will start looking for them when they don't return.

They come to a river which again proves difficult to cross and already frayed tempers are stretched almost to breaking point, with Mike now acting even less rationally than ever. Heather is angry that the men are laughing at her when her shoes become waterlogged and a near hysterical Mike admits that he threw the map into the creek because he felt it was useless. Mike and Josh almost come to blows and Heather screams abuse at him, becoming even more hysterical than Mike.

The relationship between the three is now completely broken down and they waste time arguing over who is going to hold the compass and apportioning blame. Eventually, after continuing south for a while, Mike and Josh simply stop and refuse to go any further. But in a nearby clearing, Mike finds strange stick figures hanging from trees, dozens of them, some in the shape strange runic symbols, others clearly meant to represent human forms. Heather films the totems for a while before Mike and Josh demands that they leave the area. Mike screams hysterically for help, reasoning that rednecks have followed them and made the figures.

That night, they decide not to light a fire and to extinguish all lights in the hops that it won't give away their position and hence won't attract attention to themselves. But they are again all woken by strange sounds, including what appears to a baby screaming. As they are listening, something attacks the tent. All three flee into the night, still filming everything as they go and they spend the rest of the night cowering in the darkness.

At day beak they return to the tent and Josh finds that all of his belongings have been scattered around the clearing and is covered with some strange slimy substance. They also find another of the wooden stick insect fashioned from twigs and vines. Finally sickened by her insistent filming of everything, Mike attacks Heather and tries to get her precious video camera away from her.

They again press on and Josh seems to be on the verge of losing it, becoming moody and depressed, wandering off to sit on his own. Mike and Heather forge an uncomfortable alliance, trying to hold the group together. Mike argues that whatever is stalking them will return and that they must keep moving, while Heather maintains that it's simply impossible for someone just to vanish in America.

Later, they come to a river and, panic-stricken, realise that it's the same river they struggled across the previous day - they've been going round in circles. Mike rushes off ranting angrily while Heather collapses in tears. They're now desperate and have no idea where they should go - they've been heading south all day and they've simply ended up where they started from and Heather has no explanation for it.

Josh's anger and frustration finally boils over and, turning the camera on Heather, taunts her about her ambition and obsession that has led to them being lost, cold and hungry. Mike tries to calm things down but Josh persists and torments Heather until she again breaks down in tears.

Night falls again and they are forced to sleep in pretty much the same place as they slept the night before. They're now too tired and emotional to fight any more and as they discuss the food they miss the most, Heather repairs a hole in Mike's jeans.

Next morning, Heather and Mike wake to find that Josh has vanished. They search the area around the camp site but there's no sign of him. Mike believes that Josh has simply gone off for some time alone, but even after they've packed up and broken down the tent, there's no sign of him.

Totally demoralised and clearly very disturbed, Heather and Mike move on, trying to keep each others spirits up. Night again falls and they again wake to hear strange noises in the woods, including what seems to be Josh's agonised screams. They stumble around in the dark looking for him, but there's no sign of him and it's impossible to tell which direction the screaming is coming from.

At daybreak, Heather finds a strange bundle of sticks held together with twine sitting on the ground outside the tent. She nervously picks it up and throws it away. Heather and Mike are now just too exhausted to move on and they spend the rest of the morning comforting each other. Later, Heather finds another of the bundles of twigs, this time with something inside - she opens it and finds a piece of the material from Josh's shirt wrapped around an unidentifiable piece of viscera, part of which looks like it might be a bloody tooth.

Heather rushes to the nearby stream and washes her hands in panic before putting on her pack and joining Mike on another fruitless hike through the woods. Their meanderings are becoming ever more random and directionless as their mental states rapidly collapse. Mike is even driven to eating dry leaves to help alleviate the hunger.

That night, Heather videotapes a confessional, apologising to her mother and to Mike and Josh's parents for her naiveté, accepting full blame for what has happened on the ill-fated expedition. She realises that her dogmatism and pig-headedness are what has led them to being where they are.
They again Josh's voice in the night pleading for someone to help him and they abandon the tent to go in search of him. Following his voice, Heather and Mike find a derelict house in a clearing and goes inside where they see runic symbols on the wall next to child sized hand prints. Josh's voice seems to be coming from somewhere inside the house and Mike rushes upstairs in search of him.

Mike then realises that the voice is in fact coming from the basement and rushes down the steps where something unseen attacks him. A hysterical Heather follows and briefly spots Mike standing in the corner of the room, staring at the wall. Heather is also attacked, her discarded camera still continuing to film for a few seconds afterwards...
KEVIN LYONS