The Blair Witch Project

Plot synopsis:
Three film students go to Burkittsville, Maryland to make a documentary on the Blair Witch legend. The director is Heather Donahue (Heather Donahue), her main cameraman is Joshua Leonard (Joshua Leonard) and Michael Williams (Michael C. Williams) is the sound crew. The three go missing, but a year later their footage is found in a bag inexplicably buried under an abandoned 100-year-old house.According to legend, the Blair Witch is the ghost of Elly Kedward of the late 1700s, whom several children accused of luring them into her home to draw blood from them. Kedward is found guilty of witchcraft, banished from the village during a particularly harsh winter, and presumed dead. By midwinter, all of Kedward's accusers, along with half of the town's children, vanish. Fearing a curse, the townspeople flee Blair and vow never to utter Elly Kedward's name again.In 1825, 11 witnesses testify to seeing a pale woman's hand reach up and pull ten-year-old Eileen Treacle into Tappy East Creek. Her body is never recovered, and for thirteen days after the drowning the creek is clogged with oily bundles of sticks. In 1886, eight-year-old Robin Weaver is reported missing and search parties are dispatched. Although Weaver returns, one of the search parties does not. Their bodies are found weeks later at Coffin Rock tied together at the arms and legs and disemboweled. In 1941, starting with Emily Hollands, a total of seven children are abducted from the area surrounding Burkittsville. A hermit named Rustin Parr walks into a local market and tells the people there that he is "finally finished." After the police hike for four hours to his secluded house in the woods, they find the bodies of seven missing children in the cellar. Each child has been ritualistically murdered and disemboweled. Parr admits to everything in detail, telling authorities that he did it for "an old woman ghost" who occupied the woods near his house. He is quickly convicted and hanged.The three filmmakers interview the "country bumpkin" types of Burkittsville, who seem equally enjoying being on camera and mystified as to why they'd want to make this film. Heather interviews Mary Brown (Patricia DeCou), an elderly and quite insane woman who has lived in the area all her life who claims to have seen the Blair Witch one day near Tappy Creek in the form of a hairy, half-human, half-animal beast. Two anglers tell Heather that Coffin Rock is less than 20 minutes from town, and the three decide to make the woods of the Blair Witch the centerpiece of their film.After enjoying a drunken night at their motel, Heather, Josh, and Mike park and go into the woods with a map of the logging trail. After hiking a few miles into woods that seem far larger than they'd appeared from the outside, they film the creek where the Coffin Rock massacre occurred. Satisfied with their footage, the three set up their tent when it starts to rain. They remain in high spirits through the night, despite Mike's flatulence. The next morning, Joshua claims he heard strange noises during the night, one of them he's determined was cackling.Consulting their map, 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 gotten them a bit lost the previous day. They set off, still in high spirits, kidding with each other and generally enjoying their weekend. While Heather remains confident that they are on the right trail and that they will reach the graveyard in an hour and a half, it soon becomes clear that they are in fact lost, and tensions begin to mount, both men resenting that Heather continues to film while they're lost. 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 a 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 spook them, they must be seriously disturbed.The group decides to head back for the car, Heather continuing to insist that she knows where they're 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 them, to the dismay of Mike and Josh, who just want to get home. But things are about to get worse: The map has disappeared. While it had been in Heather's trousers the night before, 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 follow 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 the breaking point, with Mike now behaving 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 as he felt it was useless. Mike and Josh nearly come to blows and Heather screams abuse at Josh, 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 shapes of strange runic symbols, others clearly meant to represent human forms. Heather films the totems for a while before Mike and Josh demand that they leave the area. Mike screams hysterically for help, reasoning that rednecks have followed them and fashioned the figures.That night, they decide not to light a fire and to extinguish all lights in the hope that it won't give away their position and hence won't attract attention, yet they are again all woken by strange sounds, including what appears to a baby screaming. As they are listening, their tent starts shaking. All three flee into the night, still filming everything as they go; they spend the rest of the night cowering together in the darkness.At daybreak they return to the tent, where Josh finds that all of his belongings have been scattered around the clearing and are covered with a strange, slimy substance. They also find another of the wooden stick figures 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 to simply 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, i.e., they've been going around 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 campsite, 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 very disturbed, Heather and Mike move on, trying to keep each others spirits up. Night again falls and they again wake to strange noises in the woods, including what seem 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 on the ground outside the tent, which she nervously picks up and tosses away. Heather and Mike are now just too exhausted to move on, and 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 fabric from Josh's shirt wrapped around hair, an unidentifiable piece of viscera, and what appears to be teeth, all bloodied. Heather breaks into hysterics, rushes to the nearby stream and washes her hands 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 his hunger.That night, Heather videotapes a confessional, apologising to her mother and to Mike and Josh's parents for her naivety and 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 where they are. Later in the dead of night, they again hear Josh's voice, closer this time, pleading for someone to help him, and they abandon the tent to go in search of him.Following Josh's voice, Heather and Mike find a derelict house in a clearing and go inside, where they see runic symbols on the wall next to child-sized handprints. Josh's voice seems to be coming from somewhere inside the house, and Mike rushes upstairs in search of Josh. Mike then realizes that the voice is now in fact coming from the basement, and rushes down the steps. Suddenly, Mike is rendered silent and the camera falls. A hysterical Heather follows and sees Mike in the corner of the room, face against the wall. Suddenly Heather's camera is knocked down and she too is rendered silent. The film runs for a few seconds. then dies.

Tags: dark, comedy, boring, paranormal, cult, horror, atmospheric, tragedy, suspenseful

Review:
If I see a believable character screaming in hysterical fear at something I cannot see, my own brain creates demons for my night's dreams, demons far more mighty than anything CGI graphics or a latex mask could portray.This film will stay in your thoughts for some while..
"The Blair Witch Project" is one darn good movie.Many critics and moviegoers complained about the film for its length, its amateurish photography/editing, and its lack of adequate acting.
You've met people like them.The biggest complaint, however, comes from the film's supposed "lack" of scary moments.
This film reminds me of the classic horror film "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre," and though not as gory and as shocking as that film, "The Blair Witch Project" shows just enough fright in the group's search for a way out of the woods, stalked by people and/or things they may never understand.
The interviews, which also sound real and not rehearsed in any way, are like movie reviews: the critics tell you what they saw, but mostly they don't want to ruin it for you...unless they hated it.And that's what I'll do.
Without the overpowering F/X and music score most movies rely on to 'scare' you, if you still have an imagination left what is implied becomes a hundred times scarier than anything offered up by Hollywood in the last 30 years.
Blair Witch is the horror movies we have been needing for a long time and I'm glad someone finally had the guts to make it..
I've never seen the tide turn on movie reviews before like I did in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.
Then, when everyone found out it was fake, I heard all sorts of bad things about it.THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is about three young filmmakers, Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Josh Leonard (actors with same names as their characters), go out into the woods of Burkittesville, Maryland to do a documentary on the mythical Blair Witch.
I think the scariest part is how you don't see as much as you hear, because often the sound is 10 times worse than the thing making the sound.This movie isn't too scary, but if you watch it in the middle of the night with all your lights off and alone, it will successfully freak you out.
The less you know about this creepy little chiller, the better.Filmed on video and 16mm black & white, this film is exactly what the horror genre needs in a time reminiscent of the early 1980s slasher onslaught.
The true horror behind this film is the unknown, and those dark places where you know something is lurking.If you are a seasoned veteran of the horror cinema, The Blair Witch Project may be less frightening than for someone who has not seen many scary movies.
Sitting in a theater surrounded by my friends with popcorn in my lap and watching Mike and Heather run around some creepy old house, I felt for the first and last time in my adult life *real, creeping fear* when I myself was not in danger.Many have complained about the shaky-cam, the cussing, how nothing 'really happens', and that it's not scary.
That's not a flaw of the movie- it's realism and part of why so many more young people found TBWP scary.I think at least some of the dissention in opinions is caused by generational and cultural differences.
The scariest thing I ever saw until I watched this movie was a reel in a collection of horror shorts: a woman walks into her house carrying groceries, drops her keys down her heating vent, bends down to try to get them, and something grabs her scarf.
so one year lated i rented it again to see "what was i missing???"well i am missing a brain for thinking that it might improve with age or a second time aroundit doesn't ==== as a matter of fact it gets worse.i don't get the big deal -=------ it is NOT scary, NOT entertaining, does NOT hold your interest, it does NOT have good characters, it does NOT make you think.
I don't need expensive cinematography or stellar acting, but a film does need something to redeem itself (other than a sophomoric, if marginally clever, idea), and this film did not have it.It is unfortunate that a bad movie has come to represent to many the epitome of independent cinema.
Let's put it this way -- if I took a few of my friends into the woods, with a video camera, and made scary noises at them so that they could pretend to scream, it would undoubtedly be scarier and superior to this movie.
I'd confidently say that this film has got to be one of the biggest movie-swindles ever perpetrated on a completely unsuspecting audience.With a devilishly clever publicity campaign to fuel its release, The Blair Witch Project (TBWP, for short) became the 2nd most successful "indie" film of all time, grossing nearly $250 million.
TBWP was shot in a matter of just 8 days and all of the dialogue was, pretty much, improvised.TBWP tells the tale of 3 young Film Students who hike out into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland to film a documentary about a local legend known as The Blair Witch.The viewer is told that these 3 students were never found, although their video and sound equipment (along with the footage they shot) was discovered a year later.In my opinion, TBWP completely fails to deliver on all counts.*Trivia Note* - Throughout the course of the story the word "Fukk" was spoken 154 times.
`The Blair Witch Project' is not a typical film that the typical cinema-going public would normally be exposed to.
This movie is virtually all style-there's hardly any plot, no real action, no semblance of a real script-and one that works on a deeper psychological level than the standard mainstream horror film.
Just when I thought it was coming to the big climax at the end in the house, nothing happens....big surprise.This movie is a complete waste of time..there is nothing scary about it unless you find filming shots of the woods, watching swearing teens, listening to a high pitched annoying girl voice (that was pretty scary), watching film from inside a tent with cheap sound effects playing outside, or watching a wobbly camera run through the woods at night (cant see anything), then you should skip this movie.
I've never seen BWP 2, but it's anything like this movie, it will be equally bad if not worse, because I would have to waste another 90 minutes of my life..
I saw this thing three times, and while it's got a great idea, and it's not terrible for a student film say, it's far far too long and boring for the one trick it's got to pull, I simply am at a loss as to how so many people can allegedly have loved this thing..
The style of shooting was as expected, shaky hand held camera, which fitted the premise of the film, but you felt like you were watching an amateur film by school kids rather than actual footage of a real event which it was supposed to depict.Normally I expect a horror to get my heart racing a few times, and have some surprises, but the plot was too obvious, there were no surprises, nothing that would make you jump.I would not recommend this to any film buff, ignore the hype and skip this film..
Shot primarily with a poor quality video (which appears to pre-date steadyshot), "Blair Witch" should have had a hard time getting into student film and video festivals based on the poor visual and sound quality alone.
This is the movie that puts the 'horror' in horrible."Blair Witch" is supposed to be about the making of a documentary.
Do stick figures made of wood, and the sounds of nearby "filmmakers" making funny noises in the woods give you the creeps?...if so, you might actually find this frightening.Well, as audiences everywhere are finding out (as Cinemascore is indicating), "The Blair Witch Project" is not a good film, and certainly not what they were told it would be.
Some observations:Anyone who thinks this movie is scary has lived a sheltered life, indeed.Those who gave this dreck anything higher than a "5" probably bought pet rocks when they were on the market.This flick will go down in history as another "Billy Jack." (Remember it was getting high ratings for the first few years.)As far as one of the producers saying he noticed people vomiting after having seen the movie, they were probably made physically ill at having thought of being ripped off like they had been.This flick sucks beyond words.....
Blair Witch Scam Project - One of the worst films ever made.
*** This comment contains spoilers *** As a fan of movies and horror films for 45 years, I've seen a lot, and I have to say that BWP is a totally amateurish piece of junk.To call this a "film" is laughable.
This was not a film; it was just a mechanism to cheat people out of their money.I would rather watch Robot Monster ten times than ever see BWP again..
A baby's giggle can be heard during one spellbinding scene when the tent the 3 students sleep in takes on a life of its own.Much has been made about a similar film made in similar fashion by some other young auteurs well before THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was released.
The Blair Witch Project has to be the worst movie I've ever seen.
its one of the worst films i have seen,plan 9 from outer space was more entertaining ,if you like a good night at the cinema this is not it.
"The Blair Witch Project" is in my mind the worst movie in history.
1 THE SCAM Apparently there is a very scary film called "The Blair Witch Project".
Had the Blair Witch makers attempted to engineer the soundtrack and sound effects more professionally I believe they could have turned a deeply s**t movie into one that was at least acceptably a bit prone to cause viewers to worry, a little.
In the case of Blair Witch the film would benefit from having about 75 minutes cut out of its approximately 90 minute running time.
I watched the Blair Witch Project with a dozen other people, who also heard all the hype about this new horror flick and we were anticipating the big "scary" moment(s) to come.
The film is mostly comprised of the three characters arguing and fighting (the girl is especially annoying), them running around at night screaming (as if that's supposed to scare the viewers), sticks hanging on the trees and gathered stones, and of course the grand finale which leaves the viewers numb with utter disappointment.
Again, the premise of the movie has (or had) a lot of potential but it nowhere near lives up to its hype...It is one of the most (if not the) boring movies I've ever seen and a total waste of time and money...Our group was so bored after watching the "Project" that we ended up watching a video of the Matrix afterwards...A generous 1 (out of 10) for the Blair Witch Project.
I am absolutely serious when I say I was rooting for the witch, by the way, but she took too long.I was not scared at any point during this film.
The only good thing about this movie is that it IS only 80 minutes long - which reduces the amount of time you have to endure.
This film had no such director.This film should have been left buried under the foundation of the 'Blair witch house.' I would not ever see this again, even if offered a large sum of money, for fear that it might encourage these people further..
It is to the "Blair Witch" filmmakers' (and I am talking about Myrick and Sanchez, not Donahue, Leonard, and Williams) great credit that for the most part, they get away with the central conceit that three tired, hungry, lost, and above all, frightened-out-of-their-minds documentarians would still keep rolling footage under the dire circumstances in which they find themselves -- for that is one of the movie's only shortcomings (even though the majority of the audience won't notice or won't mind).
I went to this film after listening to all the hype expecting to be scared or at least shocked a little, instead I couldn't wait to leave the theater.
And I was right.When I finally got to see the Blair Witch Project, first I started with a healthy curiosity - that turned to total boredom after the first 10 minutes of seeing some stupid brats running in circles through the woods.
It's not the scariest movie of all time, it's the best scary movie!(understand?)  This movie is about the journey three kids take from being cocky film students, to whimpering, naive, and terrrified little children lost within a dark woods and becoming the prey of an urban legend.
This movies tries to slowly build up the tension with the kids lost in the woods and vague hints that there might be something else out there too that's going to get them but it is a long time in before anything actually happens.This might work if the characters were sympathetic and compelling but actually they are whiny, annoying, pathetic brats.
I wonder why people are making such a big hype for this movie it's really boring and it's not scary at all and it is so difficult to understand what's going on in this movie where's the witch where's the scare one wonders after watching 39 minutes of the first movie with simply mindless dialogue of these three friends arguing with each other i almost gave up but wanted to keep watching because people said such good things about this movie i was expecting something along the lines of Eli Roth's cabin fever but this was depressing even the money and the marketing that went into this movie is a waste it's not even much of a movie or at least it's not shot in that format for those of you who don't believe me watch it for yourself it's not satisfying..
Okay, I really doesn't scare easily, but what's wrong with this movie is that all of the characters are so annoying, that after less than half an hour you're just looking forward to see them get killed in some bizarre way.
I can not even image why anyone with a mind could consider this a "good" movie let alone a masterpiece of some kind, it was completely pointless and a waste of my time.After I watched the film I just assumed that everyone considered this movie an absolute joke and a complete rip off but much to my chagrin this movie became adored by millions.
I saw this on cable last week, and it was the worst movie I've seen in a long time.
I'll start off by saying that these hand camera movies always revolve around a horrific storyline, like say, there just happens to be a random witch living in the woods and Cloverfield sucked as well.
By the time this so called "film" was over, I was literally thinking "Wow, I can't believe I actually just wasted an hour and a half of my life on that!" Literally, the whole movie is just the people walking through the woods screaming the f word at the top of their longs for 81 minutes!
Several members of the audience, including me, said in unison, "That was it?"That more or less describes my feelings about "The Blair Witch Project." When it first came out in the summer of '99, a fellow told me that it was the scariest film he'd ever seen.
Since I love being scared, I eagerly went to the theater, thinking I was in for the experience of a lifetime.The movie tells the story of three college kids who do a research assignment, go on a long camping trip into the woods, and ultimately lose their way.
But one thing a good horror movie absolutely must do is establish a real threat, something that "The Blair Witch Project" does not do.In the early scenes, I was unable to make sense out of the local legends the kids were investigating.
Probably one of the worst horror films ever made and I've seen a lot of bad ones..
So yeah I finally just watched The Blair Witch Project for the first time ever, and I realize this review is about 15 yrs too late, but I honestly can say, that was one of the worst pieces of garbage ever captured on video.
Actually, I spent more time to stiffle my laughter than anything else.I know what some of you are thinking, "The movie is trying to portray the emotion they are going through being lost out there.
For me a movie with bad camera work reflects the disrespect the director has for the film itself.
"Blair Witch" is one of those movies that either lives or dies on whether or not you're really, really scared of the things that go bump in the night.
This thing probably would make a good five-minute campfire story, but for crying out loud, why make something that goes on for so long but, like our heroes, really doesn't go much of anywhere by the end?Having said this, sure, most of you are going to go see this movie anyhow.
This was one of the worst films I've ever seen, and not scary in the least.
I can't believe that people liked this movie, let alone got scared because of it.
Don't waste your time or money on this film!.
If you want to see a good movie scary thriller see the Sixth Sense, don't waste your time or money on this film..
But, the movie is a total waste of time if you're looking to be scared, like many said.
I thought that "The Blair Witch Project" was overrated and not very scary.