And as a fan, I always wanted to see a more direct sequel to what they were building in the first film. That was really enticing.
Anyone who caught Blair Witch this weekend knows the movie is full of violent paranormal activity and theory-worthy twists. To nestle it into the "Blair Witch" mythology that provoked so many imaginations starting in , Barrett culled from backstory-building material written around the releases of The Blair Witch Project and its sequel, Book of Shadows.
In Blair Witch , six campers retrace Heather, Michael, and Josh's hike through the Black Hills, only to discover that the demonic forces are even fiercer than legend told. Through his new characters' pre-attack banter, Barrett name checks the pillars of the "Blair Witch" myth: there's " Elly Kedward ," the woman from Blair, MD who was burned at the stake for crimes of "witchcraft" back in , only to "return" as a ghost the following year; there's " Eileen Treacle ," a settler of Burkittsville, MD who drowned after a white hand reportedly yanked her into the Tappy East Creek; and there's " Rustin Parr ," a serial killer of children who acted "on instruction" from the "Blair Witch.
Blair Witch makes the case for the latter. In the early stages of Barrett's nightmarish cat-and-mouse game, we see the Black Hills' invisible forces trap the campers in a time-shifting plane of existence. An afternoon amounts to five days for the wandering Land and Talia, the local guides booted by the core group after being total bullshit artists or so everyone assumed.
Barrett says the original movie actually gave us this taste of time travel -- he just blew it out. Barrett won't tell me flat out that his group witnesses their own demises, but he's frank about playing with the mind-boggling logic in the name of scares. If you experienced permanent night and claustrophobia in the woods, it would be incredibly unnerving. There are rock piles, wooden sculptures, and slime. Who could be doing this? Um, Josh…duh! We know that Josh can quietly slip out of the tent without being detected because he disappears toward the end of the film.
They go to bed, they wake up, and Josh is gone. Their concern for his safety is their motivation for running out to the abandoned house to find him. Heather and Mike also see and hear things that may not be real. At one point, they walk south all day but end up in the same place they started.
Is this a supernatural event or are they just lost and roaming around in circles? But how do we explain why Mike would agree to face the corner. In the story of Parr, the children were forced to face the corner because Rustin didn't want them to watch as he killed the other child. The fact that Mike doesn't even appear to be scared, but rather "dazed" or "controlled" by an unseen presence, further validates this notion that Mike was responding to a possessed Josh.
So, in the end, Josh is the most likely candidate to have actually pulled off the killings at the end of the film. The bundle of sticks found wrapped with Josh's flannel shirt has become particularly of interest to many fans of The Blair Witch Project.
What exactly was in the bundle and, if it was Josh's finger, tongue, teeth, bone, etc. Also, since Josh was never officially fingered for the murders the three filmmakers have never been found , could Mike have been involved in the deadly plan that reportedly left all three filmmakers never to be found?
Some speculate that, while Josh was the nicest and most passive of the three, it was Mike who was the weakest of the bunch. After all, he was the one most frightened when the cackling surrounded their tent at night. He was also very vocal about his hesitance to pursue the making of the documentary after they began to experience strange phenomenon in the woods.
Not only that, Mike was the one responsible for kicking the map into the creek — an act which he made sound like was done out of sheer frustration.
Did Mike intentionally sabotage the trio? Were his malicious acts beyond his control? Did The Blair Witch strike first with Mike, propelling him to ditch the map, after which she abducted Josh and used him as human bait.
In the final scene, Mike is the driving force that leads he and Heather into the abandoned building where they meet their fate. Either he was under possession of The Blair Witch or he was part of the human bait used to lure in Heather. With all the talk of who is actually responsible for the murders at the end of the film, you may be surprised to learn that The Blair Witch Project reportedly almost had a completely different ending altogether.
Legend has it that when Artisan Entertainment acquired the micro-budget film for distribution in the late '90s, the first thing they wanted to do was change the ending. Here's what the filmmaker had this to say about it:. At the time we thought it was the right balance between needing a payoff for the audience, yet retaining the mystery of what happened to the filmmakers. Myrick called the process a sort of "backwards engineered" method. It just goes to show you that sometimes the most brilliant, and in this case creepiest, ideas can come at the most unlikely of times.
Fans can start getting excited as Blair Witch 3 is currently in discussions. Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands. Producer Gregg Hale explains: "[Kedward] actually wasn't a witch, but she did a couple of things that kind of made people suspect her. In addition to the creative team's support of this theory, the film itself appears to depict supernatural events. Mike is screaming loudly as he runs through Parr's house in the final minutes of the film, when suddenly his voice cuts off.
If Mike was confronted by a time-traveling Parr, or Josh, or creative rednecks , you'd expect to hear him register some surprise, which the mic on his camcorder would have picked up. He's conscious while facing the corner. That leaves us with the knowledge that whatever, or whoever, lured Mike and Heather into the house was capable of controlling Mike wordlessly, and of silencing him.
Hale implied that the entity doesn't only use Kedward to carry out its evil deeds. Any one of the previous theories could be correct, when you consider that the "entity" had the power of possession. Just when you think you've got The Blair Witch Project figured out, it manages to throw you another curveball. For all the talk of an entity possessing Elly Kedward, Rustin Parr, or any of the other figures who might be responsible for torturing the missing filmmakers, there's someone that's gone unmentioned.
Or rather, a group of someones. Rock gave the inside scoop to Dread Central a few years ago:. We should have known it was the creepy spirit children all along. Their handprints are all over those walls, waving to us.
Don't like that conclusion? How about checking out a few other endings? Several years ago, Sanchez and Myrick confirmed that when Artisan pressured them to change the film's ending to make it more definitive, they ended up shooting four alternate versions that were never used.
During the original shoot, Rock explained that Mike Williams "had thrown his torn bluejeans into the woods by the house," and when he and the crew returned to film the new endings, "they were still there. He dusted them off and put them back on for the re-shoots. These alternate endings, which are very unsubtle, range from seeing Mike surrounded by stickmen figures to him being hung or crucified.
They're pretty universally reviled, so it's a good thing Artisan decided to trust the instincts of their filmmakers. Blair Witch Project Ending Explained. What happened to Josh? There's no place like home. The writing's on the wall. If you're happy and you know it clap your hands. Nobody puts baby in the corner. What happened: The Deliverance theory.
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