The True Story Behind "The Blair Witch Project" (Spoilers)

The Blair Witch Project was made in 1999, edited and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. This fantastic horror film was put together in a week with three actors, and an extremely low budget of $60,000. This movie took viewers by surprise of their purposful, ameture camera shots and amazing actors. The movie was so believable that families of the actors even got sympathy cards thinking their children were dead. Although that sacre of the Blair Witch being real has long past we all know this amazing horror movie is in fact fantasy. But I wish to prove the Blair Witch herself is another fiction within this terrifying fiction, fic-ception. Through this whole movie we are we are lead to believe our beloved filmmakers, Josh, Heather, and Mike. Are being constantly terrorised by an evil supernatural force, aka the Blair Witch herself. But after watching the movie myself, I believe the terrifying events are far from supernatural. Instead all this is an intricate and extremely thought out set up for the perfect murder.

Before you completely disagree, or log off this page, let’s back up a few hours to where the movie starts. Heather is a student filmmaker looking to do a documentary on the strange legend of the Blair Witch. She looks to get help from her friend Josh to run the camera. Josh decides to bring along his friend Mike to handle sound. Now let me make this clear, Mike and Heather have never met each other. Evidence of this when they two go to pick up Mike from his house Hether distinctly says, “I guess you you’re Mike! How are you Mike? Nice to meet you.” This is also confirmed in Heather's journals, also made by the creators as an online viral marketing campaign. Page two Hether writes, “As far as Mike goes, I don’t know him. But I think he’ll be alright though.” As for Josh we do know he is Heather's friend, but it’s not quite clear the specific relationship between Heather and Josh. Yes, they know each other but there’s more to it. The initial concept was that Josh and Heather were boyfriend and girlfriend, and had broken up still remaining friends. It says on the films website this idea was later scrapped before shooting, but the actors still seemed to roll with the idea. Although if there is some sort of past relationship, it’s extremely subtle on screen, but the journal gives hints to it. On page thirteen, as the filmmakers prepare to go on their trip, Heather writes, “Josh does not listen to me at all and he’s suppose to be my friend. Mike is more respectful and I don’t know **** about him.” A few days later in the journal after the journey into the woods started, Hether writes on page sixteen, “Josh, well, he;s always a surprise.” It seems even before everything goes bad, Josh is always antagonistic towards Hether.

With that said, what’s stranger is neither Mike nor Josh are getting paid for their work. It’s never mentioned in the movie but Heather writes on page twelve, “Even though I’m not paying them, I have sunk a lot of money in.” and page twenty, “Still they are working hard and FREE.” they are working for free on a movie that takes you into the deep wilderness in the cold and rain all while carrying heavy film equipment. Maybe Josh is doing it because he’s a good friend, but Mike is staying a week with a complete stranger. Why you may ask? Heather even say it herself, “No one knows we’re out here.” So with that said this project gives the boys a perfect opportunity to kill Hether.

Looking at Josh and Mike’s behavior on film brings up some red flags. First, Hether is the one who planned the whole journey and found the certain places she wanted to film. Heather shows she has a map, that Mike mentions looks like greek to him. Heather says to the guys that she understands it and can use it. So to be the only one who can read the map and set the course you would think Either would be leading the group every step of the way. Wrong! Every time they show the three walking along, Mike and Josh are always in front. That’s not ot, about half of the movie is dedicated to arguing about the map. And if you keep an ear out for how many times the map is handed off and to who, you see something not quite right. Let go through it, the crew goes to certain locations to film and decide to start heading back to the car. Heather begins to use the map to guide the along the shortest possible route to back where they parked. But as the start back Mike and Josh start to argue about nothing looking the same as when they first walked out. Heather explains, “That was the most direct way to hit the two locations… Now this is the direct way back to the car.” Which makes logical sense, they were taking another way back so of course things would look different. But the guys start literally refusing to talk, and Josh demands to see the map. We don’t see the hand off as the film cuts to then camping at night. But it’s safe to assume Josh now has the map. And then the next morning the map is missing. Josh and Heather Argue who had the mpa last. Heather pointing out she gave it to Josh after he demanded it, which we saw in the scene before. But Josh claims he gave it back to Hther, which is something we did not see. Because of the missing map, the relies on where Mike says to go. His reasoning of the way to walk was, “That’s the way we’ve been going for a ****in’ day.

Now after the group decides to follow Mike, Josh and Mike start laughing and joking as if nothing is happening. At this point the three know they are being followed by something and have no definite way to get home. Yet they are laughing? Heather takes note of this strange behavior and gets suspicious, even calling them out. “I thought you wanted to get to the car… This just seems like you guys are having a little too much fun for my taste,” is what Heather says. Then Mike admits he kicked the map into the creek! Wait? What? Turns out Mike determined the map was useless and kicked it into the creek they were camping by. Well as some people think it was just an idiotic move, it could have been a strategic one. Think about it, there are two ways Mike could have done this. One the map was left unattended and two Mike got it from Josh. Either one it’s a move that puts more of my suspension on the two guys. Now that the map is lost Hether demands the compass from Mike, and once Hther gets it Josh humidity goes to take it from her. So the only other way of navigation is controlled by the two guys. The the three decide to follow the creek until they hit something. Which is a brilliant survival plan. Despite everyone agreeing to this, at exactly 4:22, the guys just stop and change course. Hether does ask why they had done this but she gets absolutely no response. As they walk around scarring Hether for a few days and then leading her to the murder house.

But back up a second, yeah Josh and Mike are sure acting strange, but what about all those supernatural hominins that happened? But the thing is, there aren't any supernatural anything happening. Night one Josh says he heard some kind of cackling through the night. Mike and Heather both say they heard no such thing. The first seed of fear that Josh puts into Heather's mind. The second, when the three woke up there were piles of stones surrounding their tent. Now even though Heather points out she didn’t see these before and it’s kinda creepy just random rock piles show up, it’s not supernatural. The first night after Josh says he heard cackling Heather admits, “I sleep like a ****ing rock.” Which means because Heather is such a heavy sleeper anyone could leave the tent, collect some rocks, set them out in piles, and go back to sleep without Hether noticing. Not to mention later on Josh upright disappears, which means anyone can come in and leave the tent easily without anyone noticing. But then there that bundle of sticks tied my Josh’s shirt. Josh was already gone at this point giving him all the opportunity to get some sticks and tie them up with the shirt he was wearing. But then there’s that pouch with hair, blood, and human teeth. Josh could cut his hair and his hand with little to no pain, as for the teeth? If this is a murder plot this was planned way before they left, which means they could go to a dentist and get human teeth from there. That’s what the makers of this movie did, so why shouldn’t it work for these boys? I mean it’s implied that they’re suppose to be Josh’s but seriously no one is doing DNA tests out there. But then there are those sounds at night. Mike is a sound guy, that’s what he goes to school for. He would have the skills to rig up speakers or something to seem like noises coming from nowhere. In the journal Hether calls them out on pages eighteen, twenty-one, and twenty-three, saying, “I don’t believe they’re sleeping… The guys asleep - beginning to scare me… I have no idea how they can sleep.” How they can sleep my dear Heather is because they know this is all fake. Even Hether notices, “Every time we fall asleep is… when something bad happens.” Why doesn’t the witch come after them when they're awake and out of their tent?

Now for the determined skeptics, hi how ya doin. You might say but we see at least Heather and Mike be attacked. Well half right. We hear Josh’s screams deep in the night and so to the surviving filmmakers. Mike takes camera running into the night to find Josh. A guy we see before refusing to leave the tent when they all hear some strange sounds in the night. Now he’s going to run to the aid of his friend the presumed was dead? Not only that Mike seems to know the exact way to get to the murder house. When he should have never seen the place before, and he knows exactly where the front door is. Inside the house they hear Josh’s screams and Mike says they’re coming from upstairs. Again never being in this house Mike can easily find the stairs and runs up them effortlessly. Once upstairs he thinks the screams are actually coming from downstairs, which can we acknowledge that? How can you mistake a noise from coming upstairs or downstairs. Second as he’s dragging Hether along in this wild goose chase, he yells what he’s doing when Heather is actually right next to him. As if to signal someone who is in the house. So mike runs downstairs, and again as i he’s been here before. He finds the cellar effortlessly. Then the camera is dropped and we believe the Blair Witch has attacked him. But once Hether is down she sees Mike just standing in the corner, and she is attacked from behind. Now let’s say for a second this is the Blair Witch. Why would she take the time to first knock out Mike them possess him to stand in the corner to distract Hether and then attack her? To me it doesn’t make logical sense. What does in Mike goes downstairs as another waits in the darkness. Mike drops the camera and stands in the corner. Heather comes down distracted by the creepiness and the person hiding attacks her. And if this was the case, the only other person in the film that was missing from the last scene was Josh. A perfect murder to look supernatural.

Now as many may know a sequel to the Blair Witch project is already out in theaters. I haven't seen it myself but I will soon. I’ll have to see the information from this to see if my theory could still be completely possible.