A few months ago, the veil of secrecy swirling around a movie known asThe Woodswas lifted, as it was revealed to beBlair Witch, a sequel to the 1999 classicThe Blair Witch Project. Despite the early buzz from theComic-Con trailer,Blair Witchwasn’t a hit with critics (36% on Rotten Tomatoes) and it under-performed at the box office ($16.5 million domestic, $25 million worldwide), although it was budgeted at just $5 million. ScreenwriterSimon Barrettrevealed new details while answering a fan’s question on Twitter, which may change your whole perspective on the movie. There will be MASSIVE SPOILERS below, so read on at your own risk.
Blair Witchbrings theterrifying legendof the 1999 cult classicThe Blair Witch Projectinto present day, following a young man named James (James Allen McCune), who sees a tape of his long-missing sister Heather, from the original movie. James gathers a group of his college friends to find his sister in the woods but nothing goes according to plan as they become terrorized by this malevolent presence. Towards the end of the film, most fans assumed that the unique creature seen terrorizing these college students is the actualBlair Witchherself, but writerSimon Barrettrevealed on Twitter that “you don’t see the witch onscreen, that’s someone else!”
Unfortunately, he doesn’t reveal exactly who that “someone else” actually is, but theories have persisted that the creature is actually Heather herself. It has been nearly 20 years since she disappeared in the woods, and it’s possible she could have been transformed into this creature by the actual witch, who we have still yet to see on the big screen. As of now, a follow-up hasn’t been announced for thissurprise sequel, but it’s possible there are plans to expand the mythology even more with another sequel.
While responding to another fan on Twitter,Simon Barrettrevealed that he and directorAdam Wingardwill explain a lot of details on the DVD commentary track, but he added that they still want to leave “some elements mysterious” from thishorror movie. It’s possible that the DVD commentary will also address the fate of Elly Kedward, a woman from Blair in the 1700s who was accused of witchcraft, and has been long believed to be the actual Blair Witch. Elly Kedward was mentioned in this film, and some speculate thatSimon Barrett’s admission could mean Elly Kedward is just a vessel used by the witch.
Elly was left to die in the woods after being tied to a tree, with rocks tied to her limbs, pulling them out of their sockets. The legend of her execution and the appearance of thegruesome creatureitself have lead many to believe that Elly is the Blair Witch, or at least the vessel used by the witch to carry out her haunting ways. It hasn’t been announced yet whenBlair Witchwill be released on Blu-ray and DVD, but after this new revelation, fans may be eagerly awaiting this release, to find out what further details will come out of the DVD commentary. Take a look atSimon Barrett’s tweets below, in response to questions fromBlair Witchfans.
