Episode 5 - Blair Witch (2016)

Join us in the Black Hills Forest where a young man and his group of friends are led by two locals to uncover the mystery surrounding his sister. Many believe her disappearance 17 years earlier is connected to the legend of the Blair Witch. The journey starts off very hopeful but as the night falls they soon realize the menacing presence that haunts them is far more sinister than they ever expected. Fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride as we bring The Blair Witch Franchise to a close in this chilling final chapter.

Transcript

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What have you been up to lately? Have you managed to watch anything scary? And if so, what was it? As of late, I've been prepping for the next franchise that we're going to be prepping this franchise. I won't spoil it though. You're gonna have to wait until it's revealed this week. I'm gonna take this moment to give a huge thank you and shout out to my supporters, family, friends, and viewers, followers who I've got to meet. Before we get started, I have some horror news to share with you. This week in horror, one found footage movie that everybody felt was underrated, is um getting a reboot, and it will also star Justin Long, and that movie is Grave Encounters. Production is scheduled to begin next year. Rumor has it that Hayden Pinateer, aka Kirby will also be returning for Scream 7. Last but not least, Netflix is gearing up to release a mini-series titled True Haunting, and it is set to premiere October 7th. This series will focus on real-life hauntings and will feature dramatized retellings of ghost encounters and who's leading this series, you might ask. It is none other than the man James Wan himself. Each episode will focus on a haunting using a docuseries format, but besides that, not much is known at this moment. That is your uh horror updates for the week. Since that's out of the way, I welcome you back to Chills Thrills and a podcast, our horror community podcast. We're back to review, discuss, and analyze the final movie in this in the Blair Witch franchise, and that is Blair Witch 2016, directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett. Before we dive into the movie, this is your spoiler warning. So if you have not seen this movie, I recommend that you go watch it first and then come back here and join us for the discussion. With that being said, we have a movie to unpack, so let's get into it. Blair Witch 2016 opens up with the title card that reads, The following footage was assembled from memory cards and DV tapes found near Berkettville, Maryland in the Black Hills Forest on May 15th, 2014. We're immediately shown what appears to be footage of somebody running through an unknown house, and while running, whatever it is can be heard screaming. And the screams they're uh distorted though, so and it it has like a certain sound to it. But um, anyway, running up a flight of stairs, you start to see the children's handprints on the walls. These markings should look familiar to you, and assuming you've seen the Blair Witch project, you should recognize this house as Rustin Parr's house. This person continues running up a hallway, and through the window, you can see that uh there's a thunderstorm occurring because we're getting flashes of the lightning. Um, continuing to run, this person runs up another flight of stairs, passing a mirror in the process. But it's it's one of those if you'll blink and you'll miss it type thing. This person then runs into a room, shutting and locking the door behind them. After a brief moment, something bursts through the door, causing this person to scream. James, played by James Alan McCune, asks Lisa, who is played by Callie Hernandez, if she saw if she saw her. So Lisa asks what uh what he means by that, and he tells her that he missed it the first time, too. So hang on, and he rewinds the footage, stopping on the frame where the person runs past the mirror. Zooming out, we see James is sitting at his computer looking at the footage frame on YouTube with the title that says Mysterious Footage Tape Found in the Black Hills Forest. And if you look closely, you can see the date that says April 30th, 2014. And if you remember, at the beginning of the movie, the footage that was found was found May 15th, 2014. So this is important, very important to remember. James tells Lisa that he thinks that might be his sister. So now we realize that this is Heather Donahue's younger brother. Lisa asks him how he found it and if he had a search alert set up. And James told her, yeah, that he did, and that usually it's nothing, but the guy who uploaded the video said it was from a tape he found in the Black Hills Woods. Lisa asks him, hadn't the word woods already been searched and they never found the house? James counters that the Black Hills forest is huge and that maybe they weren't looking in the right place. James continues that he wants to start looking where the tape was found. While talking to Lisa, their two friends walk in, and it's Ashley, played by Corbin Reed, and Peter, played by Brandon Scott. Peter asks them what they're doing, and James excitedly tells him that they're doing Lisa's documentary class project starring him. Peter responds that that's boring. In the next scene, we see James closing the garage door and walking over to a table where there's a drone and various other camping electronics. Lisa tells him to try on the earpiece camera, instructing him to press the button on the side, which activates the recording feature. Lisa tells him that one of the cool features on the earpiece camera is that they have built-in GPS, so if they need to be located, then they very well could. We then cut to Lisa, providing a narration to her documentary, explaining that when James was four years old, his older sister disappeared while making a documentary near the town of Burkettesville, Maryland. Adding that some of the footage shot by James' sister was later found. The final moments of it showed her going into a house seemingly within the Black Hills Forest. Continuing to add that the area was extensively searched by police and FBI, but they could find no evidence of an existing house in those woods. Investigators concluded that James' sister might have vanished elsewhere, despite her crew's equipment and footage being found nearby. She goes on to say that for as long as she's been friends with James, he's always wondered what happened to her. As Lisa is explaining this, we the audience see James standing in front of an ambulance in uniform, so it is to be assumed that he's an EMS. Lisa continues that his continued search to find closure and answers to his sister's disappearance is the subject of this documentary. In the next scene, Lisa is interviewing Peter, asking him how long he has been friends with James. Peter answers that their parents were friends, so they grew up together. Lisa continues by asking if he knew him when his sister disappeared, to which he answers, yeah, that he doesn't remember Heather all too well, but after she went off into the woods and didn't come back, he remembers that. We then see it's the next day, and we see James and Peter playing a video game when Lisa asks if if he can give them an idea of what they're going to be doing when they're out there. So he tells her the four of them are going to go out there and they're going to try to find this house, adding that James has been messaging with the guy who uploaded the video and he's going to show them exactly where he found the tape. Lisa then asks James if he thinks they'll find the house, and he answers that he hopes so. She then asks him if he really thinks his sister could still be out there after all this all these years. He tells her that all he knows is that if there's any chance at all that he can find out what happened to her, he needs to at least track. Lisa asks, What about the legends? Do they believe at all about the stories of the Blair Witch? Peter and James just look at each other in silence without giving an answer. So it seems like they're on the fence about it. Later that evening, the group is at a nightclub recording wearing the earpiece cameras, where we see Peter discussing the idea of James wanting to go out there to look for his sister, because he thinks that she could still be out there because some blurry footage, some weirdo had put up online. Peter has a valid point. If you think about it, it said when James is four years old, when uh she vanished, so he's now in his early 20s, so it's been about from between 15 and 20 years. So how could she possibly still be out there? Like the last image that was on the footage was Heather running through the house screaming, going to the basement, and the camera hits the ground and it's silence. You we no longer hear Heather screaming. She's not alive, she can't be, and if she is, what the hell has she been doing for 20 years? Just wandering around the woods being one with nature. It just it makes very little sense. Anyway, Lisa continues to explain in her documentary, regardless of James' intentions, she doesn't want to exploit anyone. So Peter tells her not to tell anyone about it, that that's an option. Go out there with them and film it as his friend, but don't use the footage. So Lisa tells him that she can't promise that. Ashley apologizes to Lisa, telling her that Peter and James have been friends forever, and Lisa responds that just because she hasn't been friends with him for as long as they have doesn't mean that she doesn't care. We cut to the next morning with Peter laid out on a set of stairs, hung over, and Ashley asks him how he's doing. So he responds that if you're asking if he regrets getting drunk the night before going camping in the woods, he does not. Lisa and Ashley just laugh it off. Shortly after, we see Ashley and Lisa testing out the drone that they intend to use while camping, and James tests out the walkie-talkies with Peter. Now on the road, the group arrives at the hotel, and this hotel looks exactly like the hotel that Heather, Mike, and Josh were at from the from the placement of the beds, even the lights on the wall. It it it it it very well like it could possibly be the same hotel. It's just, you know, it's never confirmed. That's just what I think. They take turns jumping on the bed, playing with the walkie-talkies, and after things settle down, they get ready for for bed, with Peter telling James to lay with them, and he lays with him and Ashley, and they all go to bed. The next morning, back on the road, as they enter Burkitsville, passing the welcome to the historic village of Burkitsville sign, followed by Lisa asking if the town used to be called Blair, and James tells her there was a town called Blair back in the 1700s, but it was discovered abandoned. This ties into the curse of the Blair witch, and if I remember correctly, off the top of my head, um I don't have my notes, but I believe after Ellie Ketword was accused of taking blood from the children, she was banished from the community, taken into the woods, and tied to a tree, and left to die of exposure in the middle of the worst winter on record. And when they went back to find her, she was gone, the body was gone, so they assumed that animals had eaten her. Once the winter ended, her accusers and other children vanished. Fearing a curse, the townspeople fled the area. Back to James, explaining to Lisa that after it was found abandoned, they found a new town and called it Burkettesville. The group arrives at an unknown house and are greeted by Lane, played by Wes Robinson. Lane invites them inside and they meet Talia, played by Valerie Curry. As they walk into the living room, Peter spots um a Confederate flag on the wall and he immediately displays a look of discomfort, and that might add to the tension he has towards Lane that we will see later on. Lane expresses his joy that Lisa's recording the moment and adds a layer of excitement, saying that it's not often that they get like-minded investigators coming out there to discuss the Blair, which he enters the room with his his own camera, so Lisa tells him that she may need to get him to sign some release forms, and he tells her the same thing. Lisa just, you know, gives him a look of confusion. Lane introduces himself as Darknet666, as that's the name of his YouTube channel. James informs him that he was hoping that they could show him where they found the tape because they want to make that their starting point. Talia asks James if they're really gonna go camping out in those woods, and Peter tells them that that's their plan and asks her why. Talia and Lane whisper back and forth before finally telling Peter that they want to go out there with them and that if they're gonna be walking around, they want to be a part of that. Peter looks at Lane and then looks at James. Lane asks that they're not gonna be a burden, they go camping all the time, but then he tells them that that's the deal. If they want him to show them where the tape was found, so he pretty much backed them into a corner. So James asks if they could talk it over in private. The group now outside, James asks what they think, and Peter immediately tells him no, but Lisa counters that they need them to show them exactly where the tape was found. So Peter, frustrated, tells her, Yeah, but he didn't think that they would want to stick around after that. So Ashley adds that they didn't exactly make it sound like they have an option. So Peter and the rest of the group pretty much agree and have to suck it up with them being with them. A short while after we see the group driving and arriving to the woods and begin to gather their equipment. As they enter the woods, Peter uses that opportunity to tell Lane that he had seen some of his other videos, specifically pointing out the one where he and Talia found a pile of rocks, and he kind of chuckles at him about it and looking back at James, but James kind of signals for him to stop. Lane says that they're symbols, so Peter responds, they're symbols, then asks if that if they really believe all the old stories, because someone's died everywhere at some point, and it doesn't mean that every square foot of the earth is haunted. Uh to let me this kind of shows like Peter's lack of knowledge to the story of Ellie Catword slash Blair Witch because it was never it was never about her just simply dying there, it was about the fact that she cursed the woods. So anybody that enters her woods, you essentially belong to her. She has control over the woods, and when you enter the Black Hills Forest, chances are you're not coming back. Lane fires back, asking Peter if he grew up there, and obviously responds, No, he didn't grow up there. So Lane reminds him that both him and Talia did, and the older townspeople used to talk about the woods a lot. So when Heather, Mike, and Josh went missing and their stuff was found, suddenly everybody just wanted to forget. Lane continues by telling them the area hasn't has a history of things happening that nobody likes to talk about, like Rustin Parr or Coffin Rock. Shortly after Tali explains that back in the 1940s, Rust and Parr brought eight kids out to his house in the woods and killed seven of them. But Parr claimed that he heard the voice of an old woman telling him to kill the children. He would take them up into his attic and make one stand in the corner while he killed the other one. Lane asks that there's been debate and that whether it was the attic or the basement. Ashley asks if Rustin Parr thought he heard the voice of the Blair Witch telling him to kill the people, and Tali responds that he never said who it was, he just said that it sounded like the voice of an old woman. Further explaining that they hanged him out in the woods near his house, so Leah asks about him having a house out there, and James answers, yeah, but that's not the one they're looking for because Rustin Parr's house was burnt down after he was hanged. I never I've never understood why people say hanged. Um I thought like, shouldn't it be hung? Hung is past tense, and it just it sounds correct. Where saying Rustin Parr was hanged, it it just I don't know, it doesn't sound right to me. James added that supposedly they found a bunch of old tunnels underneath that didn't go anywhere, like some sort of underground railroad thing. As the group approaches a creek, Talia tells them that a girl drowned there, adding that it was around the time Breckett's Ville was founded. This Easter egg comes from Curse of the Blair Witch, where the whole story was explained that the girl was Eileen Treacle, and it also was mentioned in Blair Witch Project, and we also see her ghost in Blair Witch 2. A lot of the Curse of the Blair Witch and a lot of Blair Witch Project and a few things from Blair Witch 2 tie into this movie as well. And now you see why I said at the beginning of the franchise that it wasn't necessary to watch Curse of the Blair Witch, but it was recommended because all of it flows together and they all connect together leading up to this movie. Anyway, Tyler continu Tyler continues that her family was washing clothes, and her mother said she saw a hand reach out of the water and pull her dirtle in. Um I either Adam Wingard and or Simon Barrett didn't watch Curse of the Blair Witch, because if they did, they would know the family wasn't washing clothes when that happened. They were attending um the wheat harvest picnic, and I think I think it said um seven, eight, or nine people went to run to the aid of Eileen Treagle, but it was too late. While they're standing standing in front of the stream, Lisa asks if they're crossing it, but nobody answers. The group then begins to take off socks and shoes. So while prepping, Talia asks Lane if he's sure that it's a good idea, but Lane doesn't answer. Instead, he asks her to hold his camera for a second. Both Lane and Talia have this look of like hesitation, but they proceed anyway. So about midway through, everybody hears Ashley scream, and Peter and James run to go help her. Ashley tells them that she cut her foot on a rock or piece of broken glass. Once they've reached the edge of the stream, James inspects the wound and he kind of downplays it, telling her it's not as bad as it feels, but it looks pretty bad. Meanwhile, James is treating her foot and Lane is all up in his space recording, so he tells him to back up, and Lane tells Peter he just wants to get a shot of it, and then he'll be good. Peter, who's annoyed at this point, begins to tell him basically that he's about to whoop that ass if Lane doesn't back off. James finishes up bandaging, and him and Peter help her to her feet and they go about their hike. Shortly after, we see the group setting up camp, and as everybody's putting their tents together, we see Peter who's struggling to put his up, so he kind of starts getting frustrated. So he throws it to the to the ground, starts stomping on it, telling the tent, Fuck you, tent. Nobody even tries to help him, they just watch him and laugh. Lisa and Ashley send up the drone to get an aerial shot of the woods as well as to see if they can see the house from Heather's footage. While doing that, Peter tells James that he's going to go get firewood, and James tells him that he'll go with him, but Peter assures him that he won't he won't go far. Later that night, the group has set up their campfire and sitting around and just laughing, joking, and talking. Lisa asks Lane and Talia who who the Blair Witch is. So Talia answers, Ellie Kedward. That's what most people say. She was accused of witchcraft after some of the children in town said that she'd taken blood from them. There wasn't much of a trial system back then. The townspeople took her out to the woods, tied her to a tree, and left her to die of exposure. In the spring they went back to look for her body, but there was no trace of it. They assumed she was eaten by animals or something, but then people in the town started disappearing. First the children who'd accused her and their families, then others. Eventually everyone who was left abandoned their homes and fled the town. Lane chimes in and adds that he read a book that was published in 1809 that they didn't just tie Ellie Kebra to a tree. They tied her up really high and strung heavy rocks to her arms and legs as Wade stretching her. That they left her to die on a makeshift rack. And ever since there's been a curse on the woods. The legend says if you look directly at the witch, you'll die just from the fright of it, and that's why Rust and Parr stood in the corner. They say that no one's ever seen her and live to talk about it. Peter jumps in saying that, or alternately, no one has ever seen her, period. This is all just stories, and that he's been to the woods before when he was a kid with about a hundred other people. Talia asks him if he was part of the search teams because she remembers that. He responds that yeah, he was part of it. So how come he's okay? And with a smirk on his face, he says, nothing got him then. So Lane then tells him maybe it did, and that smirk slowly drops from his face. Lane continues and says that he has a real third, real theory that he ran online. Whatever spell the witch put on those woods, you have to be out there at night for it to get you. You have to spend the night. So Lisa calls him out and questions, so how come he's still alive? And Lane counters that that's a good point, and that maybe she's using Lane and Talia to lure them out there. This is added more added lore to the Blair Witch that wasn't it it wasn't entirely in the previous entries, but I like how they expanded the lore because in the previous three entries, they all say that Ellie Cabo was tied to a tree. So this one adds that the rocks were tied to her limbs and it was stretching them out. This is all added lore that will play a part in later scenes, but this added lore is also meant to throw you off a bit. Lane also adds that if you look at the witch, you'll die from the fright of it. And this is critical to remember for Act Three, and it's also meant to throw you off. He also says that the reason Rustin Parr stood in the corner and none of the previous entries was anything about him standing in the corner, it was always the children that stood in the corner because he would put them there while he killed the other. And he said he he had the kids stand in a corner because he didn't want the eyes on him. So this might have been like a writing error on Barrett's part. But when he says to Lisa, maybe the Blair Witch is using him and Talia to lure them out there, that's an eyebrow razor. So I want you to keep that in the back of your memory. Later that night, James asleep, but then he wakes up to the sound of strange noises that sound like branches breaking off in the distance. So as he goes to put his shoes on, we hear like An extremely loud loud like break like a tree fell over. So he opens up his tent only to see Lisa's tent is partially open, but with a quick jump scare, Lisa pops up. So James asks her what she was doing, and if she heard that noise. Dude, you're in the middle of the woods. It was a big ass branch, or maybe a tree that fell. So of course she heard it. Like it this wasn't singled out to be to where only you heard it. This is why I don't go camping. Shit like this would have scared the hell out of me. But even then, I'm not sleeping in a tent on a hard ass ground in a sleeping bag. I have zero interest in camping. Like you don't even know what's living out there in the woods. Bears, mountain lions, and all kinds of like different snakes, etc. And then you add in the element that the woods may be haunted. Your sister disappeared there, dude. There's a myth of a witch, and you still went. If hundreds of people and a helicopter didn't find anything, they didn't even find the house. What the hell are you gonna find? Anyway, Lisa and James sit in um in a brief moment of silence to see, you know, if they could hear anything else, but then all of a sudden the walkie-talkie goes off loudly and scares the hell out of Lisa. But it's Peter checking on James. James tells him that he's fine, they're fine, and tells him that Lisa is there. And I'm guessing she didn't want Peter and them to know she was with them, but she starts shaking her head no, and he tries to change it, but no one's even paying attention to that. Ain't nobody thinking about you, Lisa. Everyone just heard a loud ass bang, and you think they're worried about you being in the tent with James? Nah, I highly doubt it. Talia opens her tent and asks if everyone is okay. So Peter asks her if her and Lane are okay, but she tells him no because Lane isn't there. James asks where he is, but she doesn't know. He went off, he went off far to go pee, and he usually goes pretty far for privacy. James calls out for him but receives no answer. So he tells the group that they should probably go look for him and make sure that he's okay. Ashley and Peter are like, no, hell no. They're smart, they know better. They said fuck that. If you want to find him, you go find him. They didn't really say that, but that's my thoughts on it. Talia tells James that she's gonna go look for him, so James decides to help her. While Lisa stays behind and tells he tells her that she can just stay in his tent if she wants, and obviously she wants to. Peter tells him good luck and zips up his tent. Tali and James head out to search, calling his name several times but receive no response. After a brief moment, Lane pops up, scaring the shit out of both of them. Lane tells them that he went to go see if he could find what was making those noises, but he didn't find anything. He asked them if they found anything, and of course they didn't, but they also weren't looking. The only person that was looking was his ass. They called this man's name several times, and you didn't hear them or see them. Like, was he just standing in the dark waiting for them to pass? We didn't even hear any steps as he was approaching them, so he must have just been standing there. It is it that seems kind of sketched to me. Anyway, the three of them head back to camp for the rest of the night, they go to sleep. We cut to the next morning and we hear Ashley telling everybody to get out of their tents. So James exits his tent and we hear Ashley say that she's getting out of there. She's packing and she's leaving. She wants to go home. James sees sees there's a ton of the Blair Witch stick figures hanging from trees and hanging over their tents as well. So he asks where they came from. Peter tells him that someone wants to put them up while they were asleep. Lane and Talia exit their tent asking what's going on and what's wrong. And they see the figures hanging. So he tells Talia that they should film it and to grab the camera, telling everybody that they should be taking pictures. Ashley insists that she wants to go home and they need to go home now. She wants to get out of there. Peter agrees, telling James that leaving isn't a bad idea because they weren't prepared for this. James responds that he's seen this before. It was in Heather's footage. Peter points out another one that's hanging over Lane's tent as well. Then James asks if anybody knows what time it is because his watch is saying 2 p.m. Ashley asks how that's even possible because they just woke up. And at that point, she's ready to go even more. So James agrees and tells everybody to pack up their stuff and get back to his car. But Lisa wants to make sure that he's okay with leaving. So he tells her that it's weird and it seems like they found something and that they can show the footage to the police and maybe they'll reopen Heather's case. Reopen her case based on what? You didn't find anything besides the stick figures. That's not enough evidence to do anything. The stick figures could have been planted by anyone within the group, so there's no solid evidence to support the findings. So I I would expect that they wouldn't open up the case. That's not enough information to do anything with. I mean, if anything, they'll just take note of it, but that's about it. Lane continues to record, so Ashley sarcastically tells him that she's got an idea and that he can stay there and get all the footage that he wants. Peter urges Lane to turn it off and tries to grab the camera, but Lane is persistent in getting shots of it. Lane is annoying as fuck. He's been recording this entire time, so how many more shots are needed? This this kind of reminds me of when Mike and Joss were yelling at Heather when she couldn't stop filming, to the point where they even started to antagonize her while she um sat there and cried. It was the argument between Jeff uh Joss and Heather. Anyway, the group is packed and leaving the campsite. After a bit of hiking, Lisa asks Lane what kind of camera he has. So he tells her that it's a DV camera and that it's better than modern cameras. Lisa continues by asking if it takes tapes like the one he found, and he responds that there's not many brands left and asks her why. So she tells him that she was just curious. He he recommends that she get one because everything is cars now, but in some ways, tapes are more reliable and they're cheaper, but you have to carry a lot of batteries. While continuing to walk, Ashley hurts her already injured foot, and we hear the sound of like like a twig snapping. Peter and James check on her, but she tells them that she's fine and just to continue walking. While checking in on Ashley, Lisa notices rope hanging out of the back of Lane's backpack. So she reaches in and Talia sees it and alerts Lane, who then start immediately gets defensive. Lisa shows the rest of the group asking if it looks familiar, but Lane tells her that it's rope used for camping and demands that she gives it back to him. Lisa asks Talia if she has one of the stick men because the rope looks exactly the same. Lane defends it, saying it's definitely does not look the same. Rope is rope. Peter tells Lane to let her see it then, but he responds that she doesn't need to see it. Talia ends up admitting that they weren't trying to scare them or anything. They weren't lying about the things going on in the woods. They needed somebody to see what was happening. And as Talia goes to pull out the stick man, Lane tries to stop her. James inspects the stick man, asking if they faked it, and Lane admits to faking it, but tells James that they faked it because it's real. There really is something happening in the woods. So Ashley asks him if that makes sense to him. Talia informs them that they didn't make the noises that were heard last night and asks, How could they fake sleeping until 2 p.m.? So Ashley accuses them of putting sleeping pills in their water, and James asks if they did that, but Talia responds that no. And Lane at this point says, fuck it, that he's out telling them that they want that and that it is on them. As he walks away, he tells Lisa to get a shot of him walking away while giving them the finger. Talia catches up to him, whispering something to him, which makes him return to the group, telling them that they don't have GPS and there's no cell reception out there. Peter tells him that that's not their problem, but Lane insists to hear him out, asking what if they get lost. So James questioned him by asking that he thought they came out there all the time. Lane is speechless because he knows that he's been caught up in another lie, but James is pissed, responding that they've been following them. Peter is pissed off too, grabbing Lane by his shirt, and Talia intervenes and tells him that they've never been as far as the creek. Nobody has, nobody's been there for years. James yells that they don't know where they are, so Lane suggests that everybody calms down that they meant to, and they wanted safety and numbers. There's more of them, so the odds are better. Lisa asks them if there's anything else that's not a lie, and that it's just a coincidence that his camera uses the exact same kind of tape that him and Talia found. James tells Talia and Lane that they've gotten enough footage, and if they walk straight for about two miles, they'll hit the fence. Lane asks for everybody to just calm down so they can talk about it. James yells no and Peter snatches him up again, telling him to get out of there. So Talia grabs Lane and they start to walk away. When Lane tells them that they don't understand and that they're not from there, Ashley yells that they're done talking. Lane again asks if they're if they're sure and if this has to happen. They can talk about it, and Peter at that point has had enough and begins to chase Lane away. In that moment, Peter and Lisa apologize to James, and I guess it's to get sympathy for basically being led on by Lane and Talia. So James is clearly um, I guess, disappointed. James obviously tells them that he actually thought that Heather could actually be out there, and Peter responds, telling James that Lane and Talia were pathetic. Talisa kind of adds a little um upside to the situation, admitting that she feels a little bit less scared being in the woods with Lane and Talia gone. Now, and all they all now agree on what Lisa just said. Peter asks James if he's gonna be okay, and James answers that he'll be alright. So Peter offers him a hug and then gives him a hug. In the next scene, the group has resumed hiking, and Peter asks if they're close to the fence, so he answers that they should be. Eventually they stop, and James checks the GPS and is looking around, confused. Lisa recognizes that that the area looks familiar, so Peter responds that that should be a good thing, and actually asks, How can she even tell? But suddenly, just like the uh Blair Witch project, they ended up back at the same camping spot that they slept at that the night before. Peter realizes it and is instantly pissed off, and Ashley tells them that they've been walking in a circle. James says that that doesn't make sense. They've been following the GPS. So Peter responds, then they should have been reached the fence hours ago, and they shouldn't be back at the same campsite that they just left. Ashley announces that they're lost, but James replies that they are not lost, they got turned around. He tells the girl to send the drones up so they can start hiking for the road. Suddenly, Ashley goes to get up to walk, and we hear the same branch twig snapping sound from earlier. So Peter tells her that she can't keep walking, so they got a camp there tonight, but Ashley is not fond of that and goes to get up again and can't. Now sobbing that she doesn't want to stay there another night. So Peter tries to calm her by telling her that she needs to rest and let her fruit heal. James agrees and suggests that they set up the tents and that they'll be okay. It's fine, they'll figure it out. Ashley asks Peter to take down the stick man, so he does. A short while later, Peter goes in the temp to check on Ashley and sees that she's not doing too good. She asks him to tell James to start a fire because she's freezing. He checks out the wound on her foot when suddenly something moves on the inside of the cut, putting Ashley in pain immediately. She asks him how it looks, and obviously grossed out and not wanting to further scare her, he tells her that he's gonna have James check it. As Lisa sends the drone up, Peter approaches James and tells him the cut on her foot has gotten worse, and he begins describing the movement inside of the cut as really weird, and he compares it to a muscle spasm before telling him that there's something inside of her cut. She's cold and she might have a fever. James tells him that he'll go check it out, and Peter says he wants to keep a fire going for her, so he's going to go gather some wood if James thinks he can get a fire going. James tells him that that's a good idea, but before Peter heads out, he tells him to keep his radio on. Lisa tells James to come look at the screen at the sky view because she doesn't see a road or the creek. Suddenly she loses control over the drone as it comes crashing down before getting stuck in a tree. We cut over to Peter taking a piss, but then he realizes that his earpiece camera was recording the entire time. So he quickly tells that tells Lisa that she's gonna need to delete this. James just finished checking out Ashley's injury, and Lisa asks how she is, and he responds that it's infected and that she has a fever. And so Lee Lisa asks if he saw anything similar to what Peter described, but he didn't. He also recommends that they take her to the closest ER tomorrow. We cut back to Peter gathering firewood when suddenly his walkie-talkie goes off with loud static. So he drops the pile of wood to answer, thinking that it may be James. So he calls out to James a few times, and of course he gets no answer. But then the static suddenly stops as he goes to pick the wood back up. His flashlight starts flickering, and after banging it for a few times to get it to work, he then bends over to pick the wood back up when he hears a sudden thud in the distance. It was the sound of something hitting the ground. He calls out into the woods and of course nothing answers. Followed by footsteps in the distance, there's the same howling noises from earlier. Peter hears another thud, and out of nowhere there's a loud rumbling or a growl. I can't tell which it is, um, but Peter takes off running and then the flashlight starts flickering again. Once he's gotten it to work, he starts looking around and behind him is another noise. Peter now looking behind him, he suddenly sees a creature ducked behind a tree, causing him to take off running and screaming. We cut to James setting up the camera facing that the facing their tent to record. Peter finally stops running and continuing to look around, he hears creaking noises, so when he looks up, he sees a huge tree falling his direction, and you guessed it, it falls on him. This catches the attention of Lisa and James, and Lisa asks him what that was, and James responds that it sounded like another tree falling, so he hands her the tablet and takes off running, knowing that Peter is out there somewhere. Just how far did he go? Was it really necessary to go off that far? You're in the middle of the woods, there's firewood all around you, and you know weird shit's been happening, and yet you still decide to go far away from the campsite. I'm guessing Peter might have been knocked out temporarily because when we cut back to him, he's, I guess, waking up, um, but he's stuck under the tree. So as he tries moving branches off of him, whatever the creature was is back and it's looking for him. James calls out for him over the walkie-talkie, but Peter panics and rushes to turn it off. But then it's a it's too little, too late because he's then dragged away. We cut back to James searching the area and he comes across the down tree as well as Peter's flashlight. So he tries to call him over the walkie-talkie, but we know he's not going to answer because we, the audience, just saw him get dragged away. In the next scene, we see Lisa checking on Ashley, then inspecting the camera when we get a small jump jump scare when Ashley pops up telling Lisa that she didn't feel good and also wondering where Peter is. So Lisa tells her that he went to get firewood for the fire that's already started. So clearly Peter didn't need to go that far to get the wood to start the fire because it's already started. Lisa walks away, or sorry, Lisa walks Ashley back to her tent, and then we get another jump scare when James pops up, and even Lisa says that she wishes everybody would stop doing that. James tells Lisa that he found Peter's flashlight and asks her that if that was him screaming out there, and Lisa tells him that she thinks so and that it'll be okay, they just need to stay together. So James responds that they need to keep the fire going so he can find his way back. Lisa and James now inside their tent with James being remorseful, telling Lisa that he actually thought that Heather could still be out in the woods somehow. But now Peter's lost and Ashley's hurt. Lisa tries to reassure him, telling him that it'll be okay. The conversation is interrupted when they hear branches breaking again out in the distance. So they leave their tent to go investigate, and then they run into Lane and Talia. Lane tells Talia to not go over there because it's a trick. Lane asks them when the last time that they saw them, and Lisa answers that it was earlier that afternoon. Lane and Talia don't they don't even have their camping and they don't have anything at this point, and they look like shit. Their clothes and their faces are filthy, and it looks like they've been through hell. And they probably have because the Blair Witch don't fuck around. If you out there, she's gonna get your ass. Talia replies that they're not lying, but Lane answers that it's been five, maybe six days since they've seen them, but he doesn't know because the sun isn't coming up. Lisa asks him what he's talking about, but before he can answer, he asks where Peter and what's her name, talking about Ashley. So James answers that Ashley's sleeping because she doesn't feel well and they don't know where Peter is. Lane tells Talia that it's starting for them, so they have to go. Lisa responds that they aren't going to fall for his stupid shit again, so just tell them what's going on. Lane says to her, if it looks like he's messing with them. Talia approaches them, asking if they have any food, but Lane tries pulling Talia back, and Talia ain't fucking around with Lane. He tells her that they're alive. Don't they see that? So Tali responds, look at them, they're doing better than they are. And Lane asks, Are they? Lisa is confused, asking what the fuck is going on, but James doesn't know. Lane says no repeatedly, telling Talia that if she wants to stay with them, go ahead. Talia begs Lane to not go, so he tells her that those people are going to die and they're going to be here forever, but not him, shouting not him while walking away. Talia continues calling out for Lane, but he just keeps walking. Talia now standing there motionless, screams as Lisa touches her shoulder. So she guides her to the campsite so she can sit and eat. Later that night, Lisa and James awake inside of their tent unable to sleep. But in the next scene, Lisa and James are startled by an alarm on the phone. Confused, Lisa checks the time, saying that it makes no sense. She set the alarm for 7 a.m. But it's still dark. I mean, Lane did just tell y'all that the sun wasn't coming up. He warned y'all, I get it, because he fucked with fucked with them earlier in the day, but he only used the stick, man. When y'all saw him again, clearly he looked like shit. They didn't have any of their gear. So Lane and Talia were going through it while they were lost in the woods by themselves. James tells Lisa that they should pack up, and as he leaves the tent, he notices two piles of rocks in front of their tents, just like the Blair Witch project. The piles of rocks pretty much mean you're marked for certain death and that you're at the point of no return, and the witch has claimed you. James looks up and sees that they are surrounded by the stick man hanging from the trees of all shapes and sizes, so he tells Lisa that she needs to get out there. And when she does, she gasps for air at the shock of what she's saying, wondering how they didn't hear anything. So James remembers the webcam, but when he checks it, the batteries are dead. Talia in a panic tells him that they have to go and they have to go now. James agrees and tells Lisa that they need to pack. Ashley stump stumbles out of her tent, tripping over a pallor box in front of her tent, confused, asking what that shit is and what's Talia doing there, and she asks where Peter is. Lisa responds that Talia got lost and they don't know where Peter is. Ashley seems to be out of it in this moment. She appears to be dizzy and visibly sick, and she tells Jane that she feels sick, but also asks about the drone, so they can send it up to find Peter, but he tells her that it crashed, and she loses it, visibly upset, telling James not to tell her that. Talia notices hair inside of one of the stick men. I like this addition that they added to the overall lore of Kelly Edward in this moon in this movie, um, especially along with the Blair Witch herself. I say them separately because even though they're technically the same person, Ellie Catword didn't become the Blair Witch until she died and cursed the town of Blair. It wasn't cursed until she died. They also turned it up a notch in this movie. The Blair Witch project itself was a slow burn, but not this one. Shit in this in this movie gets real very fast. And um, like it's slightly longer than the Blair Witch project, but not by much. So I'm guessing that they felt the need to accelerate this one, which is a good thing. Otherwise, this would have been like a rinse and repeat basically of this one and the Blair Witch project. Talia notices that one of the stick men has her hair, and as she takes it down, crying that the witch took her hair. Ashley blames Talia, telling her, Of course it's her hair, accusing her of doing that. And as she starts to approach Talia, Lisa does her best to try to hold her back. But Ashley snatches the stick figure from Talia, and right before she snaps it, James he tells her, don't. But she snaps the figure in half, causing Talia herself to break in half, bending her body backwards. Everybody is screaming in shock as Talia lays on the ground with her feet next to her head with blood running out of her mouth. This is the first on screen death that we've gotten from this franchise. Um was the yeah, yeah, they were on-screen deaths for Book of Shadows, but you know, that doesn't matter. As far as the Blair Witch project and this one goes, this is the first on-screen death that we've seen. Um, Josh, when Josh goes missing, we only hear, well, we only see his teeth wrapped up in his shirt. We see Mike standing in the corner, and we see Heather gets knocked down. Peter is dragged away, and there's no mention of the Book and Shadows in this movie. So seeing Talia snap backwards is definitely new, which is a good thing because I liked it in that moment the way it happened. It was pretty damn good. The whole sequence was interesting to see. Back to the movie. The group tries calming Ashley down, who is standing in front of her tent, saying that it's going to be okay, and then suddenly the tent shoots straight up in the sky, and this scares the shit out of them, and they all take off running. Don't forget, Ashley's foot has been injured and fucked up for the majority of this movie. She barely could walk without hearing the snapping noise. So Ashley basically says, fuck this, and takes off running unbothered. I don't blame her because I would have too. Fuck the pain in my foot, I'm gone. Anyway, um, as they're running, the other tent, James and Lisa's tent also goes to them shooting up in the sky. So as they're running, the first tent comes crashing down in front of them, separating Ashley from Lisa and James. Ashley goes one way and they go another. Lisa loses both of them, so she calls out to them, but James finds her. James asks Lisa where Ashley is, but she doesn't know. So he tells her that they have to backtrack to find her. We cut to Ashley, who is now lost in the dark, calling out for Lisa and James, but obviously they don't answer because they aren't near each other. She she then sits on a tree to inspect the wound on her leg that's covered in blood, and as she touches it, pus starts running from it. So she manages to pull something out of it, and it resembles a bug, something like a parasite. Some people have called it a bug. Um, some say it's the root of a tree or a plant stem. I always thought when I first saw it that it was the root of a plant because it looked like it. I looked it up to get a direct answer and came across three theories. The first one was that it was a parasite, parasitic infection, possibly left by the witch infecting her leg. The second was um a tree person connection. It was connected, the growth of it, or it was a sign of her transformation to becoming um a tree person. Um, the force's influence grows through the victim's body. I don't recall there being anything about a tree person. Um, that I I honestly don't know. I don't think I've heard that one. But anyway, the third one is from Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett. They intentionally left the exact nature of it to create mystery. I think when they were crossing the stream, it wasn't glass or rock that sliced Ashley's foot. I believe it was the witch injuring her foot because as the movie progresses, we frequently hear snapping in her foot that resembles the sound of branches and twigs snapping. And as time went on, it grew spreading up her leg. Me personally, it's the root of a plant. It looks just like it. As a matter of fact, while thinking about it, I know one of the endings to the Blair Witch project, it was Mike, he was tied to sticks and branches that resemble the stick man. Obviously, that's not the ending that we had, but that was one of the endings. We cut to Lisa and James searching for Ashley near the campsite, calling out to her, and Lisa hears the walkie-talkie when Peter's voice can be heard saying, Calm check. So Lisa calls out over the radio asking if it's Peter, and he responds by whispering for them to help him. But then there's a loud interference of static that sends Lisa into a spiral screaming and crying. But James is there trying to calm her down. Once calm, James tells her that they have to go find Ashley. Back to Ashley, as she's walking, she sees the drone stuck up in a tree and unable to use the app that controls it. So realizing that it is stuck, she starts climbing the tree, and once she's made it up there, she makes several attempts to reach out for it. When out of nowhere you see a hand reach out and grab her, causing her to fall down the tree, she hits the ground unresponsive and then is dragged off screen. This is also something new that we've never seen this type of activity on the screen. We, the audience, don't know who or what that creature is. Now that Ashley is gone, we're back to Lisa and James. As a thunderstorm settles in, continuing to yell out for Ashley while looking around, suddenly they hear screaming, thinking that it's Ashley, and they start running in the direction that they heard it heard it coming from. Just like the Blair Witch project, the screaming leads them to a house, Rust and Parr's house, the same house Heather and Mike are led to, the same house that burned down after Pank Parr was hanged. This further supports the time warp or the time loop theory, and it has been said and established that the Blair Witch not only controls the woods, but she controls the elements as well as manipulating the time. Lane did say earlier that the sun wasn't coming up. Lisa set the time for 7 a.m. and it was still dark. We've seen this house twice now, but when the search party went out to look for Heather, Mike, and Josh, they couldn't find the house. James tells Lisa that they need to go inside, and she tells him that she doesn't think that they should go in, but he hears screaming, so he tells her that he has to go get Heather. Lisa responds that she doesn't know what happened to his sister, but that's not her, that can't be her. James is insistent that it is, it is his sister. Lisa pleads with him not to go in, but he does anyway, telling her that she knows that's what he came there for. Once inside, the front door slams behind him. He proceeds searching the house when he hears running above him, so he runs up there. I originally thought in the Blair Witch project when we heard Josh's screaming in the distance, that I thought that it was real, that that was Josh being tortured in the woods because we did find his teeth wrapped in his shirt. So I'm thinking that his screaming was because of his teeth being pulled out of his mouth. Um I'm actually also aware that um that was possibly the witch mimicking his voice, and that one actually makes sense because after seeing this, he thinks it's Heather running through the house, so the witch is mimicking her. Um, and the the mimicking of the voices, honestly, I feel like that's luring them to the house, which Wrestling Pars house serves as a central location for the demands of those who entered. Mike, Mike, Heather, and now James, and then Lisa, they all pretty much they meet their demands in that house. As James continues searching the house, he sees a woman at the end of the hallway who is running from him, so he runs after her, still calling for Heather. Once upstairs, he sees whoever it is enter a room. So when he goes in behind behind it, there's nothing there. So when he goes to look under the bed, the door slams behind him, and his flashlight bes begins to start flickering and going out just like Peter. While trying to get the flashlight back on, we get a flash of lightning from outside, and it shows the silhouette of a woman standing in the corner briefly before it disappeared. I tried to research who this person was, um, whether it was Ellie Kebber or whoever, and all the research points that that that's the human form of Ellie Kebward, and it's also part of her illusions manipulated by the witch herself. James at that point is like, fuck it, and tries to exit, but he's locked inside the room, so he can't get out. Back outside, Lisa shines her flashlight around, and when she turns around, she sees the same exact tree from the beginning of the movie. The same tree Lane said he found the DV tape, and this is the same tree that Tali explained to Ashley that when lightning hits the tree, the electricity goes into the ground and burns it up from the roots up. And at that scene, the house wasn't there. But this is the same exact tree, and now it's it's there. So it's the house is right there. Lisa hears a loud, a loud thud, and as she looks around, she sees the same creature Peter saw had behind a tree. She screams and runs inside to begin searching for James. She goes, for some reason, the first place she goes to is the basement. And while looking around, if you catch it quick enough, you can see Heather's camera and journal on the ground. It's a quick one, so you would have to like pause your screen and do like a slow frame by frame, but you you'll see it sitting there. While while down in the basement, Lisa runs into Lane, who at this point has a thick facial hair, indicating that he had been there for quite some time. Lane tells her that she looks exactly like he remembers, and he adds that it figured the witch couldn't let her go. She had to find people who remember. Rustin Parr understood that you have to do what she tells you, and then he knocks Lisa out and starts dragging her to a trapdoor and throwing her into it, followed by closing and locking the door. Lisa sees a tunnel and has no choice but to follow it. This is the tunnel James mentioned earlier. Lisa begins crawling through it but briefly gets stuck. She begins to panic, causing her to hyperventilate. She eventually calms down and works through the tunnel as she crawls through it. She hears growling behind her and rushing, rushing through the remainder of the tunnel, breaking through the other side on a wall. She drags the dresser to block the hole, and she is then attacked by Elaine, who she ends up stabbing him in his throat where he falls to the ground and dies. Lisa now in shock reaches for her camera when a hand bursts through the wall, grabbing her hand. She immediately runs up the stairs, and as she's running through the halls, checking doors, she looks behind her and sees that she's being chased by the creature that has long stretched out arms and legs. A lot of people theorize that this is the witch, but Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett both confirmed that it is not the witch, but one of her victims, maybe even Heather. I call bullshit. Yeah, I know they made the movie, they wrote it, you know, whatever, whatever. And of course, they would know what it is. But Lane said it earlier that the townspeople tied heavy rocks to her arms and legs that stretched them out. And this creature has very long arms and very long legs. So why have Lane add this to the lore if we don't get to see it? It's the witch. I'll die on that hill. And if you have a better theory, let me know. Adam and Simon. Y'all know damn well that's the witch. Stop trying to throw us off. That is the witch. Lisa continues running up a set of steps, and she actually runs past a mirror. And guess what? The footage that was uploaded to YouTube by Lane was Lisa running past the mirror. Your time loop slash time warp has been confirmed. And to me, I think Lane has been doing the bidding for the Blair Witch the entire time. He found the footage, he uploaded the footage, he led them to the Black Hills Forest, home of the Blair Witch. But anyway, Lisa locks herself upstairs when she runs into James. James realizing that they're in the attic, James was led upstairs by the sound of Heather's voice, and Lisa was led upstairs by running from the Blair Witch. While in the attic, James tries to open the door Lisa entered through, but she stops him by telling him that the Blair Witch is right behind her. Suddenly they see a long flash of light through the cracks of um the windows and the wall or whatever that eventually fades away. James asks, What the fuck that was? My theory is that was their time war. That's the witch's ability to distort time, and this movie has shown us, the audience, that the entity Eddie Kebward and Blair Witch is a powerful ancient evil that can manipulate perception, time, and space. So the flashlight they were seeing was, I guess, from sunrise all the way to sunset, just sped up. Both of them hear the growling behind the door. So when they run, Lisa asks James what to do, and he tells her to get in a corner, face the corner. The Blair Witch burst through the door, so he tells her not to turn around, don't look and for her to keep her eyes closed because she only takes sacrifices. This movie does a damn good job at adding so much new lore to the original lore from all the previous entries. James tells her that they can't look directly at her, so now sobbing, he apologizes to Lisa, telling her that he's sorry and that all of this is his fault. James then hears an unheard voice that we don't hear, but he hears. The witch is using Heather's voice, causing him to turn around, and then he is killed off-screen. Lisa had even asked who he was talking to, but before he answered, he turned around and that's when he was killed. Lisa then screams in fear, but then gets the idea to use the camera facing behind her as she attempts to back out of the attic. When she turns the screen, turns the screen around and aims it over her shoulder, the creature sees it and runs back around the corner. Then suddenly she hears James' voice apologizing again. She calls out to James and turns around and then is also killed off-screen. The camera falls to the ground, similar to the Blair Witch project, and rolls for a bit with an eerie silence. The film fades to black and the credits roll. Ladies and gentlemen, that is it. That is the conclusion of the Blair Witch franchise. But before we go, let's get into some behind-the-scenes details. Blair Witch 2016 actually began in 20 or 2009 with Daniel Meyring and Eduardo Shantez. They began the talks of a third film, which was said to be a sequel to the first one, just like this one, and ignoring the events of Book of Shadows. The sequel was only dependent on getting Lionscape to approve the idea. It ultimately went into developmental hell, which led to the script being pushed aside. In 2013, the third film was back in talks with Wingard and Baird being hired to work on a new script. The movie went into production under the title The Woods, and it was officially revealed at San Diego Comic Con. Movie goers went into the theater to for the pre-screen, actually, and when they went in, there was the posters of the woods scattered throughout the theater. However, when they exited the theater and learned that it was the Blair Witch, all the posters had already been changed to Blair Witch. It went on to gross $45.2 million against a budget of $5 million. Principal photography began the spring of 2015 in a set of the woods in British Columbia in Canada. The final scenes for the famous Rustin Parr House was actually built on a sound stage since the original had already been demolished. The Blair Witch lore has expanded. There's these three movies. There's the mockumentary Curse of the Blair Witch. There's a book series called The Blair Witch Files, which is a series of eight young adults, adult novels. There's the Blair Witch Project Dossier, Blair Witch, The Secret Confessions of Rust and Parr, The Blair Witch Cult, The Blair Witch Dark Testament, The Blair Witch Chronicles, The Blair Witch Game, which I played and beat on Xbox. It's a short game, but scary as shit. I played it in the dark at like 2 a.m. and was wearing my head saying, Let me tell you, I'll never do that shit again. That that game is is creepy as shit. But yeah, the Blair Witch Lore runs deep. I only wanted to cover the four main entries. I was not reading the books. There's no need for me to play the game again. But yeah, the the amount of work that they put into this franchise is amazing. I've never seen or heard of any movie doing that. Um, and obviously it was effective, it worked very well because Blair Witch Project, we already know, is one of the greatest films of all time. So that's where we are with it. Anyway, that's it for this week's terror. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review and or five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our Heart Radio, or your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more horror fans just like you. In the meantime, drop a follow on TikTok, Instagram at Chills and Thrills Podcast, or Twitter slash X at Chills and Thrill. Or you can feel free to email me at Chills Thrills, Chills and Thrills Podcast at gmail.com. In closing, as Ghostface Always Asks, what's your favorite scary movie? Because next week we'll be reviewing your next nightmare. Until then, see you next week later, folks.