What Does The Ending Of Blair Witch Really Mean?
Get in the corner and find out.
When you boil it down, The Blair Witch Project is all about our fear of the unknown. Throughout the 1999 game-changer we never see the mysterious force that's tormenting the protagonists, and that's why the film still stands as a genuinely chilling experience; there's no explanation, no reason, just prolonged, sleepless terror.
On a basic level, that's what Blair Witch, the stealth legacy-quel nobody even knew was coming until a few months ago, is also about. A part remake, part ante-upping follow-on, Adam Wingard's film taps into that same fear - of the dark, of the woods, of what we sense but can't see - and it does it edge-of-seat-freezing effect.
But there's more to it that just that. The movie provides a major expansion of the Blair Witch mythology, carefully answering key dangling threads from the original, while also uses the seventeen year gap to pass comment on how much society has changed since the original. Let's break it down (but first, a quick recap).
So, What Is The Plot?
Eighteen years after the events of The Blair Witch Project, a new tape surfaces from the Burkittsville woods. Original director Heather's brother, James, and his friends - Lisa, Peter and Ashley - believe it may be the clue to his sister's disappearance and as part of a film school project start shooting a documentary. Along the way they pick up local obsessives Lane and Talia, the couple who actually found the new tape.
After the first night, the gang wake up to find themselves surrounding by the iconic stick figures, which later turn out to be fakes made by the loc, who are forced away from the group. However, the film crew don't fare too well without them; their GPS stops working and after a day's walking they wind up back at the previous night's campsite. Things only get weirder from here, with flying tents, shock returns and strange infections.
And What Happens At The End?
Talia's back is snapped when Ashley breaks one of the wooden figures. Peter is crushed by a tree. Ashley is thrown out of a tree by some unseen figure and dragged away.
Then, as terror mounts, James and Lisa find the house. James is tricked and locked in a room by a mysterious apparition while Lisa is stalked by the Witch until she enters. She runs into Lane, now under the command of the Witch, who she ultimately kills, then runs upstairs, in doing so capturing the instigating video. Her and James are trapped in the attic, the Witch breaks in, they get in the corner to avoid her gaze, but eventually fall prey to her mind-games.
Pretty intense. Now let's try and crack what's going on with that witch.