10 Most Paused Horror Movie Moments
7. The End - The Blair Witch Project (1999)
It has been many years since the world found out that The Blair Witch Project's claims of authenticity were a viral marketing campaign designed to dupe viewers into believing the action onscreen, and yet fans from all corners haven't stopped returning to the movie, hoping to pry any remaining secrets from its cold, grey maw.
And nowhere more so than in the end sequence, which sees Heather (Donahue) follow Mike (Williams) through an abandoned house, drawn in by the cries of their friend and supposed co-documentarian Josh (Leonard). The scene concludes with various camera bumps and drops, with a haunting final shot that sees Mike immobile, staring into the wall, Heather screaming, and the camera knocked to the ground one final time.
In the pre-social media era, word of mouth and chatboard rumours swirled about what may or not have been hidden in the shadows of this grey and foreboding final scene, and there is frame after frame of obscured, low quality shaky-cam to pore over. But even with today's technology and the availability of high definition copies, the mysteries persist. Can we spot the witch or Rustin Parr, can we see what happened to Heather, or is it just the product of clever filmmaking and location choices?