13 Scariest Movie Endings That Kept You Up All Night

1999's groundbreaking found footage chiller is without question one of the most significant, influential horror movies of the past 20 years. While most of the imitators which came in its wake ranged between the underwhelming to the unwatchable, there's no denying the impact of the film that started it all.

Admittedly, much of that initial impact came as much from how The Blair Witch Project was marketed as anything else; and after the feverish hype, there were many who found the film itself to be rather slow, monotonous and repetitive for the most part (this writer included).

Even so, it's fair to say that, regardless of whether you've been scared throughout, The Blair Witch Project's final minutes significantly up the fear factor.

After so much time spent wandering in the woods with our helplessly lost film students investigating the legend of the Blair Witch, we're suddenly taken by surprise when Heather (Heather Donahue) and Mike (Michael C Williams) stumble on a remote house - and hear what sounds like their missing friend Josh (Joshua Leonard) screaming from inside.

As Mike disappears ahead, Heather struggles to keep up, her perpetually shaking camera picking up eerie images of the Blair Witch emblem painted on the walls, until at last she catches up with Mike - finding him standing with his back to her in the corner, a pose in-keeping with the MO of the child murderer Rustin Parr, referenced earlier in the film.

Seconds later, Heather's camera crashes to the ground - and we are left none the wiser as to the ultimate fate of the characters, nor whether it's the doing of Parr, the legendary Witch, or someone/something else entirely.

That lack of closure and openness to interpretation makes this a singularly haunting climax.