What Does The Ending Of Blair Witch Really Mean?

An "Assembled" Story

At the very start of Blair Witch we get the requisite found footage text cards that give us some context for the events. However, there's something very unique about this one; Wingard states that this was "assembled" from the footage that was, well, found. It's not just everything that was filmed, but a parsed down version.

Now this was also the case with The Blair Witch Project, which had sound from a single camera and swift cross-cutting, but the sequel's up-front about it, leading to a film that, while scrappily shot, has an element of structure, polish and almost an overseeing hand in the scares; rather than letting the horror sit, this modern take tries to inject some more in there. You have long, black pauses between set-pieces, very leading cross-cutting and even flourishes attempting to show the character's increasing psychological degradation.

Like with some of the previous points, it's not delved into enough to make a wider thematic point - there's certainly an opening for a discussion on storytelling technique and the effect of perspective - but it's definitely an example of Wingard taking a pre-existing horror trope, in this case the structure of a found footage film, and twisting it, having the story of the film permeate and influence the editing.

What did you make of the ending of Blair Witch? What was the film really about? Share your thoughts down in the comments.