The Blair Witch Project

A closer look at the story

In October 1994, three film students set out to shoot a documentary in the woods near the town of Burkittsville, Maryland. Their subject is the legend of the Blair Witch, which locals link to children who disappeared in those woods in the 1940s. Carrying a camera, a video camera and a sound recorder, they record every step of their investigation. As the days go by, though, they realise they are lost in the forest. The three students are never heard from again. A year later, recordings of their filming are found in the woods. Written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, the 81-minute 1999 film features Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams in one of the pioneering found-footage horror films.