Few films have changed the landscape of horror like The Blair Witch Project. Purporting to be recovered footage from a doomed documentary, the story follows three filmmakers who venture into the Black Hills of Maryland to investigate the legend of the Blair Witch. They never return. This lean and mean film was cobbled together from hours of footage shot by the actors improvising fictionalized versions of themselves. Directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez made the bold choice to never show the titular monster, elevating the film from a creepy tale set in a haunted woods to one of the most terrifying, profitable, and ambitious horror films of all time. Though her face remains in the shadows, the Blair Witch has become a cultural phenomenon with a legacy that reaches far beyond the real life entities who may have inspired her creation.
Because Heather (Heather Donahue), Josh (Joshua Leonard) and Mike (Michael C. Williams) were never able to finish their documentary, we don’t learn much about the Blair Witch from the original film. “Man on the street” interviews and passages from an old book provide just a taste of this terrifying tale. As part of an ingenious marketing campaign, Myrick and Sánchez worked with Ben Rock to create extensive lore for Curse of the Blair Witch, a mockumentary that premiered on The Sci-Fi Channel in conjunction with the film’s theatrical release.
After learning more about the missing filmmakers, a collection of faux experts tell us the story of Elly Kedward, an 18th century woman living in the township of Blair. Likely due to religious differences and reports that she’d been bleeding local children, Elly was convicted of witchcraft and subsequently banished from the town. Unfortunately this sentence may have been a way to subvert a formal execution. Blindfolded, Elly was driven deep into the wintery woods, tied to a tree, and left to die…
Moll Dyer and Elly Kedward’s Legacy of Blood
Elly’s fictional demise was likely inspired by the legend of Moll Dyer, a witch said to haunt the woods of Leonardtown, Maryland. Though experts remain unsure of her actual existence, Moll Dyer was a 17th century colonist and outcast in the struggling community. During a particularly harsh winter following a poor harvest, the frightened villagers embraced superstition and blamed Moll for their misfortune. Accounts of the story vary with some versions describing angry neighbors setting fire to Moll’s home while others insist she merely heard the mob approaching and fled moments before their arrival. Both variations remember Moll dashing through the snowy woods with only a light shawl to keep her warm. When her strength eventually gave out, Moll is said to have placed her right hand on a rock and extended her left to the sky in order to call down a curse on the people of Leonardtown. She was later found frozen in this position and the rock still bears the imprint of her mystical contact. It has since been relocated and now sits in front of the Leonardtown courthouse as a grim reminder of this legendary injustice.
A year after Elly’s similar murder, the children of Blair began to disappear one by one. Fearing her revenge from beyond the grave, they fled the area and the village eventually died out. When the town of Burkittsville was established on the land decades later, rumors began to swirl of a sinister presence haunting the nearby woods. Locals swore they had seen a woman hovering above the forest floor with command over the animals and trees. When a little girl named Eileen Treacle drowned in a nearby creek, witnesses claimed to see a ghostly hand emerge from the water to pull her under. Spotting mysterious stick figures littering the stream, the villagers began avoiding the creek and feared that contact with the water might spread the witch’s curse.
But the bloodiest chapter of the witch’s story was yet to come. In 1886, a little girl named Robin Weaver disappeared after playing in the woods. She later reappeared on her grandmother’s porch and claimed that a lady whose feet never touched the ground had led her to a house deep in the woods. The search party sent to retrieve her had not yet returned so additional men were dispatched to call off the hunt. Unfortunately they found only death. The second search party stumbled upon the five men stretched out on what would come to be known as Coffin Rock. Each man tied to the next, they had been disemboweled with pagan symbols carved into their skin. Hours later, the bodies had vanished but the smell of carnage remained heavy in the air.
The Curious Case of the Bell Witch
Before diving into Blair Witch lore, a historian featured in Curse of the Blair Witch mentions a similar case in Adams, Tennessee. The Bell Witch is a well-documented paranormal entity that haunted the Bell family of Red River in the early 17th century. Family patriarch John Bell first noticed a large dog with the head of a rabbit lingering on the family’s land followed by curious sightings of a strange girl wearing a green dress. The witch’s torment began as harmless pranks: knocking on the walls at night and pulling covers off of the sleeping family. This soon escalated to physical attacks as the Bells were slapped, scratched, pinched, and stuck with pins. Most of the cruelty was focused on John, who suffered paralysis of the mouth, and daughter Betsy who would frequently collapse under the stress of this violence.
As the hauntings escalated, the Bell Witch developed an audible voice she would use to taunt the family. When asked about her origins, the voice claimed “I am a spirit; I was once very happy but have been disturbed.” The witch quickly became a constant presence on the farm and word of what the Bells would call “the family trouble” spread throughout the southeast region. Visitors traveled from far and wide to hear the witch including multiple failed attempts to debunk the haunting. Though her torment of John and Betsy never wavered, the witch enjoyed entertaining and was known to perform parlor tricks for visiting guests. She would routinely share gossip from neighboring households and, after appearing to leave for short periods of time, would recite passages from different sermons given miles away. The strange tale was featured in an edition of the Saturday Evening Post and future president Andrew Jackson was among the high profile visitors to the Bell farm.
While the entity gave several explanations for its origin, many believed it emerged from a burial ground disturbed when the Bells built their home on the land. The spirit also claimed to be “Old Kate Batts’ witch,” referring to an older woman from town. Kate was a large and aggressive woman with a habit of begging pins from her neighbors. Before the hauntings began, John had a public dispute with this boisterous widow giving rise to the theory that the hauntings were her clandestine attempts at revenge. Miraculously, Kate was never formally charged with witchcraft and lived her life in relative peace. In his accounting of the tale, Betsy’s own brother noted Kate’s kindness and overall decency, fully rejecting the idea that she had brought this curse down upon the family.
Death and Documentation
One of the few completed scenes in the unfinished Blair Witch documentary features Heather reading the gruesome story of Coffin Rock from an old book. Published in 1809, The Blair Witch Cult is a collection of first-hand accounts of Blair Witch encounters and strange occurrences in the Black Hills she’s known to haunt. Though this primary source was created by the filmmakers as an eerie prop, it was likely inspired by a real publication. Authenticated History of the Bell Witch is a similar collection of interviews and stories from those who witnessed the Bell family hauntings. Chapters of this exhaustive account include an exploration of the Adams community, details of religious fervor, and well-documented conversations with friends, neighbors, and members of the Bell family. Published in 1894 by respected editor Martin V. Ingram, this primary source with its notable red cover is believed to be the first complete chronicle of this mysterious phenomenon.
When recounting little Eileen’s death in the Burkittsville river, experts featured in the faux documentary note that this tragic occurrence marks the first time in recorded history that a death was attributed to a non-human entity. However, this notorious distinction actually belongs to the Bell Witch. After suffering direct threats and unseen harassment for years, John Bell fell inexplicably ill. Doctors were unable to find the cause of his malady, but recovered a small vial filled with a deadly liquid. He eventually succumbed to the poison, delighting the witch who celebrated his passing with crude jokes and drinking songs.
Modern Variations
The witch’s disturbances eventually tapered off, disappearing altogether once Betsy called off her engagement to her neighbor Joshua Gardner. Though many explanations have been given over the years, including ventriloquism and poltergeist activity, no one has ever been able to prove what actually happened in the Bell home. In 1997, horror author Brent Monahan published a fictionalized account of the story in The Bell Witch: An American Haunting with a surprising explanation for the occurrence. Told through the lens of Betsy’s eventual husband, Richard Powell, Monahan posits that the hauntings were a manifestation of Betsy’s attempts to protect herself from abuse at the hands of her father.
Experts in Curse of the Blair Witch similarly wonder if Eileen’s drowning death was a tragic story of parental neglect. Rather than admit failure to protect this child, it’s possible that the people of Burkittsville created a story of ghostly interference similar to the parental abuse named in Monahan’s fictional retelling of the Bell Witch haunting. Though no mention was made in Myrick’s and Sánchez’s film, it’s likely that elements of this explanation made its way into the Sci-Fi mockumentary further explaining the Blair Witch legend.
Another notable similarity between these two witches is a pattern of generational repetition. The Bell Witch returns in Monyhan’s novel when Betsy’s daughter reaches the age of maturity, a subtle warning to protect her from the advances of predatory men. Though likely fictitious, this modern understanding of the legend dovetails with the power of the Blair Witch story. Falsely accused of witchcraft and murdered by a moral majority, Elly Kedward continues to warn each generation about the dangers of supernatural fear. Both legends have come to serve as cautionary tales. They reemerge with every new generation as if these wronged women are reaching out from beyond the grave. “Respect your daughters,” they say “and value the women in your life, especially those in need of protection. Dire consequences await those who fail to listen.” Regardless of the veracity of both stories, their power remains – a supernatural warning to leave women in peace.
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