Blair Witch (formerly marketed as The Woods) is a direct sequel to The Blair Witch Project which was released in September 2016. The film follows a group of college students who venture into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of James Donahue's sister, Heather, who many believe is connected to the legend of the Blair Witch after her disappearance 20 years prior.
At first the group is hopeful, especially when a pair of locals offer to act as guides through the dark and winding woods, but as the endless night wears on, the group is visited by a menacing presence. Slowly, they begin to realize the legend is all too real and more sinister than they could have imagined.
Plot[]
The film opens with a frightened woman running through a derelict house, presumably the house of Rustin Parr where Heather was last seen. It turns out to be a video which James is showing to his friend Lisa Arlington. James believes the woman in the footage is his sister Heather, and is therefore resolved to try and find her. Lisa has her doubts about Heather's survival, but James is determined to find her. With their friends Peter Jones and his girlfriend Ashley Bennett they track down the couple who uploaded the video, Talia and Lane, and ask them where they found the footage. Mysteriously, Talia and Lane offer to join them on their trek, promising to show them the sight later on. This is not to the liking of James and Peter, but having little choice in the matter they agree nonetheless.
The six of them gather their filming equipment and enter the Black Hills forest. Earlier in the day Ashley injures her foot while crossing barefooted through a river. The wound only appears to be a small gash and is tended. On their first night they begin to discuss the mythology surrounding the Blair Witch. According to Talia, no one can look directly at the Blair Witch and live; the victim will simply die of terror. She also explains that this is probably why the victims of the Witch stand in a corner with their backs turned.
Later that night, they are immediately awoken by strange noises. At first it seems to be loud crunching sounds, like a large beast stomping around the camp. James peeps out of his tent with a flashlight. By then eerie voices call out in the dark, frightening the group. Strange stick figures soon appear out of nowhere, dotted all over the camp. Shaken by this, the next morning the group decide to leave immediately. Before long a complication occurs when Lisa notices a string wrap in Lane's bag, noticing its similarity to the strings used to tie the stick figures. Lisa confronts Lane and Talia about it, where they admit to the rest of the group that they faked the whole thing to shoot this documentary. Peter angrily chases them away afterwards. James is left devastated by the news, believing that his sister was alive when it was not so. Peter comforts him however and the four of them decide to head home.
As James, Lisa, Ashley and Peter continue to make their way out of the woods, they suddenly happen upon the same clearing where they camped the previous night. The four of them are alarmed and puzzled to find they have walked in a giant circle, but as night begins to fall they are forced to make camp. Lisa attempts to use the drone camera to scout out their location, but strangely she can't see any of the creek or the road. All of a sudden the drone malfunctions and crashes, leaving the four of them stranded. Ashley soon develops a fever from her foot injury.
Peter inspects Ashley's wounded foot, where Peter spots a strange parasite inside her foot, but makes no mention of it to Ashley. He later tells James and Lisa about it, and James agrees to have a look later. Peter goes off in search of some fire wood, but having wandered off he becomes lost and before long he is hounded by terrible noises. He runs for his life after spotting a strange figure in the dark, but ultimately he is crushed by a falling tree. Barely alive, he is trapped as an assailant stomps around him. After hearing Peter's screams, James runs off into the night to look for him, but finds only his flash light. James then hears feedback on his walkie talkie, but only hears an inhuman gurgling noise from the other end. When he returns to the camp, he and Lisa rest in the same tent out of fear. They are awoken by a commotion in the dark. James and Lisa emerge from their tent and are encountered by Talia and Lane, who appear disheveled and hysterical. Oddly they claim that they have been wandering the woods for five days of endless night since they last met, but James and and Lisa remember seeing them only a few hours ago. Lane runs off in complete madness, leaving Talia with the others.
When they awake the next "morning", according to Lisa's watch, it is still nighttime outside. Puzzled, James suggests they pack up and leave. But emerging from their tents, he and the three girls suddenly see dozens of larger stick figures lining the camp. Talia panics and takes one down, noticing that one of them has a clump of her hair tied to it. Angered, Ashley takes the stick figure and breaks it in half. Doing so however suddenly breaks Talia's body in half, and her broken body lies prone on the ground. Chaos ensues as one of the tents is wrenched into the air by an unseen force. James, Lisa and Ashley promptly run for their lives and become separated. Ashley later inspects her leg and removes the strange parasite that has infected it. At this point she notices the crashed camera drone from earlier. In her attempt to retrieve it from the tree's high branches, a hand suddenly tries to grab her and she falls to her death. Her body is pulled out of the camera's range.
Meanwhile Lisa and James reunite and the terror seems to stop. They stumble through the woods, calling for Ashley, just as a thunderstorm breaks out. Finally the shack of Rustin Parr looms over them. James believes that he has found Heather, but Lisa tells him that whatever happened to Heather, she will never be found. James is adamant however and enters into the cabin, just as his sister had done so on a foretime. Upon entering James finds the shack is like a labyrinth of long dark corridors. He is soon stalked and haunted by terrible visions, spotting Peter standing in a corner with his back to him in a room. The apparition soon vanishes however when a slamming door distracts him. James then sees a girl running down a hallway. When he gives chase, thinking it to be Heather, he is trapped inside a room. There he is terrified by the sudden appearance of a shrieking phantom. Though seen briefly, the spectre indeed appears to be his sister Heather, complete with her torn cardigan and hat.
Outside, Lisa calls despairingly for James. But as she waits, Lisa spots a long limbed figure moving through the trees, which appears to be earthly, naked and emaciated. Alarmed, Lisa runs into the shack too. Once inside, Lisa flees into the basement, where she encounters a deranged and possessed Lane. Muttering something about obeying "her orders", he suddenly attacks her and throws her down a trapdoor into a pit. There she is trapped, until she notices a mysterious tunnel opening. Scared and shaken, Lisa begins to crawl down the muddy tunnel, which proves to be very narrow. At one point she becomes stuck and begins to panic. But she suddenly hears an ominous growling from behind her, suspecting that something is in the tunnel with her. Gathering her courage she breaks free and reaches a wooden panel at the end of the tunnel. Using a pocket knife she tears through it and ends up in another part of the shack. There she is attacked again by Lane, but this time Lisa rams the pocket knife into his throat, killing him. Lisa attempts to cover up the tunnel, but when something begins to break through she is forced to flee. The long limbed creature emerges again and chases Lisa down the corridors.
As she runs through the twisted corridors, the footage suddenly resembles the same footage that James had discovered on the internet. This means that James did not see Heather in the blurred footage, but a vision of Lisa running through the shack. Therefore they have all been caught in a time loop; the footage was a vision possibly devised by the witch herself. After a series of terrifying encounters, James and Lisa are reunited and continue to run through the house. They spot a strange light coming up from outside the shack, and afterwards they are cornered in the attic. When an assailant begins to break open the door of the attic, James urges Lisa to stand with him in the corner and not to look behind them, remembering Talia's words about looking directly at the Blair Witch. A great wind blows through the room and an evil presence enters in.
James breaks down in tears and apologises to Lisa, blaming himself for this doomed expedition. But then he appears to hear the voice of his sister, which Lisa cannot hear, which tempts him to look back over his shoulder. He suddenly vanishes from sight, leaving a terrified Lisa all alone. Using the camera to view what is behind her, Lisa begins to back out of the room. She keeps her back turned until she hears James' disembodied voice calling out to her, causing her turn. She continues to film until she too is snatched away, leaving only her camera behind before it gives out.
Cast[]
- James Allen McCune as James Donahue
- Callie Hernandez as Lisa Arlington
- Brandon Scott as Peter
- Valorie Curry as Talia
- Corbin Reid as Ashley
- Wes Robinson as Lane