Autumn Siharath

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Thesis:

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Three film students disappear in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while filming a documentary on a local legend, known as the Blair Witch. Or did they all disappear in the media?

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Q1: Who were the three students who went missing?

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Montgomery College film students Heather Donahue (22), Joshua Leonard (23), Michael Williams (24).

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Q2: What is one other story involving the Blair Witch?

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The most famous story, besides the three studens, is the one of Rustin Parr. He lived in the woods near Burkittsville, formally Blair, after his aunt died and his uncle moved to Baltimore. He had started hearing voices in his head, the voices being the Blair Witch. He first started hearing the voices in his sleep and then during his wake. The voices first told him to do meaningless things like sleep in the cellar of his house for a week at a time, but then in November of 1940, the voices told him to go into town and grab the first two children he saw. Parr followed the directions. Then the voice started telling him to take more and more children, then Parr ended up with 8 children. Parr would take two children down into the cellar of his home and would tell one child to face the corner, his reason being that he couldn't take the eyes on him while he was killing, while he brutally murdered the other, then would do the same to the child standing in the corner. Kyle Brody the only child to survive the horrifying events and was let free, while the witch told Parr to go into town and tell everyone what he had done. The police followed Parr to his home in the woods and found seven graves for the dead children, and Brody standing on the front porch looking dazed and unable to speak. Parr would be hanged in 1941 and Brody would live in institutionalized care until his death in 1971, as he never recovered from the two months spent in the cellar of Parr's home.

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Q3: What did the witch do to the three film students? How did it turn out for the three? What does that mean for the three students?

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The trio find an old cemetery on the second day of their journey into the woods, and find seven, small, cairns, which is a human made pile of rocks. The seven cairns represent the seven children that Parr had murdered when he was being controlled by the witch. When Josh disturbs [knocks down] one of the cairns, and Heather quickly puts it back together. The next morning they wake up in camp and see three cairns in front of their tent. This kind of shows that the witch could possibly try to target the trio on their trek through the woods. This being said Josh's belongings were the most messed up when their campsite was attacked. His belongings were covered in a slimy substance. This all pointing towards them being targeted by the Blair Witch.

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Q4: What caused the legend of the Blair Witch?

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The story goes that in February of 1785, with seven children accusing Elly Kedward of luring them into her home to draw blood from them. Kedward was found guilty of witchcraft, and banished from the village in a particularly harsh winter, and was presumed dead. Midwinter of 1786 all of Kedward's accusers, along with half of the town's children, mysteriously vanish. Fearing a curse the villagers had fled and Blair was renamed Burkitsville when it was refounded in 1824.

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Who had first hand experience with the Blair Witch? What was the aftermath of the event?

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The first to experience the Blair Witch, besides the children of the formally named town, was a ten-year-old girl named Eileen Treacle. Eleven people had witnessed a pale hand that seemed to belong to a woman pull her into Tappy East Creek. Treacle's body is never recovered, but thirteen days after the drowning the creek is clogged with oily bundles of sticks, which made the water unsuitable for drinking.

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Theories about the Blair Witch:

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At the end of the footage you see Joshua Leonard in the corner, and you see Mike's camera hit the ground, and hear Heather scream. When Heather's camera hits the ground the viewers are puzzled as to who or what made this happen. It's possible it could've been the Blair Witch herself, but then again it could be Josh Leonard. His belongings were the most damaged by the Witch and it was proof that he was being targeted. So, its most likely Leonard, but his body is not in his control. The Blair Witch had him in her grip and was controlling him to kill his fellow two members of the, once, trio.

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Closure/Proving of Thesis:

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The Blair Witch Project was the first of it's kind. If you haven't figured it out yet, the Blair Witch Project is completely fake, including all of the stories. It inspired movies like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield. The Blair Witch was all in the media. The directors had set the scene by hiring actors no one really knew and had tactics that increased fear. Such tactics include slowly shortening the actor's food portions per day and making everything from the sounds, and even letting the actors direct the whole film instead of being told what to do.

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Citations:

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1"17 Found Facts About 'The Blair Witch Project'" Mental Floss. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2016.

2: "Mythology." Mythology. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2016.

3: "The Blair Witch Project Ending: Who Actually- CINEMABLEND. N.p., 06 Mar. 2015. Web. 23 May 2016.

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Annotated Bibliography:

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Citation #1: In this article shows theories from fans saying who they think actually killed 2/3 of the trio in footage. It gave multiple theories and good reasons to back up the theories.

Citation #2: In this page it gave me a timeline with all the events related to the Blair Witch, and the Blair Witch Project. It included the stories of Elly Kedward, Rustin Parr, and the trio of film students.

Citation #3: In this fact page it told me all about how the directors went about the film and how the actors were supposed to act. It also talked about how the town of Burkitsville was affected after the shooting of the movie.