Blair Witch (2016)

Blair Witch (formerly marketed under the faux-title, The Woods) is a 2016 found-footage horror film which serves as the third installment in the Blair Witch film series and a direct sequel to The Blair Witch Project.

The film completely ignores the second film and is filmed in Found Footage style like the first film. While the main subject of the first film is "being lost in the woods", this film focuses on "being chased in the woods".

After discovering a video showing what he believes to be his vanished sister Heather, James and a group of friends head to the forest believed to be inhabited by the Blair Witch.

Plot
James Donahue finds a video containing a supposed image of his sister Heather who disappeared 20 years ago in the woods near Burkittsville while investigating the legend of the Blair Witch. Believing she is still alive, James heads into the woods, accompanied by friends Peter Jones, Ashley Bennett, and film student Lisa Arlington, who wants to film the search for a documentary. Locals Talia and Lane, who uploaded the footage from a videotape they found, join them on their search.

Upon setting up camp for the night, Lane and Talia discuss the disappearance of Heather's film crew, as well as other mysterious occurrences in the region, all of which they ascribe to the Blair Witch. After hearing noises in the woods during the night and oversleeping until the afternoon, the group awakens to find strange stick figures hanging from the trees surrounding their camp. Unnerved, the four friends elect to leave despite Lane and Talia's reluctance. Lisa then notices twine hanging out of Lane's backpack and both he and Talia are banished after admitting to creating the figures. After several hours of walking, the four arrive back at their original campsite, their GPS being inaccurate. Lisa pilots a drone to obtain their location, but it malfunctions and crashes into the trees. Ashley becomes sick due to a wound on her foot sustained the previous day, forcing the group to camp again. Peter goes to gather firewood, but is chased by an unknown entity which causes a nearby tree to fall, gravely wounding him. James hears Peter's cries and runs to his aid, but when he arrives, Peter is gone. During the night, James and Lisa hear more sounds. Moments later, Lane and Talia emerge, claiming they have been wandering around the forest for five days without a sunrise. Believing that he is hallucinating, Lane runs off while Talia stays behind. The following morning, James and Lisa are stunned to find that it is still night time, discovering larger stick figures surrounding their camp. Talia sees clumps of her hair tied to one of the figures. Ashley, devastated by Peter's disappearance, accuses Talia of crafting them and snaps the figure in half; Talia's body is then violently ripped apart as Ashley screams in horror. An unseen force then separates the group and Ashley pulls out maggots and an object embedded in her leg. She finds the drone and climbs a tree to recover it but falls to the ground, apparently to her death. She is pulled off-screen by an unseen force.

A rainstorm ensues as Lisa and James stumble across Rustin Parr's cabin. James seemingly spots his sister upstairs and enters the house. Peter is shown standing in the corner of the first room that James enters. He soon realizes that something is chasing him and barricades himself in an upstairs room. Alone outside, Lisa spots a long-limbed, humanoid creature emerging from the woods, and runs horrified into the basement. She finds an aged Lane who, claiming to be under the control of the witch, traps her in an underground tunnel. Lisa forces herself through the crawlspace but, upon reaching the other side, she is again attacked by Lane, whom she fatally stabs in self-defense. Chased by the entity she glimpsed outside, Lisa runs upstairs, seeing the reflection that James saw earlier in the original video. She reunites with James in the attic where they briefly witness a bright light shining through the windows and cracks in the walls before fading. They unsuccessfully try to barricade the door. James tells Lisa to face the corner of the room and he desperately apologizes to Lisa for their fate before an unseen entity enters. James is tricked into turning around, believing that he hears Heather's voice, and is killed. Lisa uses Lane's camcorder to indirectly view what is behind her and begins walking backwards. However, hearing James' apology again, she turns around before being attacked off-screen. The camera is dropped and cuts to black.

Cast

 * James Allen McCune as James
 * Valorie Curry as Talia
 * Callie Hernandez as Lisa
 * Brandon Scott as Peter
 * Wes Robinson as Lane
 * Corbin Reid as Ashley

Production
n February 2015, it was announced Adam Wingard would direct the film, from a screenplay by Simon Barett, with Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Keith Calder and Jessica Wu producing. The film was initially marketed under the title The Woods, but was revealed to be a direct sequel to The Blair Witch Project, and the title was actually Blair Witch. The film was made in secrecy, with only a few Lionsgate employees knowing what the actual project was about.