Image: The Movie DB
About This Quiz
This 1999 film raised many intriguing questions. Is there really a Blair Witch? Why are they still filming while running for their lives? Hey, why do I feel sick? Now, revisit all of these "Blair Witch" mysteries with our quiz!
First things first: Is "The Blair Witch Project" based on actual events?
yes, it's real footage discovered after student filmmakers went missing
it's a re-creation of the disappearance of the students, but not their actual footage
it's fiction, but based on a real legend
the entire thing is made up
Filmmakers Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick invented the legend, as well as loosely scripting the story of the filmmakers' disappearance. To this day, there's confusion on that point.
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In what state is "The Blair Witch Project" set?
Maine
North Carolina
Maryland
"The Blair Witch Project" was set in the small state of Maryland. That's also where it was filmed -- which is important, because the three actors believed they were making a movie based on a real legend, so filming in upstate New York wouldn't have worked.
Massachusetts
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What is the name of the town around which the action revolves?
Blair, of course
Burkittsville
Burkittsville is built where Blair used to stand, the film claims. Burkittsville is a real Maryland town, and its town limits sign has been stolen several times, presumably by fans wanting a serious piece of memorabilia.
Danville
Stars Hollow
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Lead actors Heather Donahue, Michael Collins, and Joshua Leonard played characters named what, respectively?
Jen, Jake and Troy
Kara, Boomer and Lee
Heather, Michael and Josh
Remember, when the film was released, its promoters did everything they could to sow confusion about whether the film really was footage of a failed documentary. This plan started way back, when directors Myrick and Sanchez named the characters after the actors.
Donna, Colin and Leo
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Which of the three characters survives?
Josh
Heather
Michael
none of them
No spoilers, here: The movie poster told audiences going in that "three student filmmakers disappeared" and that only their footage was discovered.
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In her home, what is the first book Heather displays for the camera?
"The Thomas Guide to Maryland"
"How to Stay Alive in the Woods"
Either she didn't read it well enough, or it didn't cover homicidal witches.
"Save the Cat! A Screenwriter's Guide"
Time-Life's "Myths and Monsters"
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What does Josh wear around his neck?
his compass
a leather cord with tiger's eyes
a wild animal's tooth on a cord
Throughout the movie, Josh wears a necklace with a large curved animal tooth. This is, in a way, foreshadowing.
a yellow kerchief
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While the witch is central to the legend, the 1940s child murders were committed by whom?
a religious cult
a man named Rustin Parr
If his name sounds inauthentic, that's because it's a semi-anagram for "Rasputin," a historic figure who also had a strange power over a child. (However, we don't know why there are two extra Rs in there).
a pediatrician named Elizabeth Barker
the principal of the Blair School
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How many children did Rustin Parr kill?
four
five
six
seven
Parr was also said to take the children down to his basement to be killed in pairs. So he had to break that rule for the last victim, we suppose.
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In the 1880s, Robin Weaver came out of the woods talking about an old lady who exhibited what strange characteristic?
her eyes were red
she spoke Latin backwards
her feet never touched the ground
Is this so strange? Some people's grandmas get this way after too much brandy!
she had both male and female genitalia
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What does witness Mary Brown say the Blair Witch looked like?
a beautiful young woman
a hairy half-animal
Mary Brown claims to have seen the witch as a child. She was accompanying her father on a fishing trip when she looked up and saw the beast-woman watching her.
a skeletal old woman
a stern schoolteacher
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Which of the following is NOT something Mary Brown claimed to be?
a ballerina
a day trader
Heather reports all the things Mary Brown claimed to be as the three drive away from the interview. Frankly, we're surprised about day trading -- everyone was doing that in the '90s!
a scientist
a historian
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Who is the last person the students interview before heading into the woods?
the mini-mart clerk
the mother with a small child
a pair of fishermen
Heather and the guys are headed into the woods when they find the men fishing the creek. The men are of two minds about the legend: one seems to believe in it, the other says the Blair Witch story is "bull----."
Mary Brown
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What happened at Coffin Rock?
five men were disemboweled
After the discovery of the grisly scene, a witness returned with sheriff's deputies to find the bodies were gone. The swiftly-disappearing body (or bodies) is a common slasher-movie motif.
several children fell to their deaths
several teenagers killed an outcast member of their clique
local Native Americans contacted the dead
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The filmmakers find cairns in the woods. What exactly are cairns?
old cremation ovens
piles of rocks marking a burial spot or other landmark
Cairns are often made when there isn't time to construct a more formal burial marker. Larger cairns are sometimes used for navigation in off-trail hiking, but these clearly aren't those kind.
polished bones of the dead
fortune-telling sticks
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In addition to twigs snapping and movements, what do the three hear on later nights?
children laughing
The sounds of the children were recordings of children playing near the home of Sanchez's mother. Michael Collins has said he found listening to the children's voices one of the most disturbing moments in filming.
ritual chanting
flames crackling
wolves howling
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What direction is Heather determined to walk?
east
north
south
Heather is the director and dominant personality on the crew. She also handles the map, and she is certain south is the direction that will take them back to their car.
west
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Which character is the first to break down and yell for help?
Heather
Joshua
Michael
In a way, the three filmmakers are like characters in "The Wizard of Oz": a determined Dorothy, an amiable scarecrow and a cowardly lion. Mike, of course, is the latter character.
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What happened to the missing map?
Josh accidentally burned it in a campfire
it blew away in the wind
Mike kicked it into the creek
At first, Mike refuses to admit he knows anything about the missing map. But then he begins to laugh hysterically, saying he kicked it into the creek because it was so useless to them.
we never find out
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Who goes missing first, in the middle of the night?
Heather
Josh
The script called for Michael to go missing first, but the filmmakers switched it up because Heather Donahue and Joshua Leonard weren't getting along well on set. (In their defense, Myrick and Sanchez kept their actors' nerves on edge, hoping for discord that would show on camera.)
Michael
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Where does Heather find evidence that Josh is dead?
in a bundle of sticks tied with a piece of his shirt
Throughout "Blair Witch," sticks play a big role. They form the human-like forms hanging from trees, and mystifying symbols. Then, the morning after Josh disappears, Heather finds a bundle of sticks with grisly evidence inside.
on a trail
on a low-hanging tree branch
she finds no evidence, and believes he's alive
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Which of the following is NOT something Heather finds in the bundle?
hair
Josh's necklace
Heather finds human teeth in the bundle: presumably Josh's, as the hair and the strips of shirt are recognizably his. She doesn't find his animal-tooth necklace -- though we now realize it served as foreshadowing, given the teeth found in the bundle.
a piece of red flesh
teeth
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What does Mike try to eat on the second-to-last day?
dry leaves
Heather's camera catches Mike nibbling on a leaf. When they actually ran out of food isn't clear, but hunger is obviously an issue.
moss
dirt
shoe leather
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What does Heather say was her favorite thing to do on a Sunday?
bake cookies
hike in the woods
Too exhausted to fight anymore, Heather and Mike are making small talk in their tent. He asks her the question about Sundays, and she says that it used to be "drive to the woods and hike." They both laugh at the irony.
knit
watch documentaries
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Who or what does Heather blame for their situation in her video message?
the Blair Witch
herself
Heather says the whole situation is her fault. She was the film's director, and going into the woods and off-trail was her idea. The video-confessional scene is probably the movie's most famous, and parodied elsewhere.
Michael
pressure to succeed from her film-school professors
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Why do Michael and Heather enter the old house?
they are looking for weapons to use
they think someone inside might help them
they hear Josh yelling inside
Josh being alive seems unlikely after what Heather found in the bundle of sticks. But Heather and Michael are undoubtedly acting irrationally from lack of food and from desperation, so they plunge into the abandoned building.
they're just so relieved to find shelter
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In addition to runic symbols, what's on the walls of the old house?
dark handprints
The handprints are low on the wall, suggesting the children who died there at Rustin Parr's hands. It's one of the film's most disturbing touches.
scrawled warnings
tufts of sticky hair
drawings of the witch
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When Heather enters the cellar, who is standing in the corner?
Josh
Michael
The legend of Rustin Parr's murders says that he took kids down to the cellar in pairs, making one stand in the corner while he killed the other one. This is what the movie's final minutes re-enact.
a small child
the Blair Witch
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What is the name of the genre that "Blair Witch" virtually invented?
found footage
"Found footage" became huge after the success of "Blair Witch." It's a close cousin to the "mockumentary," which is a fake documentary, but one that purports to be finished, not recovered from a project that ended in disaster.
mockumentary
ultra-realism
reclaimed horror
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How many times does the "Blair Witch" movie use the F-word?
none
57
98
154
This isn't a record. The 1983 "Scarface" uses the word 226 times. But in "Blair Witch" it might stand out more because the rest of the dialogue has so little serious content; it's mostly the three students bickering endlessly.
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What unexpected problem did theaters have during showings of "The Blair Witch Project"?
scores of underage children trying to sneak in to a hit film
people fainting
people throwing up
The problem was so widespread that a newspaper wire service reported on "Blair Witch Sickness." If you've ever sat too close to an IMAX screen, you'll understand the problem.
reels breaking due to cheap film stock
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Whose mother actually received sympathy cards because of the film?
Michael Collins
Heather Donahue
Yep, Donahue's mother actually got condolences in the mail. Distant friends saw the film and believed that Heather's "missing-presumed-dead" status was real!
Joshua Leonard
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Which actor later went on to become a creature-effects maker in Hollywood?
Heather Donahue
Michael Collins
Joshua Leonard
that's a trick question!
It was Heather Langenkamp, of "Nightmare on Elm Street" fame who went on to become an effects specialist. Heather Donahue moved on to an even more unconventional career -- she was a medical marijuana grower, as documented in her book, "Growgirl."
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Which of the following is not a "Blair Witch" spin-off?
comic books
novels
a stage play
Inevitably, there was a film sequel, as well. This gets our vote for the most unnecessary sequel until "Ring 2."
video games
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What was the name of the "Blair Witch" sequel?
"Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2"
The second film uses much the same premise as the first: Unprepared, overconfident investigators get much more than they bargained for. But the second film takes place largely in town settings, instead of getting its cast lost in the woods.
"The Blair Witch Diaries"
"Daughter of the Blair Witch"
just "Blair Witch 2"
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You Got:
/35
The Movie DB