Burkittsville

Burkittsville is a town located in Frederick County in the U.S. state of Maryland. Although it is a real town, it has become fictionalized in the horror genre as the primary setting for the Blair Witch film series by Haxan Films and Artisan Entertainment. Due to the popularity of the 1999 movie The Blair Witch Project, the town of Burkittsville gained some measure of notoriety as fans of the film came to the town in droves seeking out information and locations connected to the film.

Fictional history
The town of Burkittsville was once known as Blair. In the 1700s, a woman named Elly Kedward had been accused of witchcraft. Children in the town stated that she had taken samples of blood from them without their permsission. The townsfolk of Blair had no tolerance for witchcraft, so they apprehended Kedward and took her out into the Black Hills where she was tied to a tree. Weights were attached to her arms and legs as an impromptu torture rack and she was left to die of exposure. Legend has it that after Kedward died, she became a vengeful spirit who targeted her accusers and executions. The children who had claimed that Elly had taken their blood disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Soon after, all of their family members followed suit.

It is believed that the curse of Elly Kedward, the so-called "Blair Witch", lived on in areas surrounding the Black Hills for centuries to come. The town changed its name from Blair to Burkittsville in the year 1824.

In the year 1825, a ten-year-old girl named Eileen Treacle was one of man who attended the Wheat Harvest Picnic. She wandered off and drowned in the shallow water of the Tappy East Creek. Eyewitnesses came forward citing that they had seen a ghostly white hand reaching up from out of the creek to drag her in.

Decades later, a girl named Robin Weaver went missing in the year 1888. She turned up alive three days later with stories of encountering a strange woman whose feet never touched the ground. Around this time, five men were discovered to have been ritualistically murdered at a locale known as Coffin Rock.

In the 1940s, a strange hermit named Rustin Parr lived in an old three-story house in the middle of the woods. Parr abducted eight children and brought them to his house. He would make one of the children stand in the corner while he murdered the other seven in succession by disemboweling them. The boy who stood in the corner, Kyle Brody, managed to escape. After he was done, Parr walked all the way into town and solemnly proclaimed, "I'm finally finished". When police investigated, they found the bodies of the seven murdered children. Parr claimed to have heard a voice in his head by a woman instructing him to carry out certain tasks. Parr was put on trial where he confessed to killing them. Kyle Brody was called as a witness at the trial. He received a unanimous verdict of guilty and was sentenced to die from hanging in 1941. Parr's seven victims became known as the "Burkittsville Seven".

In the year 1999, a young film student named Heather decided to create a documentary about the legend of the Blair Witch. Along with her colleague Mike, and a cameraman named Josh, they interviewed several local residents of Burkittsville, all of whom had stories to tell concerning the legendary "Blair Witch". They went hiking into the Black Hills and set up camp hoping to find some evidence of the witch herself. All three of them disappeared under mysterious circumstances. A year later, footage from Josh's camera was discovered. Evidence on the tape suggests that Josh had died in the woods and that Heather and Mike may have been killed inside the ruins of Rustin Parr's house. Police and Federal agents canvassed the area for several days in search of them, but found no evidence of their bodies, or even evidence of Parr's house.

Nearly fifteen years later, Heather's brother, James, found a video on YouTube which appeared to be of Heather filmed the night she disappeared. James decided to investigate this, and convinced his best friend Peter, Pete's girlfriend Ashley, and an amateur filmmaker named Lisa to accompany him. None of them actually believed in the legends of the Blair Witch, but James wanted closure as to what may have happened to his sister. They tracked down the man who posted the video, Lane, who lived in Burkittsville and was involved with a girl named Talia.

Using digital cameras, GoPros and drones, they traveled out into the Black Hills and set up a camp. During the night as the others slept, Lane went out and set up little witch dolls all around the campsite. His hope was that by creating this hoax, it would generate enough genuine interest in the legends so that James and his crew would make a solid and earnest investigation into the stories.

Over the course of the next two nights, each of them would meet a grisly fate. Peter was crushed to death as trees began falling in the woods. Ashley broke a witch doll that had Talia's hair woven through it in half, which created a voodoo effect, snapping Talia in half as well. Ashley later fell out of a tree while trying to recover the drone, which had become stuck in one of the high branches. James and Lisa discovered the Parr house and became trapped inside, seemingly stuck in an endless loop. Lisa discovered Lane, looking significantly older than when they met him the previous evening. Frightened by his sudden appearance, Lisa stabbed him in the throat, killing him. James was claimed by the Blair Witch, and Lisa fell victim to her presence as well only moments later.

Points of interest

 * Black Hills Forest
 * The Black Hills Forest is a massive forest located in the areas surrounding Burkittsville. It was here that Elly Kedward was first executed back in the 18th century. This is the location of the mysterious paradox house that Rustin Parr used when conducting his ritualistic murders, presumably at the commands of the Blair Witch, back in 1940. In 1999, Heather, Joshua and Mike hiked through the Black Hills Forest, but became lost, slowly giving way to panic and paranoia, before ultimately disappearing. In 2014, locals Lane and Talia brought James, Peter, Ashley and Lisa out to the Black Hills Forest to probe deeper into the 1999 disappearances. All of them lost their lives over the course of two evenings.


 * Burkittsville Cemetery
 * This was a cemetery located in Burkittsville, Maryland.


 * Burkittsville Courthouse
 * In 1940, Rustin Parr was placed on trial for the murders of seven children. The trial was recorded, and Parr - seemingly unrepenting, confessed to the murders. He was sentenced to death and hanged in 1941.


 * Coffin Rock
 * This was a locale in Burkittsville that still exists today. In the 19th century, five men were found ritualistically murdered at Coffin Rock as part of some bizarre ceremony. Centuries later, Heather, Michael and Josh would interview some local fisherman and learn about Coffin Rock.


 * Parr residence
 * This mysterious three-story building was located in the middle of the Black Hills. It seemed to have existed in some sort of paradox loop, in which the passage of time was different than in the real world. This was where Rustin Parr brought eight Burkittsville children in 1940, murdering seven of them. Nearly sixty years later, amateur documentarians Heather and Michael would disappear inside the house, seemingly victims of the Blair Witch. Fifteen years after that, Heather's younger brother James and his friend Lisa would also be murdered by the Blair Witch inside this house.


 * Tappy East Creek
 * In 1825, a 10-year-old girl named Eileen Treacle wandered off towards the creek. A ghostly white hand, presumably that of the Blair Witch, came out of the lake and grabbed Treacle, pulling her down and drowning her in the shallow water. In the days that followed, dozens of strange wooden dolls were found floating on top of the creek.

Residents of Burkittsville

 * Elly Kedward
 * Eileen Treacle
 * Emily Hollands
 * Eric Norris
 * Julie Forsythe
 * Kyle Brody
 * Lane
 * Margaret Lowell
 * Mary Brown
 * Michael Guidry
 * Robin Weaver
 * Rustin Parr
 * Stephen Thompson
 * Talia
 * Terra Shelly

Visitors of Burkittsville

 * Ashley
 * Heather
 * James
 * Joshua
 * Lisa
 * Michael