In my review of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s Blair Witch, I explained that I thought the movie was incredibly tense but ultimately left me wanting, the story and execution all to familiar. I felt that too much was revealed in the third act, taking away a lot of mystery from the mythos that has been built over nearly 20 years.

However, Barrett dropped a bombshell last week that has gone largely unnoticed, one that completely changes how many might view the film, including myself, as well as adding a new layer of depth and intrigue to the story!

In my review, I made note that the third act was, “…magnificent in so many ways, [but] it’s also where it reveals a bit too much,” explaining that I felt them showing the Witch as a gaunt, spindly-limbed entity was a visual we’ve seen a few too many times. Barrett’s big reveal, however, is that we never actually saw the witch in the movie! The strange humanoid creature towards the end of the film isn’t the Blair Witch, meaning we have yet to get any idea of what she looks like!

Here’s where things get rather interesting: in the film, Lane and Talia talk about Elly Kedward, an Irish woman who lived in Blair in the 1700’s and was accused of witchcraft. She was tortured and left in the woods, supposedly hung from a tree with rocks tied to her limbs, stretching them out from her joints and sockets. Throughout the films, we’ve been led to believe that she was the Blair Witch.

But if who we’re seeing in the film isn’t the Witch, does that mean Elly isn’t the Blair Witch? There are theories on old message boards from The Blair Witch Project days that suggest she was actually innocent and only when she was enduring her horrible fate did she swear allegiance to the power residing deep within the woods.

If you want to have your mind REALLY blown, here’s another potential theory: Remember at the end when James and Lisa are standing in the corner and James thinks he hears the voice of his sister, Heather? What if the creature we’re seeing at the end of the movie actually IS Heather, now fully converted into a servant of the Blair Witch? After 20 odd years of being in the woods, who knows what Heather went through, what kinds of horrible things she was a part of and witness to?

No matter what, Barrett says that his and Wingard’s, “…DVD commentary will explain a lot, but hopefully without ruining anything…”

[H/T The_Proctorious]