“Based on the Hit Film” is a series of articles looking at the video game spin-offs and adaptations of popular horror and movies.
The swaying trees that line the empty backroads of Burkittsville, MD have many stories to tell. They whisper the horrid tales from era’s long-since past, times when men and women learned to fear the impossible forces we scoff at today. The town of Burkittsville has suffered much through its history; the grimmest accounts laid out in multiple mediums over the past 17 years. Of course, it’s all part of the very effective but undeniably fictional universe created by 1999’s The Blair Witch Project.
The horrors that befell Burkittsville over centuries may not be real, but that doesn’t make them any less interesting to explore. From the tale of Elly Kedward to the 2016 expedition searching for the truth behind the famed disappearances of October 1994, the lore of the Blair Witch is quite rich.
Most surprisingly, it was a trilogy of PC games and not the subsequent movies that helped flesh out the legends of the Blair Witch. While Book of Shadows and the 2016 sequel only further complicate and muddy what was laid out in in the original, the trio of PC games published by Gathering of Developers is a more cohesive unraveling of the legend of the beldam of Burkittsville.
In 2000, a trio of game developers took on the task of expanding upon the story originally created by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. The first of the three, Blair Witch Volume I: Rustin Parr was developed by Terminal Reality (Ghostbusters: The Video Game). The game followed “Spookhouse” agent Elspeth “Doc” Holliday, who was sent to the sleepy Maryland town to investigate the case of Rustin Parr, a local hermit accused of kidnapping seven children and killing six of them. According to the recluse, it was done so under the spell of supernatural forces. Holliday, a level-headed woman of science, goes into the case less convinced.
Blair Witch Volume I: Rustin Parr sets The Blair Witch Project in the same universe as another Terminal Reality action-survival horror game, Nocturne. By combining the two properties, it allowed the development team to flesh out its own world filled with monsters and deadly shadows long before Blair Witch (2016) introduced the long-legged, scraggly creature in the film’s climax.
As thorough as Blair Witch Volume I was in investigating the story of Rustin Parr and building up a universe of dangerous terrors, there was still more darkness to explore in Burkittsville’s past. In the late-19th century, an amnesiac Union soldier awoke in the woods near the infamous Coffin Rock. Those well-versed in Blair Witch mythology will quickly recognize the landmark as that of the destination of the ill-fated documentary crew from October 1994. It’s also the subject of Blair Witch Volume II: The Legend of Coffin Rock, the follow-up to Terminal Reality’s first entry in the video game trilogy.
Just as Blair Witch Volume I had done, The Legend of Coffin Rock takes the foundation laid out in the 1999 movie and uses it to build a complete, albeit short, narrative. Developed by Human Head Studios, the second part of the series explores the gruesome activities linked to the aptly named rock formation. In the movie, Heather, Mike, and Josh traveled to the rock, which was the site of a ritualistic murder in the 19th century. In The Legend of Coffin Rock, it’s the union soldier’s torture and torment by the evils of Burkittsville that spurred the filmmakers’ curiosity in the rock.
The soldier, dubbed Lazarus by the grandmother of Robin Weaver, treks deeper into the dangerous woods after Robin goes missing. It doesn’t take long before he becomes more wrapped up in the psychological terrors that haunt the weary townsfolk. Lazarus finds, much like Holliday does 55 years later, that there is more to the sleepy town than what’s on the surface. The Civil War setting takes away the fancy gadgets of Doc Holliday and Spookhouse, leaving Lazarus to rely on slow muskets and swords to battle the monstrosities that stalk the dense forestry. On paper, it sounds like a solid premise, but The Legend of Coffin Rock stumbles a bit and starts to feel like an incomplete reskin of its predecessor.
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Outside of the shift in the time period and a different protagonist, Human Head Studios didn’t change much from Volume I. As much as any fan of the franchise may love to see how the search party looking for Robin wound up gutted and carved at Coffin Rock, Volume II winds up being an anti-climactic means of delivering. Though the game still runs on the same Nocturne engine as Blair Witch Volume I and the two games are mechanically identical, Volume II fails to capture the essence of survival horror in the same way and is more of a dramatic period piece with minimal substance.
The Legend of Coffin Rock struggles to find a balance between telling a story and letting players enjoy the game. While the truth surrounding Coffin Rock and Lazarus’ past is a highlight to watch unfold, so much of the experience surrounding it is rather drab. Whereas Volume I let players explore more freely, the follow-up is more linear and too straight forward. The fun nods to Terminal Reality’s survival horror title, Nocturne, are also gone, leaving behind an empty shell that would have benefited from the intrigue and imagination of an expanded universe.
As it stands, the game plays out more like an interactive documentary, forcing players to go through tedious motions to get to the big payoff – which is a muddied climax that feels so far removed from The Blair Witch Project.
The slight drop quality and disconnect from Blair Witch Volume I were noticeable, but hardly reason enough for The Legend of Coffin Rock to underperform. Though Rustin Parr was able to sell nearly 50,000 copies in a year, its successor fell dreadfully short at 16,000 units. Despite being developed on the same engine, The Legend of Coffin Rock received fewer favorable reviews, with critics citing a lack of scares and a rushed story as its most significant pitfalls.
With the mystery behind Coffin Rock revealed and the tale of Lazarus concluded, there was still one more link to the Blair Witch that needed exploring – the hag herself. For that, Ritual Entertainment stepped in, completing the trio of teams known as the Gathering of Developers. Just as The Legend of Coffin Rock was a step down from Rustin Parr, Blair Witch Volume III: The Elly Kedward Tale took another drop in quality. That, however, is a story for another time.
Despite what it does wrong, The Legend of Coffin Rock is still an intriguing look into the deep universe created by The Blair Witch Project. It may not have the eerie atmospheres, effective jump scares, or even the mildly likable characters of Rustin Parr, it does help answer some questions initially sought by the missing documentary crew that brought the legend of the Blair Witch to the public’s eye.
