Near the climax of the film, we have Heather's apology scene, arguably the most famous scene in the entire movie, where Heather, while taking a video of herself, apologizes to Josh and Mike's mothers for urging them to come along into her project. You can see the fear and hysteria in her eyes when she says that she believes she's not going to make it out of the woods.
Adding on from this, it then becomes clear that whatever or whoever is calling for Heather and Mike to "follow his voice" the next night, when they find the house, definitely isn't Josh. How would he be able to talk with all of those teeth lost?
The sequel reveals just why they were hearing Josh's voice in the distance. The witch can imitate the voices of those she's taken in order to trick people into coming to her.
Even before they enter the woods, the students' humorous interviews with the Burkittsville townsfolk feature some pretty spooky local ghost stories surrounding the Blair Witch legend.
The little girl trying to stop her mother from talking about the Blair Witch. What makes it creepy? She did that on her own, with no input from the directors or actors.
The scene when Mike reveals he kicked the map into the creek earlier in anger — after Heather and Josh have spent a whole day arguing about who had it last — is some pretty harsh real-life horror.
The Mood Whiplash of Mike and Josh laughing at Heather because she got her shoes wet while walking through the woods, leading to Mike revealing he kicked the map in the creek the day before. The silent moment before Josh and Heather begin screaming at him is filled to the brim with tension.
Walking in one direction all day and ending up at that SAME LOG.
Worse, walking downstream along the creek for miles and then ending up at that same log AGAIN.
The area of the woods full of human-shaped effigies made of sticks.
Shortly after this, Mike is so terrified he just starts desperately screaming for help in the dead silent woods. It's clear he's reached a Despair Event Horizon.
So has Josh. As Mike starts to scream for help, Josh trudges off camera, weeping silently.
Extra fridge horror from the moment Josh turns and sees a figure he says he didn't see when they arrived; did he not see it (because it's wedged between two trees) or was it just not there a minute ago? Did it appear from nowhere, like the rock cairns that appeared outside the tent overnight? Are these things happening right behind the kids' backs?
It appears strange that once inside the house, Heather no longer seems to be able to find Mike. She repeatedly screams for him while he's standing right next to her with a torch or in the same room as her, and while he's running around looking for Josh, he's making a lot of noise, meaning it would be easy for Heather to keep a track of where he was. Does this mean that Heather somehow wasn't able to see Mike anymore, because he had then "been taken" by the witch?
Or, maybe, that both their senses have been deceived, and they're both flailing around trying to find one another when they're standing just a few steps apart?
There seems to be at least a partial explanation for some of this; Mike simply outran Heather in his urgency, thinking he could hear Josh. Heather, being the more scared of the pair, hung back a little and lost him.
How about the VERY last shot, after the camera is dropped? Is that part of the rocks, or a face-up dead body partly hidden by the stone wall? Also, it's pretty safe to assume something grabbed Heather, causing her to drop the camera.
Heather's hysterical screaming moments before this occurs is absolutely blood-curdling. You can be forgiven for assuming it was genuinely a real person who thought they were moments away from their demise.
Worst of all, Heather wasn't acting at this point; the film's directors have gone on record stating that during the filming of this scene, Heather was legitimately freaking out.
It gets at its loudest once Heather enters the basement.
There’s a few alternate endings that were filmed, but the only real difference in them was how Mike was standing and the addition of hanging stick figures around him in each. However, each variation is incredibly creepy on its own:
The first is nigh identical to the final cut, but Heather manages to get much closer to him before dropping the camera.
The second has him standing in the same spot, but facing Heather rather than the corner. His silent, dead stare is chilling.
The third has him hanging by his neck.
And finally, in the last version he is floating in place. It’s eerie as hell, and unlike every other version, impossible to tell if he’s alive or dead.
At daylight, they come back to the camp and find all of Josh's belongings trashed and covered with a mysterious slimy residue.
After all that walking through the forest, they come across an abandoned house... with the interior covered in children's bloody handprints.
"The Cellar", the ambient sound piece that plays over the credits. It's quite literally the sound of being stalked.
Josh knocking over one of the cairns. Even though nothing scary happens immediately, you know at this point that all three characters are doomed.
Heather's deathly gasp when she hears Josh knocking over the cairn.
On the fourth day, Heather wakes up and finds three little cairns around their tent.
Heather finding Josh's hair and teeth. Made even scarier by the fact she doesn't even mention it to Mike.
Those darn noises heard during every night. At first, they are barely audible, but over the time, they get louder and increasingly creepy. They seem to be coming from all directions and in this darkness, you cannot even see, what is producing them. One thing for sure, something is stalking the protagonists, watching them from the dark, adding up to the Paranoia Fuel.
For extra horror, try watching the movie with really good audio set (preferably headphones). You will be scared.
, after the camera is dropped? Is that part of the rocks, or a face-up dead body partly hidden by the stone wall? Also, it's pretty safe to assume something grabbed Heather, causing her to drop the camera.