The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier [Paperback]

D.A. Stern (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the fall of 1994, three student filmmakers, Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams, ventured into the Black Hills of Maryland to investigate the legend of the Blair Witch. They never returned and to this day are still considered missing. However, one year after their disappearance, their footage was discovered. Directors Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale edited the footage and released it as the movie titled The Blair Witch Project. As a companion to the movie, occult journalist D.A. Stern compiled this dossier, unearthing deeper mysteries surrounding the students' disappearance. It includes a full account of the case from a private investigator, police reports, newspaper articles, student profiles, interviews with the students' families and friends, and the most revealing artifact--37 pages from Heather Donahue's journal. We also get a comprehensive history of the Blair Witch legend, complete with a copy of an 1823 newspaper article.

The hype surrounding The Blair Witch Project is a rare phenomenon in which a purely fictitious film (sorry to burst the occult lover's bubble, but there is no Blair Witch myth; and those missing filmmakers are actors who are alive and well) creates a legend in and of itself. The collected data found in this dossier lends more eerie authenticity to the whole affair. This is an outstanding compilation for its acute attention to detail and ability to enhance the mystery, which in the end is the real charm of this portfolio. --Samantha Allen Storey

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Onyx Trade; 1St Edition edition (August 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451199669
• ISBN-13: 978-0451199669
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #864,501 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

May you live in interesting times, say the Chinese, and they mean it as a curse.

And these are interesting times for the publishing industry. And all of us involved in it, one way or the other. Storytelling is in a state of transformation as well, with devices such as the Ipad and technologies such as Flash promising wholescale integration of other media (images, recordings, etc., now - sensations? smells? to come?) alongside traditional text narratives.

This is a topic of much interest to me, and others, and you can find much about it over at the appropriate LinkedIn discussion page.

In the meantime, I am working on several projects integrating those forms. One in particular I'm excited about is NUTS. I mean that, literally, NUTS.

I'm also hard at work in the universe created by Brad Wardell over at Stardock Inc., which is right now taking shape in the form of a videogame (or two); Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, a turn-based strategy game set in a S&S (not Simon and Schuster, sword and sorcery!) universe, will be out in February of 2012, and I urge you to watch for it.

In the meantime, keep reading. I've just finished a book called Heaven's Keep, by an author I worked with many years ago at Pocket Books, William Kent Krueger, who is right about at the top of the mystery/suspense genre. That's the ninth or so book in a series he's been working on for a long time, featuring a character named Cork O'Connor. Do not start with Heaven's Keep. Read from the beginning - Iron Lake.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I read it in 2 hours!, December 16, 1999

By 

Angela - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier (Paperback)

What a good book. For both my husband and I to read it in 2 hrs or so, sure says something. I love this type of book...suspensful and makes you think. I had to go right out and get the movie that night. The pictures show alot of the movie fottage, but the diary of Heather is the killer in the book. That's what did it for me. I would highly recommend this book, however, until today I thought it was real! So, keep in mind, when I read the book and saw the movie, I beleived it had all actually happened as they said. The killer for me was the part about what it meant in the house when a person was standing facing the wall! Then I saw the last scene in the movie! WOW! Chilling! You'll have to read and watch to find what I mean. Freaked me out! A great book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's great!, November 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier (Paperback)

The book I read was "The Blair Witch Project" by A. Dossier. It was a amazing book because the author uses a very different way of writing. Instead of just writing about "Blair Witch" the book uses interviews, letters, and police reports. You should read this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Be reasonable; suspend disbelief., January 6, 2000

By 

"vaoy" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier (Paperback)

The power of storytelling, no matter the medium, is for the audience to suspend their disbeliefs for a certain amount of time in order to enter the storyteller's narrative.

The book, expanding on the film, is treated as a dossier: A complilation of events surrounding the dissapearence of three university students while on assignment to create a documentary on an American legend. From backgound reports filed by the Burkittsville Sheriffs Department, a private investigation agency, newspaper articles, and interviews with family and friends of the missing students, the dossier compiled by D.A. Stern gives those that were interested in the film a better understanding of what indeed happened--and will let us, the audience, make up our minds as to the circumstances of three very unlucky people.