Anyway I found a 3 hour cut of The Blair Witch Project and while it was mostly just more fighting here were some fun insights;
- Josh claims to spot some "hooded" figures he thinks are kkk really early on
- Josh's expanded theory some locals followed them into the woods to mess with them, mention of a cult or commune in the 60s
- That Heather did indeed take a stick effigy, to prove to herself that it was all real she claims, its head was snapped during a hike, and it was found completely dismantled after their camp was raided
- Josh crumpled up and threw the map on the ground before Mike unbeknownst to anyone kicked it in the creek
- Finally seeing Heather's hi-8 footage when she reacts to something in the woods with "what the fuck is that?!" I know through trivia that it was one of the directors standing on a hill in a ski mask and white clothes to appear as a general white human shape in the distance, unfortunately none of it was caught on the hi-8 even though she does try to point the camera in that direction
- Three kinds of human hair in the stick bundle with Josh's shirt, teeth, and tongue, possibly hair clippings from all three of them
- Heather and Mike either knowing or deciding the last night was going to be the end of it, Heather because she's convinced they're going to die that night after finding Josh's viscera, Mike because he decided he's done and whatever comes he's going to go after it and fight; the added eeriness of all that fight disappearing as he, a grown man, stands silently obeying facing the wall like a child or someone possessed
- It's in the theatrical and home video cut, but I noticed for the first time that the rest of Josh's shirt is in the house and Heather definitely notices
Also some possible insights I know through general folkloric knowledge;
I'm not sure if the directors were aware of this, but the sound of clicking branches was something the puritans would've attributed to witches flying on their sticks through the trees (there's even a line about it in The VVitch; "Hear me stick flying through the trees- clickety-clackity!"). The actual sounds were just the directors and I think producer running around.
and the only bible verse that refers to piles of rocks is
Genesis 31:48-52 New Living Translation (NLT)
51 “See this pile of stones,” Laban continued, “and see this monument I have set between us. 52 They stand between us as witnesses of our vows. I will never pass this pile of stones to harm you, and you must never pass these stones or this monument to harm me."
So they were fucked the moment they passed the piles of rocks, presumably considered trespassers from that point on. The night after is when the noises start. They might've been left alone if they never left the rockpile "graveyard" (there were also 7 initial rockpiles - and 7 victims of Rustin Parr, followed by the 3 outside their tent; it was also old testamant early israelite practice to place rocks over burial sites), or the circle around their tent. They may have been given 2 separate chances of "mercy."
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