Heather Donahue as herself
Blair Witch is largely told with a handheld camera in pseudo-documentary style, with a prologue that tells us that three filmmakers, while making a documentary in a region of Maryland alleged to be haunted by an evil witch, disappeared during a field trip and were never seen again. Their videotapes, found a year later, are now being presented to us in an edited form that tells of their demise. As one of the characters remarks during the expedition into doom: "it's not quite reality...it's fictional reality. You're pretending everything is not quite the way it is." In the beginning, the catalyst for the project (Heather Donahue) and her team -- soundman Joshua Leonard and cameraman Michael Williams -- are shown in a small town taking black and white footage of citizens relating what they know about the Blair Witch, a supernatural urban legend dating back to the days of the Salem witch trials. It is further suggested that a rash of child murders in 1940 in and around the Black Hills Forest was committed by a hermit driven to violence by the old witch. Soon Heather inexplicably begins to lose her way, then misplaces her map, then finds out one of the guys threw the map away - an act suggesting he has been mentally tampered with by unseen demonic powers. Something sinister continues to affect the characters and they begin behaving erratically and walk aimlessly in circles, even though they are guided by Heather's compass. When they find strange piles of rocks and weird stick formations, and hear voices crying out in the night, they really fall apart. Joshua disappears, leaving Heather an Michael to sweat it out alone on the last night. Finally, in the film's best sequence, Heather finds a bloody object inside a piece of Joshua's shirt and undergoes a complete breakdown, making a confession on camera. The ending is full of suspense and relies on the viewers imagination to supply all of the gory details of what might be lurking in the shadows.
Biography for Heather Donahue
Date of birth
22 December 1974
Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, USA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trivia
Graduated from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 1995
Graduated from Upper Darby High School in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania in 1991.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Personal quotes
[talking about her character in Blair Witch Project, The (1999)]: "It's so funny because I've heard people say it's a feminist movie because there's a woman in charge and I've heard it called a completely anti-feminist movie because this woman screws everything up. It's just who cares really? It's just a movie. But I think you can look at it as a feminist film. I mean, well, hell, if the Blair Witch is a woman, she's really ultimately in control of everyone in the film."
[talking about the advices she received from the producers of Blair Witch Project, The (1999): "They said, "Your safety is our issue. Your comfort is not." Those were the words of producer Gregg Hale!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Taken" (2002/I) (mini) TV Series .... Mary Crawford (adult)
New Suit (2002) .... Molly Kerzner-Ching
Velvet Tigress, The (2001) .... Voice Over
Seven and a Match (2001) .... Whit
Home Field Advantage (2000) .... Wendy Waitress
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) (uncredited) .... Herself (Archive Footage)
... aka BW2 (2000) (USA: promotional abbreviation)
... aka BWP2 (2000) (USA: promotional abbreviation)
... aka Book of Shadows: Blair Witch Project 2 (2000) (USA: video title)
Burkittsville 7, The (2000) (TV) (archive footage) .... Herself
Boys and Girls (2000) .... Megan
Sticks and Stones: Investigating the Blair Witch (1999) (V) .... Heather Donahue
... aka Exploration of the Blair Witch Legend, An (1999) (V) (USA)
Curse of the Blair Witch (1999) (TV) .... Herself
Blair Witch Project, The (1999) .... Heather Donahue
Raw: Stripped to the Bone (1997) (V) .... Sadey (in only one shot)