etween 1940 to 1941, eight children mysteriously disappear from the small, sleepy town of Burkittsville, Md. Their whereabouts remain unknown until the afternoon of May 25, 1941, when Rustin Parr, a hermit who lives in the Black Hills, wanders into a local market and utters the phrase, "I'm finally finished." After making the four-hour hike to Parr's secluded house in the woods, police find the bodies of seven of the missing children in the basement. It appears that each child has been ritualistically murdered and disemboweled. Parr is taken into custody immediately.
Almost simultaneously, the eighth missing child, Kyle Brody, reappears in Burkittsville. One of the first children to vanish, Brody claims that he was held captive in Parr's remote mountain house for more than a year and that he was present for all seven murders, although not exactly an eyewitness. According to Brody's testimony, Parr forced him to stand facing into a corner and silently listen each time a victim was claimed. Parr offers the authorities a full, albeit unbelievable confession. While he calmly admits to all seven murders, he insists that he killed each of the children in accordance with the demands of "an old woman ghost" who occupied the woods near his house. Many locals believe that he is referring to the mysterious "Blair Witch," who has been the subject of area folklore since the 1700s. But such speculations are no match for the community's overwhelming outrage. Parr is pronounced guilty of murder and is hanged after only a few days.
More than a half-century later, after three college students making a documentary film about the Blair Witch disappear in the same Maryland woods where the so-called "Burkittsville Seven" were killed, more and more national attention is focused on this small community. Now, in a new documentary, film archivist Chris Carrazco (Maynard) claims there is substantial evidence to indicate that Rustin Parr was actually innocent. Citing interviews, police records and rare outtake footage, Carrazco maintains that the person responsible for the horrible events of the early '40s is actually none other than the one child who managed to survive them: Kyle Brody. But could a mere child commit such acts? Or was it perhaps Brody who was being controlled by an evil, supernatural force?
A fascinating non-story
Last year, The Blair Witch Project provoked some strong reactions from moviegoers. Some thought it was real footage shot by victims of the unexplained. Others thought it was a brilliantly creepy work of fiction. Still others thought it was an irritating mess that received far more attention than it deserved. But love it or hate it, few dispute that the filmmakers found an extremely creative way to tell their good old-fashioned ghost story: by turning it into a supposedly factual documentary.
The Burkittsville Seven makes use of the same storytelling technique, and the effect is often chilling. The film is edited in a way that makes it easy to accept as an authentic historical account, despite its outlandish and often disturbing subject matter. But the real key in making this illusion fly is in the performances, and the actors here are truly up to the task. Absolutely nobody in this film acts, well, like an actor. The interviews all come across as sincere and unrehearsed, as do the performances of the actors in the supposed archival material. There is particularly impressive footage of the adult Kyle Brody (Grammer) languishing in a mental hospital. It's so convincing that it's almost difficult to watch.
The problem with The Burkittsville Seven is that there appears to have been no good reason to make it. While fans of the Blair Witch phenomenon may be pleased with this film's technical prowess, they may be bitterly disappointed by it overall for a couple of reasons. First of all, at 32 minutes it's ridiculously short, with no time to develop any intriguing theories. Second, there are precious few intriguing theories to develop. There is hardly any new information presented here. Most of the film simply reiterates what viewers have already learned from The Blair Witch Project, its first spinoff documentary and its Web site. In the end, The Burkittsville Seven is just another example of style over substance--a pint-sized piece of innovative, engrossing storytelling without much of a story to tell.
