In line with the recent success of the indie film surprise, “The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier” is the book that further chronicles the legend and subsequent disappearance of the movie’s three primary characters.

The book was allegedly compiled and written after a backpack containing the exposed film and audio recordings were found.

“The Blair Witch Project” is the story of Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams from Montgomery College. The three students went missing while filming footage in the Blackhills Forest of Maryland. The footage was to be the bases for Donahue’s senior thesis project.

The videotape and subsequent search for the students is what is chronicled in the book and a motion picture released this summer. There is a lot more depth and explanation in the book that the film lacked, without the drawback of motion sickness.

The majority of the book is the supposed results of and investigation by Buck Buchanan. Heather Donahue’s mother hired Buchanan, a private investigator, following failed results from the Burketsville Sheriff’s office.

As the book tells, an anthropology professor and his class of students from the University of Maryland supposedly found the allusive backpack and its surprising contents. The class was completing a field-dig as a final project when four of the students found the bag in the base of a wall.

There are a variety of aspects included in the book that are really not addressed in the utter chaos of the movie.

The history of Ms. Elly Kedward, who is believed to be the original Blair Witch, is fully explained. The tale is told of how this woman was driven out of Blair in the dead of winter, and supposedly returned a year later to steal children and abduct her accusers. Eventually, her supposed presence drove everyone out of the town of Blair.

Another morbid twist to the myth, as detailed in the book, centers on the activities of Rustin Parr. He kidnapped and murdered eight children in the 1940s at the urging of “an old woman’s voice” that he kept hearing.

The articles concerning his trial and hanging are very disturbing. However, they are not as bothersome as the interviews surrounding Kyle Brody, the 8-year-old child who was kidnapped by Parr and not killed. The child was let go after being forced to stand in the corner of the basement and witness the various atrocities Parr performed on the other seven children.

The other surprising revelation is the intricate markings in the house, in addition to the house itself. This is the most disheartening part of the movie; when Heather and Michael are running through the house looking for Joshua, it gets even more disquieting.

You have to understand that the movie and the book are both fiction. However, it is amazing the extent to which the film’s creators and promoters have gone to create such an intricate and elaborate myth.

The book is a slow and sometimes labored read as you wade through boring police reports and a variety of drab and formalized letters. However, when you find those occasionally disturbing tangents of the story, the article is worth the search.

It does not have the emotional edge-of-your-seat effect of the movie — but for those readers who enjoyed the movie and are looking to tie up loose ends, the book provides some closure.

2 STARS

Ratings based on a 5 STAR scale.

Marty Forth is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Waterdown, Ontario, Canada.