Episode 22. The Bell Witch
William Porter Attempts to Burn the Witch (Illus. 1894)
If you’re a fan of horror, you’ve definitely heard of or watched The Blair Witch Project. Today’s blog looks at a legend that inspired this and many other films: the case of the Bell Witch. Stay tuned until the end where I’ll also include some interesting trivia about the film.
The Bell Witch Haunting is a notable legend originating in Southern America in the 1800s.
John Bell Sr and his family claimed to have been haunted by a terrifying and very active entity between 1817 and 1821. Note quite a poltergeist, not quite a ghost, this entity could speak, shape shift and affect the environment around it. It was also said to possess super human speed, allowing it to travel long distances in a very short time. An example of which you’ll hear later on in the story.
The first reports of the haunting were from 1817, where John Bell Sr claimed to have witnessed an entity that resembled a large dog. Not an unusual sighting, one would think, except that when Bell attempted to shoot at the dog, it simply disappeared. John wasn’t the only one to witness this disappearing dog. An enslaved servant of the Bell family, Dean, also reported that he had seen this unusual dog on multiple occasions when he would travel to visit his wife. Normally, you wouldn’t find a dog to be much of an odd sighting, so we can only assume that there was something strange or ominous about this particular being. Black dogs, in lore, are said to represent a demonic entity. Often they are said to be shape shifters, in league with the devil, they may be described as ghosts or even hell hounds. Their appearance is often an omen of death.
Bell’s son, Drew, also claimed to have seen an extraordinary and large bird perched on a fence which flew away upon being approached. Birds are generally associated with endurance, freedom, talismans for weary travelers or even messengers to the gods. The opposite end of the spectrum to the black dog.
It seems that the haunting began on the outskirts of the property before moving toward and inside the house, and it certainly wasn’t limited to just one person. The haunting became more intense over time as the entity gained strength and energy.
The Bell family often reported hearing the sounds of fighting dogs, chains being dragged along the floors and knocking on the walls of the home throughout the night. Bed sheets would be pulled away from Bell’s sleeping children and the children themselves would be dragged from their beds. Betsey, Bell’s daughter, was especially targeted by the entity. She would be pinched, scratched and slapped as well as being stuck with pins.
After dealing with these occurrences within the family for some time, John Bell confided in his friend James Johnston. Johnston came to stay in the home, to experience the haunting for himself. Upon spending the night, Johnston exclaimed to Bell that the home was haunted by a spirit, like those of the Bible. It was confirmed that this was indeed an evil and mischievous entity.
The spirit was willing to communicate with the family, giving several reasons for its presence and several stories of its origin. It claimed to be a spirit that had been at rest but that had since been disturbed. The spirit appeared to be clairvoyant, able to glean and report information about families from surrounding homes back to the Bell’s. John Bell doubted the spirits abilities, however, and asked it to tell him something no one outside of his family would know. He asked what his grandmother would say to the slaves when they had done something wrong. Not only did the spirit answer correctly, it responded in the same Dutch accent that Bell’s grandmother had. This solidified his belief.
The Bell Witch, as it came to be known, was capable of great and disturbing feats. It was once reported to have recited two sermons that were taking place simultaneously, 13 miles away and seemed to enjoy religious discussions. This theme of religion being a focus in haunting cases is not uncommon. It shows up again and again in cases of demonic possession and sinister haunting.
One skeptic visited the Bell home but soon changed their mind about what they had thought to be a ruse.
While in the Bell house, the spirit relayed messages of the man’s family, speaking in an English accent. He later heard from said family, who were living in England at the time, that they had been visited by the spirit on the same night, again giving credit to the theory that this spirit could either travel at speed or could be in two places at once.
In an attempt to reason with the spirit, the family once asked what would make it leave. The spirit claimed that if Betsey, John’s daughter, who was heavily affected by the haunting, were to marry a man named Joshua Gardner, the spirit would leave. There were rumours, of course, that Betsey could be the one behind all of this. It was even suggested that she had learned ventriloquism, and was attempting to encourage Joshua to marry her through the will of the spirit. Whether or not this is true, it didn’t work. The two were not to be wed and the spirit died away shortly after this was decided.
If you’re like me, you’ll be finding it hard to believe that this was anything more than a disturbing prank or a kind of shared hysteria among the family. Though I do believe in ghosts, or spirits, a lot of this tale is a little too convenient. Many others are also skeptical and have been throughout the centuries, though often skeptics find themselves at the mercy of the spirit.
A troop of soldiers, for example, had been visiting the cave on the property which is now a popular tourist spot. One of the soldiers sat down to rest on a rock outside the cave, and exclaimed that they did not believe the haunting was real. It was at that moment that he felt phantom arms wrap around his chest and pull him backwards.
To this day, people still visit the area, in hopes of experiencing the haunting for themselves, or perhaps just out of curiosity. The tale of the Bell Witch has inspired five films since 1999 when The Blair Witch Project was aired.
While The Blair Witch Project is similar to the Bell Witch tale, the legend behind the movie was entirely fiction. The cast, however, were not aware of that at the time of filming, they were led to believe that the legend of a haunting and mysterious deaths in the area they were exploring in were real.
A lot of the film’s audience also believed the legend and film to be real. Heather Donahue’s mother actually received sympathy cards from strangers who believed that her daughter had died during filming. Ironically, when taking on the role, Heather had asked the director if he had intended to make a snuff film. If you’re unsure what a snuff film is, it’s a film in which a victims death or murder is actually recorded for entertainment and these films are then sold on the black market or the dark web. There may be room for an episode about these somewhere on Good Nightmare. As a note on what a strange and disturbing experience the filming of this movie was, Heather actually brought a knife to sleep with, to keep herself safe when sharing a tent with the two men in the movie. Honestly, I think I would have done the same.
To make the found footage film more believable, and to add tension, the actors were given less and less food to eat each day over the eight days of filming, making them more irritable and less energetic. They stayed in character even while not filming, only breaking character all together and never alone, using their safe word, taco. The filming and constant anxiety was so intense that Heather claims to have been crying and hyperventilating long after her final scene was complete.
It took me a long time to get around to watching this movie, as when it came out, I was one of those people who believed that it was real, that the actors had gone missing, and that the Blair Witch truly did exist. Though, I also took years to watch The Ring because of that whole “seven days” thing. Call me superstitious but I’m not going to be taken out by a haunted film or a haunted anything.
Good Nightmare 