![]() Even them loitering too long in the grove of stick men feels like a risk. They model the expected audience behavior of trying to figure this out.īut they have limited resources, so we know they can’t confirm everything. Once they’re worried, they’re never ignorant about looking and trying to catch what’s happening on film. Since it’s found footage, the students’ camerawork is our only way of looking for antagonists. It worked then, and it works today, but it would break The Blair Witch Project. That’s the standard way to introduce an ominous Horror antagonist. In something like Predator (1987), we are gradually teased with clues about the alien hunter until the camera frames an exciting reveal. The enigma would be more frustrating if the movie was coyer about its antagonists. And we know, as the audience, that they’re right to be afraid because we believe whatever is hunting them in that probability space will make them disappear in the end. It’s dire to them in a way they keep illustrating. We watch them devolve from goofballs joking about Gilligan’s Island into sobbing messes who rock themselves on the ground like small children. The students are afraid for their lives, and we assume when they’re chased that they would be harmed if caught. We shouldn’t be so worried if we don’t even know the shape of the fate we’re supposed to be afraid of.Įmpathy is another part of this. Are they going to be murdered? Is a nebulous cursed forest going to trap them in limbo forever? Get possessed? It’s unusual that a movie hides even its own stakes from us. Some fate where they disappear is awaiting them. Tensions heighten because we know the students don’t get out of this. For the runtime of the film, we’re experiencing a superstition. We’re ready to be scared of something that the movie has never actually established is real. Without seeing anything, we wonder if it’s corroboration of a monster. Heather runs by something that’s not caught on camera and yells, “What the fuck is that?” ![]() We can connect enough things that by the time of the first big night chase, we’re looking for corroboration of our fears. Enough plot dots have been scattered that the audience starts connecting things. When the students hear sounds at night, those could be a witch, or stalkers from town, or a red herring. When Josh knocks over a pile of significant-looking stones, it could have angered a spirit. But we do know he hated being watched.Īs such, any little event on the students’ camping trip could indicate what’s after them. Still, others say the real local legend is Rustin Parr, the previously mentioned serial killer who kidnapped and murdered children. ![]() She might attack children who don’t go to bed on time, or she might be covered in horsehair and float mysteriously above rivers, or she might tie together the disemboweled bodies of men. No two people that the students interview agree on what the exact legend of the Blair Witch is. The Blair Witch Project asks: how do you escalate a threat that will never be knowable?Īt the outset, the movie won’t make up its mind. Train to Busan (2016) tells you clearly: if zombies get on this train, or if they bite anyone aboard, we’ll be in trouble. You’re afraid of Jigsaw because whatever byzantine situation he’s set up will inevitably turn into a murder puzzle. Coming to understand the antagonist is usually where dread comes from. In movies such as Paranormal Activity (2007) and Lake Mungo (2008) audiences spend the runtime narrowing down options of what’s going on and dreading a few possible outcomes. The Blair Witch Project (1999) doesn’t operate like the found footage movies it later inspired. The legends of a magical figure are about a centuries-old witch. Also, that killer had been dead for years. What persuaded Mike, who’d been screaming for Josh to come out, to abruptly go into a trance? The serial killer didn’t have mind control, nor did he target college-aged adults on camping trips. ![]() Suddenly the children’s handprints on the walls upstairs feel like they have a clear meaning.Įxcept nothing is actually clear. You remember the legend that locals told us earlier, that a serial killer made children face the corner. That’s all we see before something strikes Heather, and everyone goes silent. He’s not decapitated or consumed in witchfire. Then there’s a glimpse of him in the basement. Heather runs down the stairs of a crumbling house, screaming Mike’s name. It’s one of the most memorable Horror movie endings. ![]()
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