Confronting a Lack of Control
The first movie we chose to dive into was
The Blair Witch Project.
The Acolyte and I decided to watch it because we had both been told as teenagers growing up in religious environments, when it came out in theaters, that if we watched it, we would be spiritually punished somehow. As adults, we realized we were already being spiritually punished by life and
Metacritic
labels the movie a "must see" so why not.
The movie hasn't aged incredibly well but, at the time, the found footage technique was relatively innovative. It follows three young adults (Heather, Mike, Josh) trying to do a documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch, who allegedly kidnapped and killed 7 children in the 1940's. Heather is the director and the most motivated to complete the film. I personally am not a fan that Heather is an old school horror movie trope of a character. She is the overly ambitious woman whose overconfidence in herself leads to everyone's downfall. As a character, Heather is often annoying. So much so that the
Razzie's awarded the actress Heather Donahue as worst actress
that year (2000). If we are being fair, however, none of the characters are particularly likable. Mike tosses the map they were using to navigate the forest in the river. Josh is also often annoying and is very critical of Heather without offering many solutions.
One part of the movie I loved was how it followed the process of each character's loss of hope and acceptance of death. Mike, even though he tosses the map, consistently attempts to survive throughout the movie through until the end. He often verbalizes his desire to leave, to go home, to live. He progressively becomes less hopeful but is still actively working to survive until the end. Conversely, Josh seems to be the first one to lose his hope in survival. When they realize that they somehow, possibly supernaturally, had been walking in a circle and were no where near home, Josh becomes increasingly more biting towards Heather and his personality shifts. He is angry and afraid but also seems to resign himself to death. Josh tells Heather "I see why you like this little video camera so much. It's not quite reality" which seems like an appropriate and astute observation.
Heather has a difficult break next. Throughout most of the movie, Heather is fixated on control. She is passionate about the documentary and...NEVER....STOPS....FILMING. She asks for Mike and Josh to be compassionate towards her but offers them little compassion in return. Heather insists she knows where they are going and how to get home, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. When Mike admits tossing the map, she hurls all of the responsibility at him saying "If we die up here, it's your fucking fault!" with no shortage of dramatics. This reaction shows the first sign of possible guilt she is feeling for her role in getting them into the situation because prior she insisted she could get them home and she knew where they were. Heather has a panic attack and repeats "it's the same log" over and over which is a common acute stress reaction. It isn't until the famous scene where Heather records her apology that she seems to resign herself to death. She accepts responsibility and recognizes that she has lost control completely.
The movie's focus on the individual character's psychological process is fascinating. However, I feel like it may have been just as effective as short film. The found footage distortions get old after a while and removed me from the story. In total, I felt as though it was not very fear inducing. Here are our final scores:
Fear Meter:
The Matron: 2/10
The Acolyte: 4/10
What do you think about the ol' Blair Witch? What would you score it?