Found Footage: The Blair Witch Project (1999) & Paranormal Activity (2007)

I must admit that my love of horror is rather new; not more than three years ago, I would have flat-out refused to watch the two films I will be discussing today. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (dir. Oren Peli) and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (dir. Eduardo Sánchez & Daniel Myrick) are two defining films in the genre known as “found footage.” This genre has a reputation of being particularly raw due to the realism of its cinematography and performances, making it particularly frightening to audiences willing to suspend their disbelief and buy into its reality. While found footage films have a long legacy before BLAIR WITCH, its 1999 viral release was one of the first times the genre gained public media attention, thus reviving its popularity. While I was not alive during the marketing of the BLAIR WITCH, I have a feeling that it had a lot to do with how the film was perceived. The actors played characters with their own names, whose faces were plastered on missing poster circulated along with the films trailers, touting the film as real “recovered footage” from the fictional film students.

I have long heard THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT heralded as one of the scariest movies ever made, one that scares even the most seasoned of horror fans. However, I will have to disagree. While I can appreciate the craft and ingenuity of the film, I merely found it creepy, rather than on-the-edge-of-your-seat scary. I believe the film’s low budget, and goal not to actually show the titular witch, could have been maintained while giving the audience a little bit more to be afraid of. I found it much more interesting as a depiction of what happens to different personality types when they get lost in the woods, than as a supernatural horror movie. This was mostly due to the fact that the copious scenes of Heather, Mike, and Josh screaming at each other defused much of the scares the film was trying to create. I would have appreciated a simple blurry silhouette of the entity attacking them, and perhaps to catch a glimpse of what it was doing to Josh. I will definitely give credit to the audio mixing for being the scariest aspect of BLAIR WITCH by far, but the dark, blurry, forest shots at night did little for me.

I also felt that the climactic scene in the broken down house had a lot more potential than it was allowed. Screaming, dropped cameras, and one shot of Mike facing a wall was not quite enough for me as a viewer to comprehend the full horrific experience of the characters. At the end I literally yelled, “What, that’s it??” out loud. I wanted so badly to be scared by this film, and had such high expectations, that I was probably setting myself up for disappointment. The interactions between the characters, and how they behave while being terrorized, was definitely the most interesting aspect of this film, but I’m not sure they were even complex enough for me to want to analyze. However, I had a complete opposite reaction to PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.

I enjoyed PARANORMAL ACTIVITY so much, that I have already seen it twice in 2020. It actually freaked me out, forcing me to turn all the lights on in my house when I finished it, and jump at every strange noise. Delightful. I found this movie not only entertaining, but actually interesting to analyze on a deeper level. The way being haunted affects Katie and Micah’s initially too-adorable relationship feels realistic, and many of the decisions they make feel much more plausible than those in BLAIR WITCH (Mike threw the map in a RIVER!). The slow-burn way the frights build night after night creates a great amount of tension, leading to a very satisfying final payoff, horrifically foreshadowed by Katie’s demonically tinged voice saying, “I think we’ll be ok now.” PARANORMAL ACTIVITY creates a horrible feeling of being alone with a demonic entity, knowing that there is no one who can help or save you. And while the trope of the person being haunted, rather than the house, may be overdone, it is incredibly effective in this film, shot completely within the confines of an upper-middle class California home. It is the house’s normalcy that makes the film even more frightening, making the audience feel as if this could happen to them. The overnight camera footage is also extremely effective, since it shows us what could possibly be happening in our own homes, were they haunted, while we sleep.

Katie and Micah’s performances are very compelling, and their realism is the main driving factor behind how easy it was for me as a viewer to buy into this film being “found footage.” She is empathetic and her fear feels genuine, and he is equally endearing as he is frustrating. Their differing opinions on how the demonic threat should be addressed create conflict that feels very true to life, in terms of how couples bicker in more every-day scenarios. In terms of the scares, this film also utilizes very few special effects, and in my opinion, much more effectively that THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Slamming doors and loud banging noises make the most frightening scares, and I would argue that the demon footprints and ghost-like shadows were not even necessary for the film to be scary. Honestly Katie standing still by the bed for three hours is the creepiest thing that happens, along with her other “sleepwalking” incidents,” simply because it could easily occur in reality. While I realize that PA did not have the same cultural and cinematic significance as TBWP, I must admit that I found it both scarier and more fun to watch. I hope that in the future I will find the love for BLAIR WITCH that so many horror fans have, but unfortunately today is not that day.

My suggestion is, next time you feel like watching something scary, give PARANORMAL ACTIVITY another shot. I know I’ll be rewatching it for years to come. And even though I don’t particularly like it, I know for certain that without THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY would not exist.

The Horror of Love, on YOU

I have watched a lot of things lately that have made me question, what is horror? Most recently, that has been the Netflix original series, YOU. I watched the first season of YOU when it came out on Netflix last year, but I binged the entire first season again in preparation for Season 2, which came out the day after Christmas. What it reminded me was, horror is a complicated genre because it encompasses so many different themes and subgenres. On its surface, YOU has a classic horror premise, a woman finds out that the man responsible for her friends being picked off one by one, is the same man she has been falling in love with. But YOU complicates this premise through tone. Aside from a few brilliant horror sequences, the show is at its core a dramedy and a romance.

The killer in question, Joe Goldberg, is played flawlessly by Penn Badgley, who makes the character sympathetic and charming one minute, and repulsive and insane the next. Joe keeps the audience captive in his own mind through a first person narration, just like he keeps his victims trapped in a glass cage. Season 1 of this show challenges the viewer’s concept of who Joe is by following a scene of Joe being a good mentor to his abusive neighbor’s son Paco with a disgusting reminder of what he is really capable of: masturbating in the street to the sight of Beck through her open window, or plotting to murder another person in Beck’s life who he deems a threat to their relationship.

But what YOU does best of all is depict Joe’s girlfriend/obsession/victim Beck as an extremely complex human being, a good person who does bad things, but still does not deserve to die by Joe’s hand. Beck cheats, lies, helps Joe to cheat, and tolerates toxic friends, all which infuriate the audience, and Joe. Yet, when she ends up in the glass prison herself, any sympathy the audience might have held for Joe disappears, because it is frankly sickening. Elizabeth Lail’s performance is captivating and heartbreaking, and the story she writes from within “Bluebeard’s Castle” hits hard for every girl who hoped the perfect romance would make her life complete.

 I loved Beck’s character from her first scene on screen. She’s an MFA creative student, a book lover, and woman struggling with very real problems, like manipulative friends, a difficult family, and creative and monetary pressure academically. Lail is magnetic as Beck, but Joe’s idealized constructed image of her is clearly a fantasy. It is no surprise that he snaps when that fantasy is broken. In Season 1, YOU paints a near perfect picture of what gaslighting, manipulation, and signs that point towards potential violence could look like. Hearing Joe justify his own stalking and murder to himself is both enlightening and despicable. The cautionary tale ends with Beck’s crushing poem, which I will include below, before showing the audience the true extent of Joe’s potential for evil. 

It is for all of these reasons, that I found Season 2 of YOU a little disappointing. As television, it is incredibly well-made and entertaining. However, it does not carry the thematic depth that Season 1 holds. Season 2 bombards you with Joe’s tragic backstory, and his only two kills are desired by the audience. Joe kills a mob-ish man out of self defence, and Henderson, a known child molestor. I was gratified when I thought Joe killed Delilah, proving once and for all that killing was his deepest instinct. However, that death is credited to Love, who is revealed to be a psycho all on her own. Love and Joe are apparently soulmates, bound by their shared murderous tendencies. Their fairytale ending results in them moving in together, about to have a child. Although I must admit, it was a nice touch not to let the audience forget what Joe really is, by hinting that his fixation will shift to a woman sunbathing in their neighboring yard. 

What I love most about this show, is that at least in Season 1, YOU refuses to romanticize Joe’s actions. While the audience might find themselves falling for the “everythingship” or “I wolf you,” the horrors that Joe is capable of are always in the back of your mind. There are no excuses made for his actions, aside from his own denial, and seeing Joe transform from the perfect boyfriend into a vicious killer is chilling. I will admit that Love herself can actually be quite scary, and possibly a perfect match for Joe, but somehow her storyline serves to validate Joe to the audience, rather than the other way around. It says, “see! It’s ok this time! She’s a killer too!”. I do believe that YOU’s intentions are good, and a nuanced audience would look at Love and Joe as a horror show of their own making, but many viewers may not be so mindful. Season 1’s victories lie in how well Joe is depicted as a horrible person, even from within his own mind. 

So I return to my first question, is YOU horror? And I believe the answer has to be...yes. Every time Joe talks about what love is to him, that’s horror. Every time his gaze falls on a new woman, that’s horror. To hear Beck grieve her stolen life from within the cage, that’s horror. And most horrific of all is imagining Love and Joe as parents...enough said. The self contained nature of the Season 1, building dread and tension with precision, creates a stomach dropping feeling of horror when Beck finds the box in Joe’s bathroom ceiling. In that moment, you know with complete certainty that she will die. And despite all of her flaws, I mourned Beck. Because she was a real woman, with so much potential, who Joe dared to kill out of his own twisted, selfish, love.