BLAIR WITCH: An Exercise In Home Invasion Horror

The horror film has evoked emotional reactions from audiences since its inception. The genre taps into humanity’s innermost fears and projects them onto both large and small screens. From the illogical fear of monsters like Dracula (1931) to loosely based-on-fact experiences like Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), regardless, if the film is scary or not, audiences continue to view them.

Blair Witch taps into a fear that audiences are unanimously afraid of: home invasion. Adam Wingard’s sequel is an excellent entry in an emerging sub-genre: home invasion horror.

A Quick History Of Home Invasion Horror

While the exact origin of the sub-genre is up for debate, it can be argued that it began, in terms of popular culture, with the “Babysitter” urban legend. A venerable babysitter is terrorized by an unknown man through a series of telephone calls, and is later revealed to be hiding inside the house. The fear of the home, a sacred space, broken into eradicates the illusion of safety.

Along with “The Babysitter”, numerous thrillers and horror films would use this device to stimulate fear. When the home is invaded, the homeowner is the only line of defense. Intrusion, invader attack and the victim’s attempt at defense are the building blocks of the sub-genre. The home is meant to give a sense of calm from the harsh realities of the outside. When the security is breached, there really is nowhere safe. The invasion of the home is a worst nightmare scenario of every homeowner, regardless if the attack is premeditated or completely random.

In Blair Witch and Wingard’s two previous efforts, You’re Next and The Guest, he submits the characters to a home invasion, and details how they react and defend themselves from the intruder.

Carpenter & Hitchc*ck Influences

Wingard borrows heavily from John Carpenter and Alfred Hitchc*ck in his previous films. The Carpenter technique Wingard utilizes is keeping characters in a restricted space all the while being attacked by an outside intruder. This instance is evident in Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) and The Thing (1982). Assault on Precinct 13 concerns police officers trapped in their station fighting off a gang attack, while The Thing details researchers trapped in an Antarctic compound fighting an alien intruder. These restricted spaces show up in You’re Next, where a group becomes trapped in a house defending themselves from a team of masked intruders.

The Hitchc*ck influence comes in the form of hidden secrets, things that aren’t as they appear to be. Hitchc*ck’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and Psycho (1960) use both characters and locations that aren’t as they seem. Shadow of a Doubt concerns an uncle that visits relatives after many years. They think he is amazing, but he carries a horrible secret. With Psycho, guests arrive at what appears to be a roadside motel, only to discover its secrets.

Like these two films, The Guest has a mysterious soldier show up at the house of his deceased comrade’s family. He gives the appearance of being amazing, but like the uncle, he too carries a hidden secret.

Translating Those Influences To Blair Witch

With Blair Witch, Wingard uses the established handheld, documentary style as in The Blair Witch Project and incorporates the home invasion horror conventions into it. He additionally adds both Carpenter and Hitchc*ck influences into this film by using the woods as both a restricted space and a location with hidden secrets.

The Blair Witch Project concerns a group of students that went missing in the woods in search of the mysterious Blair Witch. The film is presented as a lost tape of the vanished crew, and we as viewers watch how they may have disappeared unfold. Blair Witch abandons the found footage conventions, which creates the illusion that you’re watching something real, but retains the documentary feel as the characters of this sequel are making a documentary to discover what happened to the characters in the previous film.

The sequel is set seventeen years after the events of the original. James Donahue (James Allen McCure) goes with a group of friends to find his sister, Heather (from the original) who he believes is still alive, after believing he stumbled upon an image of her in a video. His friends collaborate with local folklore enthusiasts on the legend of the Blair Witch, and venture into the woods. Once the sun sets, strange and unsettling occurrences plague the new crew.

As the new crew enter the woods in Burkittsville (setting of the film), they emerge in the domain of the Blair Witch: its home. Wingard applies his home invasion horror aesthetic to this already established cinematic universe by turning the woods into a part of the home of the witch. The young people are the intruders in this situation, and the witch uses supernatural abilities to defend its home. As the film progresses, James and one other possible survivor find a house where he is convinced his sister is located. They both break into the house, and encounter an array of supernatural home defense inside this decayed dwelling.

Character Development

Throughout the film, their quest to find James’ missing sister continues to develop, but unfortunately, not the attachment to the characters. In Wingard’s previous films, and his references to Carpenter and Hitchc*ck, the characters develop levels of likability and sympathy that leads the audience to cheer throughout the course of the story.

Blair Witch does not establish a strong enough level of sympathy for its characters. The characters enter the isolated woods, and make a mess of it: setting up camp, collecting wood and ignore the ominous early warnings made by the witch. By ignoring these early warning signs (characters suddenly disappear, strange wooden figurines emerge around the campsite and unknown noises) the witch has no choice but to take more extreme measures to get these campers out of its home.

The Last Survivor

The film concludes with all the young people getting killed by the witch. It breaks the convention that there must be at least one lone survivor by the story’s conclusion. However, by looking at Blair Witch through the eyes of the unseen witch, the witch is the survivor at the film’s end. James and his crew are the monsters, the invaders of the witch’s home. The witch eliminated a possible threat, and will continue its isolated existence in the woods. At least until the next group of people emerge.

While it’s still too early to tell if Blair Witch will have the same impact in the horror community as You’re Next and The Guest, it accomplishes what the home invasion sub-genre sets out to do: it disrupts the domestic sense of placidity, has a victim fight back and returns to the calm, albeit a skewed, feeling of normalcy.