The Blair Witch Project, which I haven’t seen, is a cultural phenomenon (details here). Simply put, it’s a horror-genre movie based on a fictional plot involving people who disappear.
Now, a Seattle TV station helpfully uses the movie to explain the Trump phenomenon (read story here).
Simply put, the movie was a box office success because it played on audiences’ irrational fears of unbelievable phenomena. What does this have to do with Trump?
The couple who dreamed up The Blair Witch Project explain, “So now we get to this current age and I’m really fascinated to see the same markers of people wanting to believe in a fear, and the more obscure the places they get the information from, the more likely they are to believe it.”
Or, as the TV station puts it, “the lesson of Blair Witch is that people really will believe in the most bizarre made-up stories.” Not said, but implied, is: The more bizarre, the more willing they are to believe. That’s the Trumper crowd, for sure, people who swallowed wild election conspiracy theories, then swallowed even wilder anti-vax and Covid-treatment fantasies.
The moviemakers seem to have tapped into a weird facet of human nature, probably unknowingly. Trump has tapped into that same human weakness, probably deliberately. It’s long been obvious that some people take total crap seriously; the question is why. The answer seems to be that people who are afraid are drawn to the source of their fears like moths to a flame.
So we learned something today.
While there have been some who have gone into the woods since then to film something there has not been many cases of successful lost film footage. The amazing thing is the tiny budget, crappy cinematography, ect. Rather it is Calvin and Hobbes make a movie “The Producers” by Mel Brooks is far more direct about This kind of thing. Have the lane ready to fly to Argentina, holy shit it is a hit!
The difference though is that in both cases the producers laugh all the way to the bank. Fear and lies have always been used in politics. Yes humans are gullible and a fool is born every minute. As is the movies you gotta have a straight guy set up the joke, Guess the Dems are in on the act as the straight guy. Only problem is everyone loves Gracie, not so much Mr. Allen. So get your lines straight for the act or maybe its time to consider some different tactics like maybe Covid about done and cool off on the mandates, because Dems are the folks who are putting the fear into politics for the gullible to pick up on, and when they can lose their job, not leave the house, can’t go shopping or to the play gives em extra hours for those fears to play on. Some of em may resort to found film very low budget on the internet.
You’ve got a projector of your own.