MovieChat Forums > Blair Witch (2016) Discussion > did James and Lisa et Al not believe in ...

did James and Lisa et Al not believe in the witch at all???


At the start of the movie James is asked if he believes the blair witch stories and he dodges the question. Fact is HE KNOWS that his sister and two of her friends disappeared in the woods and he is not an idiot, he must realise that odds are something really horrible happened to them.

And yet he and his friends decide to go camping in the same bloody woods and never stop to consider that something bad might happen to them to. While I loved tjis movie character motivations like this annoy me. NO ONE is that dumb in real life!!!

Definition of troll on IMDb - anyone who expresses a view different to mine.

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They were definitely skeptics, especially Peter, but I think they were just too scared to admit the possibility of the witch being real. It's kinda that, "No way, man," reaction you give when someone asks if you believe in ghosts. Yet, at night, you still get creeped out by the shadows in your closet.

James' motivation is to understand what happened to his sister. He wants her to be alive, but I don't think he honestly believes it. It's just a foolish kind of hope that comes from not knowing.

What bothered me more is that he rushes into the house at the end, even after all the horrible dark magic they clearly saw at work in the woods. "Oh! The death house of evil! I'm just gonna take a quick look!"

But, again, I think he has fooled himself into seeing what he wants to see. Part of him probably knew that his sister was gone, and in the same way, part of him knew he was going to die in that house. But he didn't stop to think about it long enough to make a better decision. He just wanted to know.

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I feel you on this. And people will say "if they never went into the woods, we wouldn't have a new movie!" Give them a reason to go into the woods, and to try and stay there. A realistic reason. Like how they did with the "Evil Dead" remake. Searching for your sister whose been assumed to be dead for over 10 years is psychotic; it's not a reason at all. They even capitalize on this by saying over and over how Heather wasn't alive and they were pretty much making fun of James for even entertaining the idea, but then they all following him into the woods anyway?

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I think it's pretty strongly implied that, more than anything, James wants to know what happened to his sister. If she's dead, she's dead, but until he knows for sure, he's going to hold out hope that she is somehow alive. That's what sends him to the woods. If you were in his shoes, I doubt you would be saying to yourself at the start of the trip, "Well, it's pretty obvious my sister is dead. I just want to find her bones."

He might be thinking something like that, but I doubt he'd admit it on camera (and remember they are filming themselves this whole time).

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