The Role of Dreadful Witch Fanfiction in Building an Engaged Fandom

Once in a while, writers tap into the hidden depths of their imagination and create something truly unique and captivating. However, there are also instances where creativity gets lost in translation, resulting in what can only be described as dreadful fanfiction. The dreadful witch fanfiction is a prime example of this. In the world of literature, witches have always held a certain allure. From their mystical powers to their enigmatic personalities, witches have fascinated readers for centuries. It is no wonder then that fanfiction exploring this realm has emerged.

NOROI follows a documentary filmmaker, Masafumi Kobayashi, as he slowly uncovers something mysterious and evil that's leaving a trail of dead bodies in its wake. After interviewing a woman who claims to hear loud baby's cries coming from the house next door (where there is no baby), Kobayashi heads over to talk to the neighbor. He's greeted with hostility by the unhinged, disheveled woman (Maria Takagi) who answers the door (and promptly slams it in his face) and gets a peek at her 6-year-old son through a window. Strangely, both the woman and her son disappear just days after his visit (leaving behind a pile of dead pigeons on their back porch), and the woman who first complained about the noises, as well as her daughter, are both killed in a mysterious accident not long after that. This piques Kobayashi's interest and he sets out on a quest to find out what's going on. He soon uncovers that those with psychic abilities and extra-sensory perception seem to be tuning into something sinister, unexplainable and possibly even apocalyptic. Well-known 10-year-old clairvoyant, and TV celebrity, Kana (Rio Kanno) seems to think we may all be doomed, but she mysteriously disappears before she can be of much help. Another female psychic/actress (Marika Matsumoto) becomes involved, as does Mr. Nori, a mentally unstable kook/psychic who wears a hat and jacket made of aluminum foil and thinks people are being eaten by what he refers to "ectoplasmic worms." Clues eventually lead back to the site of a small village that's now covered by a lake, and the legend of an ancient demon known as Kagutaba.

For the better part of 15 years, Noroi was the subject of only occasional international screenings, and it never got a physical release in the United States. You have to pay attention to those unrelated details given throughout the film and the payoff is great when, in course of the film, these things start to intertwine one another.

It is no wonder then that fanfiction exploring this realm has emerged. Unfortunately, not all of it is worthy of praise. The dreadful witch fanfiction often misses the mark in terms of storytelling and character development.

Noroi: The Curse Is a Genuinely Terrifying Hidden Gem

The Japanese horror film from 2005 defies convention and has developed a cult-like following—and for good reason.

Noroi: The Curse opens with a warning: "This video documentary is deemed too disturbing for public viewing.” It spends the subsequent two hours living up to that warning.

I don’t want to say too much about Noroi’s plot, because one key to its success is throwing so many different things at the audience before revealing how they all come together. But broadly: Noroi is a 2005 horror movie presented as a polished but incomplete documentary by an independent journalist named Masafumi Kobayashi (Jin Muraki). Kobayashi specializes in the supernatural, and his latest project tackles a series of seemingly disconnected mysteries: a creepy house where neighbors always hear the sound of crying babies, a string of sudden and bizarre deaths, an adolescent girl with apparent psychic powers, and a ghost-hunting reality TV show that goes very, very wrong. Chasing these threads ultimately leads Kobayashi to an old ritual tied to a demon named Kagutaba. What follows is a strange mishmash of surreal imagery presented in a disarmingly straightforward way—dead pigeons, braided ropes, barking dogs—and a dread-inducing downward spiral.

It is not a spoiler to say that things don’t end well for Kobayashi; Noroi literally opens by explaining that Kobayashi’s house has burned down with his wife inside, and that Kobayashi himself has vanished. So ultimately, the question isn’t what happens to these characters. It’s why and how it happens, and what it means.

Found-footage movies have a bad reputation among horror fans—which is fair, since most of them are terrible. So what makes Noroi stand out from the dozens of bad, cheap imitators that cropped up in the wake of The Blair Witch Project, which came out five years earlier? Director Kōji Shiraishi makes one brilliant choice upfront: Unlike most found-footage movies—which are usually presented as raw footage shot by a doomed amateur—Noroi is introduced as a mostly-completed "documentary" crafted by a seasoned journalist. This immediately fixes several problems that typically plague found-footage movies. Because the character holding the camera is supposed to be a professional cameraman, Noroi largely avoids the headache-inducing shaky-cam popularized by legions of Blair Witch Project imitators. And because Kobayashi is experienced, the "found footage" is edited more like a conventional documentary meant to entertain and inform a mass audience, which means that Noroi—even at nearly two hours—is paced more like a real film than some weirdo’s old home movie.

Noroi’s commitment to documentary conventions is so absolute that it can be jarring if you’re not prepared for it. One early scene shows a ghostly figure briefly appearing in the woods. In a normal horror movie, this would be a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment designed to make you go, Did I really just see that? But just as you’re turning that moment over in your head, Noroi rewinds and freeze-frames the image of the figure in the woods and analyzes it closely—as, of course, any responsible documentarian would.

This is the unconventional but successful trick at the heart of Noroi: By refusing to follow the beats and tropes of a normal horror movie, it ends up feeling real. In theory, this is what most found-footage horror movies attempt to do—but Noroi’s purity is rarer than you might think. Most found-footage movies at least try to sneak in a few traditional cinematic building blocks, like character arcs. The Blair Witch Project’s Heather begins the story as an overconfident amateur filmmaker, and ends by admitting she’s in way over her head. Cloverfield’s Rob and Beth begin the story by pretending they’re not in love, and confess they love each other just before the bombs start to drop.

Noroi doesn’t bother with anything like that. Masafumi Kobayashi and his ally Marika Matsumoto—an actress, like The Blair Witch Project’s Heather, playing a fictionalized version of herself under her real name—are perfectly credible protagonists. But we don’t really learn anything about them, and they don’t change or grow from their encounters with the demon Kagutaba. They just (WARNING: possible spoiler, but also not really a spoiler) get devoured by it. Even if the movie didn’t tell you about its closing tragedy in its opening text, it’s obvious that Kobayashi and Matsumoto have walked into a trap they can’t recognize until they’re already caught, and that everyone around them will be dragged in as well.

So if it’s so great, why haven’t you already seen Noroi? Because until earlier this year, it was very, very difficult for anyone who wasn’t in Japan to track it down. For the better part of 15 years, Noroi was the subject of only occasional international screenings, and it never got a physical release in the United States. But the absence of an official release had an unintentional but potent side effect: It allowed Noroi to spread across the internet like an urban legend. Many people encountered Noroi for the first time in bootleg subtitled copies that were uploaded in full to torrent sites or YouTube by devoted fans.

I would, uh, never endorse watching a movie this way (and for the record: Now that it’s on Shudder, or for purchase on iTunes, that’s how you should watch it). But you can also see how obscurity only fanned the flames of Noroi’s cult appeal. When viewed through a YouTube window, some of Noroi’s more off-putting qualities—like the incredibly grainy VHS-style picture quality, which stands out even more in the HD era—are sneaky assets, helping the movie camouflage the fact that it’s a movie at all. And it’s hard to imagine a better way to enhance this movie’s already disturbing sense of realism than dropping it on YouTube devoid of any context, where curious, brave viewers could swap the link on message boards and debate just how much of it was real.

If I have one complaint, it’s that—as great as Noroi: The Curse is—putting it on Shudder alongside horror classics like Night of the Living Dead and Halloween also gives the game away. In an ideal world, this movie would still be hiding among all the amateur documentaries you can find on YouTube, ready to make anyone who stumbles onto it spend some sleepless nights wondering just how much of it was real.

Another difference between Noroi and Blair Witch is that Noroi provides not one, but two very long finales, the second of which is placed a minute after the credits start to roll and is the single greatest scare scene in the history of horror cinema. I do not say such things lightly. It totally wrecked me in a wonderous way.

Instead of delving into the complexities of witchcraft and its implications, these stories tend to focus on shallow romantic subplots and clichéd character tropes. They sacrifice depth for predictability, leaving readers feeling disappointed and unfulfilled. One of the main issues with the dreadful witch fanfiction is the lack of originality. These stories often borrow heavily from popular works, failing to add any original ideas or twists to the existing narrative. Instead of building upon established characters and lore, they simply rehash the same tired plotlines and scenarios. Furthermore, the dreadful witch fanfiction often suffers from poor writing and grammar. The prose is clumsy and awkward, lacking the finesse and fluency that is expected in professional writing. This detracts from the story itself, making it difficult for readers to fully immerse themselves in the fictional world created by the author. It is worth noting, however, that not all witch fanfiction falls into the category of dreadful. There are talented writers out there who are able to masterfully explore the world of witches, crafting engaging stories that captivate readers. These writers understand the importance of originality, character development, and strong storytelling. In conclusion, the dreadful witch fanfiction is a disappointing subgenre that fails to live up to its potential. Lackluster storytelling, unoriginal plots, and poor writing make these stories a far cry from the captivating works they are based on. However, it is important to recognize that there are exceptions to this trend, with talented writers producing compelling witch fanfiction that is a joy to read..

Reviews for "The Influence of Dreadful Witch Fanfiction on the Official Canon"

1. Sarah - 2/5 stars - I was really disappointed with "The dreadful witch fanfiction." The writing was subpar, with grammatical errors and weak character development. The plot felt rushed and lacked depth, making it difficult to become fully immersed in the story. Overall, it was a forgettable read that didn't live up to the hype.

2. Paul - 1/5 stars - I can't even express how much I disliked "The dreadful witch fanfiction." The storyline was cliché with predictable twists and turns. The characters felt one-dimensional and lacked any real substance. The dialogue was forced and unnatural, making it hard to connect with the story. It was a complete waste of time, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

3. Emily - 2/5 stars - "The dreadful witch fanfiction" was a major letdown. The writing style was choppy and inconsistent, making it difficult to follow at times. The pacing was off, with unnecessary filler scenes that didn't contribute to the overall plot. The author relied too heavily on clichés and tropes, resulting in a lack of originality. I was expecting much more from this book, but unfortunately, it fell flat.

4. Alex - 3/5 stars - While "The dreadful witch fanfiction" wasn't terrible, it didn't meet my expectations either. The characters lacked depth and felt cliché, making it hard to invest in their stories. The plot had potential, but it seemed rushed and lacked proper development. There were some enjoyable moments, but overall, it failed to leave a lasting impression. I wouldn't actively discourage reading it, but I wouldn't recommend it either.

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