Chapter 39:

Jennifer Charles, nicknamed Jenny, daughter of Benjamin Charles, was a childhood acquaintance of Will. Their relationship never seemed to develop from ‘acquaintances’ to ‘friends’ due to Jenny’s peculiar personality.

The surprised expression on her was priceless as she stuttered a bit with movie tickets and popcorn in her hand.

“W-why is this chipmunk here?”

Ben had asked her to buy three tickets for the movie, but he didn’t mention who the third person was.

Jennifer frowned at Benjamin, clearly displeased.

A slight smile unconsciously formed on Will’s face after hearing the nickname he hadn’t heard since his reincarnation.

“It’s his movie,” Benjamin replied shortly, as he said in a sharp tone, “Why are you acting like this? Weren’t you excited to see the movie?”

“You were?” Will asked, clearly surprised. As far as he remembered, she didn’t like horror movies in particular.

Jennifer tried to control her facial expression as she answered, trying to sound grand, “I just wanted to buy a ticket so that at least your movie earns a few dollars.”

Ben frowned in annoyance and reprimanded her, “Is this any way to talk? I’ve taught you better.”

Will just chuckled at her antics; this personality made it impossible for him – or his past self – to become friends with Jenny.

After that, they just walked inside the theatre, and a poster of the movie was plastered on the entrance.

The poster was overall dark, with a close-up picture of June’s upper face, her eye’s frightened with a torch-like light illuminating her face. The other part of the poster was covered in a jungle of dark trees, with the following text on it, just below the part where it said it had won the most innovative film award at the annual film festival.

[In October 1994, three students disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary…

A year later, their footage was found.

The Blair Witch Project]

There was a cross before the texts.

Benjamin, who looked at the poster, was impressed and told Will that this kind of poster would market well as it even gave a vague explanation of what the movie was like.

Then he inquired about the cross mark, and Will said he’d find out after watching the movie.

They entered the theatre. It was a medium-sized theatre with about 1200 seats. As he often visited this theatre, the seats were acceptable with a big screen.

What was weird about this 1200 seat theatre was that not even half of the seats were occupied. It seemed like, at most only one-third of the seats were occupied by the audience.

Jenny, who saw this, couldn’t help but frown. It was hard to tell what annoyed her more, the sight of empty seats for Will’s movie or the fact that she would be watching the genre she was most scared of.

“Ahaha, it’s fine, Will. Don’t feel down. This is just your first movie; most people can’t even make it here. You’re still young, and there will be many opportunities for you in the near future.”

Ben tried to cheer Will up with words of encouragement, although he wasn’t really lying about the latter part.

“Don’t worry, Uncle Ben. In my mind, tonight will be the start of the best advertisement for this movie because, after tonight, the real word-of-mouth will begin.”

Will said in an optimistic tone that neither sounded arrogant nor overconfident. He knew that his uncle was trying to cheer him up, but he already knew the movie would do well in the latter part of the week instead of the first day.

“That’s great. You have got the right mentality. Just don’t despair at small setbacks and keep going ahead with a positive mindset. Success will be yours sooner or later.”

Ben commented. He was extremely pleased with Will these days, who seemed like a different person and showed a lot of maturity for his age. Although some of his decisions seemed rushed, Ben couldn’t take them at face value as he had already learnt his lesson that Will was not an ordinary hot-headed kid.

“Yeah, sure, Mr Chipmunk will go and take the world by storm with his old camera.”

Although Jennifer said that sarcastically, her face showed a different reaction as if she was happy with Will’s attitude.

Soon, all of them sat at their seats, with Will on the right, Ben in the middle and Jenny on the left.

The lights turned on as the screen lit up and the movie started.

The movie’s full length was about eighty minutes long. And Will enjoyed the whole movie… no, he enjoyed the expression of terror, gasping, teary eyes, and the shaken face of the audience members throughout the playthrough of the movie as they even had their legs huddled on the seat out of fear.

Although he couldn’t see Jennifer’s expression, considering the fact that she was afraid of a mere spider, the Blair Witch Project ought to be on the higher tier than that.

As for the others, the audience was so terrified that they didn’t even leave the theatre until the whole credits ended and the lights were switched on.

…

“Dude, I am not going anywhere near the woods,” A guy walking right in front of Will as they exited the theatre said to his friend.

“Woods? Fuck that; I am not going near a fucking tree. This shit was scary as hell, man.” His friend replied, rubbing his own forehead.

“I got literal creeps, man; I had my legs on the seat the whole time.”

Someone else added, “To be honest, the only part that creeped me out was the final shot. I am kinda feeling nauseous.”

“It’s cuz you’re allergic to art.” The first guy gave him a look, “This movie was a true art.”

“Yeah, I am going home and gonna tell everyone about it. Damn, this shit was scary.”

“I know, right, fuck! Why should we be the only ones scared shitless!”

“Dude, that one flash of Blair Witch’s shadow tho…”

“Don’t mention that! That fucking scene made my heart stop!”

“This movie was worth every penny, man,” Another group of youngsters passed by Will, and one of them was telling his friends, “I was so sceptical of this movie, mainly because of the recording technique.”

“Yeah, it’s very unique. I don’t think there is any movie like this, is there?”

“I think there was one-thirty or so years ago, but I think this one takes the cake.”

“Yeah, this movie gave me the chills. I don’t remember the last time I was so scared.”

“Maybe when you saw your face in the morning?”

“Fuck you!”

“That’d be kinda gross.”

“…”

…

With Jennifer and Uncle Ben, Will had arrived in the parking lot by now, and the latter was talking about the movie.

“…Interesting. Yes, that’s the word I would use for it.” Uncle Ben said.

Will was a bit surprised. The adjective ‘Interesting’ was not a word one would normally use to describe The Blair Witch Project movie.

“You didn’t find it… scary?” Will asked.

“Scary?” Uncle Ben chuckled, “Hehe, Will, do you know thirty years ago, when a movie used this same technique, your dad and I went together to watch it. Both of us used to go to watch movies, especially horror ones.”

“Oh? So you got used to this genre?”

“Um, actually, we used a simple trick not to get scared.”

Meanwhile, Jennifer unlocked the car and opened the back seat door, gesturing to Uncle Ben to have a seat. As Uncle Ben stepped in, Will was about to follow, but she closed the door and pointed at the front door.

“I am not going to be your chauffeur.”

Will shrugged and took the front seat, besides the driver seat.

Jeniffer looked around for a bit and gulped her saliva. She swiftly ran, took the driver seat, and sighed relief while putting in the key.

Will glanced at her for a moment and then asked Uncle Ben while putting on the seat belt, “What trick?”

“One of them was, we would just imagine the director shouting “Cut” and all the studio lights coming on straight away while the camera pans away to reveal the set.”

“Oh? It worked all the time?”

“Well, not always. But the second trick worked every damn time.”

“Dad!” Jennifer scowled in the rear-view mirror inside the car, “Watch your language.” She added while squinted her eyes at her father and then focused back on driving as they left the theatre.

Uncle Ben ignored her and continued to say, “The second trick was to find something funny. No matter how scary the scene is, if you can find a single comedic moment in it, all the scare will be gone.”

“Oh?” Will nodded, “I will try these.”

“Haha,” Uncle Ben laughed. “Try it. But yeah, of all things, I can be sure of one thing. Your movie is going to raise the bar in the whole horror genre.”

Will smiled, “Thank you, Uncle.”

Uncle Ben smiled and asked about shooting process related questions and any problems he faced.

About ten minutes later…

“Hahaha, I bet those bastards at Foxstar are now going to lose their sleep as your movie earns a lot.” Uncle Ben laughed.

Will smiled. He recalled the day when he had visited the Foxstar Studios to make them the distributor for his movie, but in the end was harshly rejected.

‘Well, things turned out to be better.’

The deal he got later with the Wheel Works Studios was not something he could have succeeded in negotiating with Forster.

‘If things go well, I will soon have enough funds to…’

Just then, the car stopped, pulling Will out of his thoughts.

“Dad, we are here,” Jennifer spoke.

Uncle Ben removed his seatbelt from the backseat while saying, “Will, why don’t you come over? Your aunt must have cooked something good.”

Will thought for a moment and replied, “I can’t say no to aunt’s cooking.”

“Hahaha,” Uncle Ben smiled as the security opened the gates, and Jennifer drove the car in.

As the car entered the estate, Will remembered something, and turning his head towards Uncle Ben; he asked, “Uncle, you were telling me that I would get a call from someone? Who were you talking about?”

….

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