Project X: Horror Movie in Disguise

I'm going to do something I've never done before - review a movie at Reader's Den.

There's not much of a plot, but this is fine only because I'm certain this movie wasn't meant to have a plot. It's the typical teenage-boys-want-popularity-and-sex story. The main characters are Thomas, Costa, JB, and Dax. Dax is the one filming most of the movie. We only see him one time, when he moves the camera in front of a mirror. His stereotypical role? The mysterious goth. I guess he's filming because Costa really wants him to and the director figured that this type of filming helps make the movie look cool.

Thomas is the unlucky individual with the big house and parents leaving for the weekend; in other words, his house is the party house. His stereotypical role? The lame, kind loner with no backbone and manipulative friends. Well, I shouldn't say manipulative 'friends,' since JB's stereotypical role is also that of a lame, overweight weirdo with no backbone and a manipulative friend (keep in mind I'm just spelling out the stereotypes in the movie. I do NOT feel this way about the characters. I don't really feel anything about the characters, since they're undeveloped. This is just how they're stereotypically portrayed, time and time again).

Costa is the bad seed. Thomas is the focus point, but this is Costa's movie. He manipulated Thomas into throwing the party. He went crazy inviting so many people that, by the end of the movie, 1500+ people were at the party. He's the last person we see at the end of the movie and the only one to really escape the charges.

Heck, at least the movie begins with obscenities. That way people with a low tolerance for cursing and sexual content already know what they're getting themselves into from the get-go.

Everything takes place in the span of 1-2 days. Thomas's parents leave for the weekend. The popular girl Costa wants Thomas to have sex with by the end of the night is introduced, even though the viewer can easily tell that there is a budding relationship between Thomas and his best female friend. Drugs are acquired; a gnome is stolen (oh boy, that friggin' gnome). And, a little past 9 pm, the party finally starts.

When I say it starts, I mean it starts.

So, I went to see this movie with my boyfriend and friends. We're the targeted audience - though we're not out-of-control party animals, we are a group of teens either just out of high school or about to graduate from high school.

Initially, I liked this movie. I laughed here and there. It reminded me of my party days. Then, at some point, I completely stopped laughing and started feeling...terrified. I'm being completely serious here. I love horror movies. I used to watch at least two horror movies a day. I can't remember the last time I watched something and felt so many goosebumps, felt my heart beating so fast. I know this sounds dramatic, but when those drugs started coming in and people became violent and sexual and dumb, I couldn't help but think, "What does this say about us?"

Yes, he has a flame thrower, and he is burning the neighborhood down.

I call Project X a horror movie in disguise because, putting the shallowness of the plot aside, this could be characterized as a horror-of-personality. That's a subgenre of horror and thriller fiction where the scariest characters are the humans themselves. As perfectly human as they are, the personalities are absolutely horrific. Horror-of-personality often takes place in average places, especially suburbia.

Project X is definitely horror-of-personality. There we get thousands of characters that are perfectly human with seemingly horrific personalities.

So much of Project X was whiplash for me. I wanted not to take it seriously. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously. I knew when I started Project X that it would just be pointless entertainment about a wild party, sex, and loud music. Still, some part of me so badly wanted this movie to be a deconstruction of the typical wild party movie. I wanted Project X to surprise us viewers and show us the real consequences of a party this dangerous.

It didn't. Instead, it angered me and my boyfriend by giving this terrible message: it's okay to get totally screwed up on drugs and alcohol, burn down your house and some of the other houses in the neighborhood, and almost kill people...at the end of the day, everyone in high school will love you, your dad will congratulate you on not being a loser, and you'll get the girl.

Meh. The worse part? People are now trying to re-enact Project X.