Hex Chapter 4 Analysis

Hhhhhhzghzhellooooooo! (Pronounced like you had a something stuck in your throat)

Let’s review Chapter 4!

The chapter starts off with a weird website about Open Your Eyes: Preachings from the Witch’s Nest. Why doesn’t it surprise me that there might be a little cult associated with the ancient witch? What does surprise me is that it’s mostly the teenagers?

However, you’re not supposed to ever log into this website inside Black Springs (the town this takes place in). Never ever ever.

Not directly in this chapter, but we see something adjacent:
•There are digital boundaries.
•Never log into the witch website inside Black Springs.
•Never film the witch.
•Never disrupt her path.

This isn’t just folklore. It’s procedural containment. That’s important.
So, the youth only trust each other and are meant to fear the adults.

A group of teenagers snuck of out at night to do something? Are they trying to break the curse by doing something to the witch?

There’s a Wednesday morning ritual? Something to do with a choir maybe? And the witch, of course. Since the teens did something, will this ritual be a disaster?

The teens have snuck a GoPro to film it. Filming the witch is a huuuuuuge no-no, so this should be interesting.
The teens pulled a prank on the witch. She has a set path she follows every Wednesday, and they blocked her path with a lamp post. Since her eyes are sewn shut, she doesn’t see it, runs into it, falls down, squirms (from my understanding, she’s in a sort of straight jacket of chains) and can’t get up. She blinks up onto her feet again like a teleportation. She keeps running into the lamp post and eventually slides past it and continues her path. The boys get in trouble but everyone in town has seen the footage and are laughing. The boys must do community service and put the lamp post back.

The whole town knows it was them, and Tyler (Steve’s son with the GoPro) finds their approving smiles unnerving. Everyone in Black Springs is so stressed about the witch that “they’ve forgotten how to smile” making their faces look deformed when they do. “When they try to smile, it looks like they’re screaming.”

Local excuses and rationalizations are HUGE in this chapter. The whole town laughs at the prank. They also punish the boys, but also approve and smile…and the smiles are wrong. That’s twisted communal coping. They’re stressed. They’re trapped. They’re terrified. And instead of panic, outrage, or horror, they laugh. That’s gallows humor as pressure valve.

Who enforces the System? The adults punish the teens with community service and reinstall the lamp. But notice the whole town already saw the footage. Surveillance + collective judgment. And the kids? They only trust each other. They’re meant to fear the adults. That is generational fracture.

Meanwhile the elders see the ritual as, “This keeps us alive.” That tension is combustible.

Rules & Protocols?
We’ve got several now:
•Don’t log into the site in town.
•Don’t film the witch.
•Don’t interfere with her path.
•Wednesday ritual happens no matter what.

It feels bureaucratic. Which makes the supernatural feel institutionalized. That’s terrifying in a quiet way.

Consequences for resistance? This is subtle. The teens aren’t destroyed. They’re disciplined. Which means the town doesn’t want chaos. It wants compliance.

And here’s the scary layer…
The witch adapts. She runs into the lamp, falls, squirms, then teleports back upright, and eventually slides past it. She isn’t defeated. She adjusts.
That is containment horror 101: You can inconvenience the system. You cannot break it.

This chapter pushes hard toward distributed evil. Yes, there’s a witch. But the creepy part? The town smiling.

“When they try to smile, it looks like they’re screaming.”

That’s not the witch. That’s prolonged exposure to terror. The town is deforming. That’s slow rot horror.

And that screaming smile? That is psychological body horror. It’s not gore. It’s not jump scares. It’s prolonged exposure to dread warping human expression.

So, let’s rate this!

•Coca-Cola

•Habanero for explicit and vulgar back and forth teenage boys banter

•Sleep with the Lights On

•Page Turner

•Nose Exhale

•Fine

•Five Guys Fries

•Swiss Cheese

•Cut (description of Gramma’s eyes sewn shut can be disturbing)

•Pumpkin Pie

•85% Dark Chocolate

SnS 🌹💀📜🥤