Directed by:
Robert EggersScreenplay:
Robert EggersCinematography:
Jarin BlaschkeComposer:
Mark KorvenCast:
Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Julian Richings, Cat SimmonsVOD (5)
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Believing that a witch has cursed them, a family of outcast pilgrims becomes increasingly paranoid amid unsettling phenomena in colonial New England. (Netflix)
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Reviews (13)
Unique. It's as if the cameraman had been transported back several centuries in a time machine and filmed the feelings of a family in isolation in the middle of the dark woods. Everything is subordinated to these feelings of the time – the archaic language, the great piety that permeated every individual back then, the fear of the unknown, the fear even of the forest next to you, where evil, evil spirits and witches were believed to reside. Because faith in Christ and fear of the powers of hell was everything at that time, the whole film is permeated with pious talk, prayers and irrational behaviour, which – as it seems from the reviews here – the dull-witted population, without knowledge of the historical context and dumbed down by the mainstream, will not appreciate. The rest of us give it a thumbs up, because such period parables, where the author drew from written sources of the time, bringing to life the witch trials and the mindset of pious people, are a rarity in today's cinemas. It's just a shame about the overly suggestive ending, if the author had had the balls to drive it through the simple "psychosis" of one frightened family, I would applaud even more. And Anna Taylor-Joy? You’ll be hearing a lot about her, trust me!
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Initially, The Witch seems like a spin-off of Shyamalan’s The Village, but it eventually turns out to be a horror movie that goes beyond genre formulas and doesn’t want to be just another An American Haunting. Remarkable for its use of old British English (that perhaps even Brits themselves do not understand without subtitles), the film attempts to portray the mentality of the characters in a period-authentic way, but these characters’ behavior and responses lead to some solutions that the audience might find unsatisfactory. It is very hard to root for characters who are so fanatic in their religion that they spend more time hysterically praying among themselves and screaming confessions at each other than they do normally conversing. Rather, I wished their fates were finally sealed. Especially because in the second half, the film focuses more on their uncontrollable psychosis than the threat of the witch herself. The film is incoherent in its delivery of the events and their justifications, or you could say that it has a strange (witch-like?) logic. But the atmosphere is dense and the young Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays the only normal character in the film, is a promising newcomer.
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The Witch is a return to the foundations of the genre, whose cinematic form crystallized in the 1930s, thus a return to careful work with atmosphere. We can observe a gradual uncertainty and loss of support shaping the spiritual and physical world of immigrants to the New World in the 17th century. Suffering leads to the breakdown of the family, which we tend to consider as the basic building block of society. At that time, the community was most important. Outside of it, there was only struggling and in the long run, zero chance of survival in the wilderness. The key to the film is the opening scene of excommunication from the church and the community, the cruelest possible punishment, harsher than the death penalty. What follows is a logical descent into darkness and ruin. Just as shamanic magical rituals are a reality for tribal natural cultures, witches are a reality for people shaped by beliefs and early modern religion. The clash of devoutness, the depth of which secularized Europeans cannot imagine tainted by science and modern technology, with freethinking and hedonism of sinners, is precisely what makes the film so impressive. The Witch is not a flashy and expensive film, but it is meticulously shot with knowledge of the subject and awareness of what the filmmaker wants to achieve, and last but not least, it is characterized by a refined sense of detail. Some of the popcorn-eating viewers may feel deprived of some jumpscares, but for me, the film is an exemplary example of what a horror film should be, and if Eggers had refrained from a too unambiguous interpretation of events at the end, the film could have received a perfect score. Overall impression: 85%.
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While The Witch isn't quite my cup of tea, it has its qualities and you'll be hard pressed to find a competing horror film set in the same period. I especially praise the setting, the director perfectly captures the early modern era in New England with its strong religious overtones and the strict evolution of Puritan family behaviour. The performances are perfect, especially the psychopathic Kate Dickie as the mother is so believable that you feel the film's suffocating terror. Also worthy of praise are the lovely Anya Taylor-Joy, the disturbing Ralph Ineson, and the devilish goat, after whose performance I’m never petting a goat again at the zoo. The atmosphere is rightly oppressive, and while it's a shame that the film doesn't exude much tension, I didn't get bored, which is essential. I dare not recommend The Witch too highly, as most modern audiences won't get the film, which is understandable given the lack of colour and scares. Story 7/10, Atmosphere 7/10, Gore 3/10, Visuals 6/10, Action 2/10, Suspense 5/10,Humour 0/10. Entertainment 6/10. 70%.
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These a few dozens of seconds were completely unnecessary, without them it could have been the best horror of recent years. But we cannot do anything about it and their presence is even a bigger letdown because the problem is not what they show but how. Anyway, otherwise it is pretty good. You can find here everything what a real old school horror movie should contain; disturbing atmosphere, graduating psycho tension within a closed community (in this case a family in the middle of the woods), exposing carefully written characters, fears, evil and prejudices hidden in us, disturbing scenes... I am completely happy about that; especially when you add the impressive camera à la Dutch masters and acting performances of the whole family, which are worth highlighting, including the children. I can't remember when four children played such a complicated characters so well. Perhaps Eggers will make more horror movies, because a similar approach to this genre has been missing in recent years.
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