The Witch

The Witch

Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw

Directed by Robert Eggers

The Story:
In 1630, in a small Puritan town in New England, William (Ralph Ineson) is excommunicated from his village for raising concerns over how lackadaisical they are toward their religious beliefs.  He leaves the town with his wife Katherine (Kate Dickey), their teenage daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), young son Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), young twins Mercy and Jonas, and baby Samuel. 

Months pass, and the family has built a house and started a farm.  Things are going well until Thomasin watches baby Samuel, and he disappears after being swiped by an evil witch that lives in the woods.  The family is fraught with sadness and despair, and question their obedience to God and whether or not they're even following Him.  Meanwhile, Thomasin is considered a witch by Mercy, and the family begins suffering insurmountable losses, and the witch continues to torment the family, questioning their beliefs and making them turn on one another.

The Synopsis:
"The Witch" is heralded as one of the most terrifying movies of the year, and even horror master Stephen King has said he was terrified by the film.  It's also been endorsed by the Satanic Temple, who say that "[the film] will signal the call-to-arms for a Satanic uprising against the tyrannical vestiges of bigoted superstitions, and will harken a new era of liberation and unfettered inquiry."

So needless to say, as a horror buff, I had to see this film.  Probably condemning my soul to hell for seeing it, but it was well worth it.  It wasn't as terrifying as Stephen King said it was, but it was something even worse - it was completely unnerving, striking to the very soul and leaving me with a feeling of dread and sadness over what I just watched.  In other words, it did what it achieved to do, and much more.

"The Witch" takes place 62 years before the Salem Witch Trials, and you can see connections between the events of that awful period in history and this film, partially because they drew in transcripts from the actual trials for the film, and also because of the setting itself.  The cinematography is superb, with the film being shot entirely in a bleak grayish tone that depresses the viewer and allows them to fully envelop the experience.  The costume designs are also on point, with the main characters dressed in drab, loose clothing that pretty much hides every inch of skin, as the Puritans wore during that time period.

As far as the acting goes, the film relies heavily on the shoulders of newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy, who shows absolutely no joy in this film as the oldest daughter of the family, someone who is going through entering adolescence and adulthood, and who struggles the most with the events that take place within the family - as well as being the scapegoat for the spiritual attacks.  She is deemed as a witch by most of her family, and she's the one who experiences the most trauma first-hand.  Taylor-Joy gives a commanding performance as she balances innocence and guilt, fear and doubt.

When it comes to the religious tones of the film, "The Witch" takes on a heavily Satanic influence as it seems to suggest that faith is dead, causing the family to spiral into a downward spin to which they could never come out from, as they struggle with their own mortality and whether or not they'll go to heaven - or if it even exists.  Do babies go to heaven?  Can you sin and go to heaven?  Deep, prolific questions are asked with no clear answers.

On top of the family drama, the witch waits just outside the treeline, waiting for the perfect time to strike.  The witch herself is hardly seen, which throws a new dimension of terror in the film, as the monster is always scarier in your imagination than what you see on screen.  The few glimpses you see of the witch, you really wish she is never seen again after the insane terror she inflicts on the family, and the downright jaw-dropping evil she causes.  With certain films the evil has a purpose - revenge, a vendetta, just plain evil.  With this witch, the purpose is completely muddy.  She never encountered the family before, the family did nothing to provoke or unintentionally harm her.  She attacks them just because.

As I said earlier, the film isn't scary in the traditional sense - with lame jump scenes, loud musical crescendos (although the mood is elevated by the continuous ominous score), or other tawdry effects lesser directors use to scare up their audiences.  What it does is strikes to the inner core of the viewer, leaving an uneasy taste in the mouth, and leaves you with images indelible in your brain.  Those are hallmarks of a brilliant horror movie.

The Summary:
Taking out the hype and controversy, "The Witch" offers up a highly cerebral terror thrill ride that remains with you long after it ends.

The Score: A