Most of the fiction I've been exposed to involving Puritanism and witchcraft has revolved around the idea that the hysteria surrounding witchcraft in the New World birthed a greater evil than any actual witchcraft ever did. What Robert Eggers' debut film does so masterfully is blend the human frailties that come to the fore when witchcraft-related hysteria emerges with a palpable, thick and dread-filled evil that soaks into the entire film.

Much has been written of the lengths Eggers and his crew went to to ensure historical accuracy and they certainly do a magnificent job of creating an ambiance that never allowed me to relax while watching. The characters speak in quasi-Biblical tongues, their hair lank, their countenances sullen. It's a hard life they've chosen for themselves and it's made all the harder when Samuel, a baby, disappears.

The titular witch is used sparingly and two of her three appearances are images that will stay with me for a long, long time. Eggers does well to find a balance between not showing too much and showing enough to suggest a horror beyond what's shown directly: blood and fat, pale moonlight on gnarled skin, a weathered hand.

The cast are all extraordinarily committed and I admired just about every performance in the film. I was especially impressed by Harvey Scrimshaw - he perfectly plays a young man on the cusp of adolescence, questioning himself, his religion and the environment around him. The ensemble scene around him while he suffers from possession is the high point of the film and this is in no small part because of his staggering performance, veering from thrashing in the throes of a fit to religious ecstasy.

There was one point in the film where I was given a fright outright but what's so effective is the atmosphere of dread that's slowly and carefully increased throughout. I've been thinking about the film for days, and I'm sure I'll be thinking about it for a long time to come. Many commentators, on the site and others, were sorely disappointed that it didn't reflect the more prevalent trends in horror at the moment but I'm glad that this film has carried on a tradition of horror that seeps its way into your consciousness and stays.

As I’ve gotten older, I find that it’s harder for movies to scare me. It’s natural, especially after you spend significant amounts of time trying to analyze films, there’s a certain separation that can emerge, a sense in which you appreciate how well designed that monster is or how unexpected that knife slash was or how intricate that big evil trap is, but it doesn’t reach out and grab you the way it might have when you were a kid.

But what still scares me, what still gives me goose bumps and sends that tingle up my spine, is mood and atmosphere. I’m less apt to be rattled by the boogeyman jumping out of the closet or the murder emerging than I am when a film creates a supreme sense of foreboding, of something in the air that is amiss that no one can quite put their finger on. *The Witch* (or *The VVitch* if you’re a stickler for typeface) has some truly disturbing set pieces, and each of them is incredibly well-executed, but what makes it the scariest film I’ve seen in years is the way it creates that palpable mood of unease even when nothing particularly frightening is going on
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In that vein, the film that it reminds me of most is *Rosemary’s Baby*. Both films are very deliberately paced, foster a sense of paranoia in its characters, and build an unnerving atmosphere that chills you before the real fireworks begin. *The Witch* delves a little more into the overtly supernatural, but it feels of a piece with its disturbing predecessor in how it’s understated for much of its run, and draws out the most horror from the reactions of its characters.

Those reactions are what elevate *The Witch* from being a well-shot, well-designed film and turn into something truly chilling. At its core, the film is a psychodrama, focused on a family pointing their fingers at one another when horrible things start happening. The scene where the youngest child of the family disappears suddenly, and we see glimpses of him being prepared by some mysterious figure is upsetting, but what is even more disturbing are the recriminations and blame that follow and grow as more such events take place as the movie unspools.

Blame and guilt permeate the film. Thomasin, the eldest daughter and protagonist, is blamed by her mother and chided by her twin siblings. Caleb, the eldest son, deals with the guilt and fear of original sin, for the concerns that if he dies he will go to hell because he is stained by sin. William, the patriarch of the family, blames himself for leading this wife and children to these cursed lands.

And the lands truly seem cursed. The other film that comes to mind in the midst of *The Witch*, particularly in the midst of its lovingly-crafted, haunting images, is *Winter’s Bone*. The setting of the film becomes as much a part of creating that chilling mood, of making you feel like this family is isolated in a place too far away from help, and too barren to be a place of any hope. As in *Winter’s Bone*, the film is set in an area of desolation, thoroughly immersed in bleak gray, to where the setting feels truly forsaken by God.

That too is an important thematic touch in the film. There is a great deal of religious imagery in the film and references to the stain of original sin. From seemingly impossible apples to goats that evoke depictions of The Devil, to the frequent concerns over whether the departed are in Heaven or Hell, there is a religious bent before the supernatural ever comes into play.

[spoiler]That religious bent is the undercurrent behind mother turning against daughter, sibling turning against sibling, family turning against family. The paranoia sets in; the accusations fly; people are boarded up, die mysteriously, and think each of them is the cause. The titular witch of the film is truly frightening, made up to be equally grotesque and luring at different points of the film, an unseen, bizarre, almost alien force that inflicts its will on this family. And the contortions of Caleb as he’s under her spell are the peak of the film’s overt and unnerving scares. But what’s even more frightening is the effect that this haunting has on the family, to where they are torn apart, tortured even, long before the devil tightens his grip around their necks.

In the end, Thomasin is left with nothing. The rest of her family has either been killed by the witch or killed one another. So Thomasin, who strove to be good and to be morally right, finds herself bereft of everything, bereft of everyone, tired of resisting. She asks Black Phillip if he is what they said he was, if he is the devil. He offers her a chance to escape, a chance to have pretty things and luxuries, and as she wanders out to a coven dancing by the firelight, she rises, and it’s clear she’s accepted.

Maybe this was his plan all along. Maybe he wanted another witch, and the only way he was going to find one was to strip her of everything else in her life, leave her without parents, without siblings, morally and spiritually bereft, to where any option besides where she is now seems like an alternative, like something to take her away from all of this.

Who wouldn’t want to escape? From having to see your brother convulse like a child possessed and laugh like a madman, from watching your father lament everything and meet his untimely end at the hands of the devil, from having your mother attempt to strangle you and be forced to kill you. These moments are each horrifying in their own way, the horror that comes from a family falling apart in the most drastic and gruesome terms.

But where *The Witch* truly succeeds, and what sets it apart from its horror brethren, is the desolate setting, the delicate-yet-forceful cinematography and images, verisimilitude of the production design, and above all else, the psychological horror of these people knowing something is wrong, ensconced in a futile struggle to fix it, and practically eating each other in the process, until all that’s left is a young woman with nothing left.[/spoiler]

I hate modern day audience when it comes to horror.

I saw "The VVitch'' back in early March and I thought it was decent, but I didn't understand what all the fuss was all about. Yeah, it looked nice and it had a chilling atmosphere but that's the only thing I got from it. Well, to be fair, I think I was the only one that I liked this movie compared to my friends and family, as they thought the movie was terrible. I liked the movie but I thought it was kind of slow, I was a bit confused at times and the movie didn't stick with me after it was done. If I was reviewing this back in March, I would probably give this movie a 3/5.

But after re-watching the film, I actually liked it even more and there was a lot of things that I can't believe I missed on my first viewing. I don't know how to explain it, but I had this uncomfortable feeling from watching this that I never experience the first time. This is a horror movie that exceeds in film making, it's freaky score and it's gloomy atmosphere that really made this film a true horror.

This is a great psychological horror film that can really get under the your skin. I started to notice little details that really made this movie freaking scary when you understand the meaning of it. This doesn't have any stupid jump scars that deflates tension or just any horror movie tropes that we've seen million times already, but that's nowhere to be seen in the ''The VVitch''.

THANK GOODNESS!

Oh and the cinematography is this movie is just flawless. I'm starting to notice a trend in indie horror movies today - With the shots being perfectly set up and the very little use of light that really adds to the atmosphere to this film.

Thank you Robert Eggers for your brilliant direction and this movie.

From the start, I should admit I was distracted whilst watching this Blu Ray as I was completing a painting in the living room at the same time. Poor show Film Cricket, poor show. Nevertheless missing a few scenes and parts of dialogue did not dilute the feeling or impression of the film.

The acting, dialogue and cinematography create as close a feeling of being around the New World in the 1600s as is possible from my limited knowledge of that history. The film seems instilled with a stifling, suffocating feeling as it progresses – this is helped by the washed-out filter used which be any annoying affectation but seeing the scenery in bright greens and so forth would diminish from the atmosphere that the director was trying to purvey.

What type of story this is can be put up for debate. Do you take it literally or is it more psychological and the events as seen by damaged psychotics, coupled with effects of mould on corn (as the makers hinted at)? Certainly, for the subject matter you must say it is a horror film but possible horror with a small ‘h’ and without jump scares and shock-gore. All for the good too. The story leaves enough room for each viewer to make their own minds up. That’s not to say plot strands are left hanging and unresolved, they are not, but how you get there can be interpreted in different ways. Not wildly different but different.

The main actors, which is basically the family, all play their roles well, Ralph Ineson, late of The Office, is extremely believable as the family matriarch and equally as impressive is Anya Taylor-Joy in her first film role. There are small sections of shouty-actorly-histrionics but truth be told this does fit in with the style of the film and is probably in context.

As the oppressive feeling closes in on the viewer and life for the family gets stranger and scarier we are treated to stranger events and more obscure and strange events but do they happen or is it illusion – who knows, you have to come to your own conclusion. Therein lies the rub for this film, the less patient, the less a person likes slow-burning, thoughtful films, the less this person is going to enjoy the film. For those of us you are sick to death of gore-porn, exploding buildings and seemingly invincible humans this is a refreshing drink.

The Witch as rough edges and in places the pace and story sags and creaks but the style, acting and story itself repairs these weaknesses for most viewers. The direction, acting and cinematography are top notch and the world that they have created is believably 17th century and it is believable that perhaps supernatural evil influences permeate throughout the land.

All in all The Witch is different, dark and disturbing. Slow to burn, that will frustrate a lot of modern audience members, but effective in the atmosphere it creates this film hits the targets it is aiming at more than it misses.

Talk about old school!

“The Witch” is a painstaking recreation of Puritan life in New England. The lifestyle is mimicked. The clothes are period-accurate. The dialogue is actually based off of documents and speeches from that time. It’s as if Mel Gibson decided to update “The Passion of the Christ” by 1600 years.

As mentioned, the movie is set in Puritan New England as a family is banished from the larger community and has to make their own way out in the wilderness. As they build their home, strange things begin to happen, starting with the abduction of the infant Samuel. Things continue to get worse and worse, until… okay, no spoilers. See the movie.

This is a dark and effective movie. I can’t remember the last time I actually had a start from the all too often used jump scares, but the movie is absorbing enough that it did manage to “get” me a couple times. Robert Eggers seems to have kicked off a new wave in old-school, deep supernatural and existential horror. I won’t lie that I drew some comparisons between this and Ari Aster’s “Hereditary,” if nothing else than by simply the way the movie felt and left me feeling at the end.

That being said, the film isn’t perfect. In fact, oddly enough, it’s perfection is what gives it imperfection. The period is so painstakingly recreated, in particular the dialogue, that sometimes hearing it can be jarring, making me stop for just a second to think about what was just said, which unfortunately interrupts the flow and managed to pull me out of the film. It’s kind of a strange complaint that something could be so accurate that it fails to suspend disbelief, but here we are.

“The Witch” is quite an achievement and I’m glad that this film, which would otherwise be relegated to underground status, has managed to achieve a following, enough so that Robert Eggers got to do a follow-up with the Lovecraftian-looking “The Lighthouse.” Definitely worth checking out.