It’s 17th Century New England, right at the height of the religious paranoia that would bring about all those famous witch hunts. And religion is of special interest to William (Ralph Ineson) who, due to some vague theological difference of opinion, drags his wife and five children away from their village home to live a life of pure solitude in the middle of nowhere just outside a creepy forest. Only a few minutes into the film, eldest child Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) is playing with little baby Samuel when he vanishes from sight. Thomasin has no idea what happened to him, but we as an audience are clearly shown that he was abducted by a mysterious figure who does some pretty horrifying things.
Thomasin’s mother Katharine (Kate Dickie) blames her for the loss of the baby and spends her days in bed crying and praying for Samuel’s soul. Middle child Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) becomes confused about his parent’s theology, but is assured by his father that there is no way of knowing whether or not one is good enough for God, so just keep being good and hope for the best (This is, of course, directly contrary to Biblical teachings, but maybe that’s why they’re not in the village anymore).
Being constantly coaxed by this type of hyper-devotion, it’s little wonder everyone in the family is constantly glum and terrified for their immortal well-being. Everyone, that is, except the young twins Mercy and Jonas who are always cheerfully singing songs and talking to their goat friend Black Phillip. Are they just naive youngsters playing around or is there really someone in the goat conversing with them? When the farm’s crops start dying and the animals become sickly, is it a punishment from God for untold sins, or is there evil mischief afoot? And just what is out there in the wood?
These are questions, amongst others, that the movie asks and either doesn’t answer straight out or answers in a way that may be insufficient for modern minds. But this is not a modern horror movie, and it puts much more focus on uneasy mood and atmosphere than on narrative specifics. Those expecting a fun matinee scarefest in the Insidious vein will be very disappointed, and I should warn potential viewers that if there’s a crowd at your screening, you may as well turn around and get your money back, cause the people who came expecting to scream and laugh will still be screaming, but in disgust and anger.
The negative reactions to The Witch are understandable because it’s a literally scary movie, scary in a way that goes beyond the normal sensations of watching a movie and into a place that feels truly evil. First-time director/writer Robert Eggers has created an extraordinary work that is technically sound (The photography by Jarin Blaschke is really lovely and makes good use of creepy, natural lighting) and it is written in a way that feels like a document (All of the dialogue is accurate for the period, complete with “ye”s and “thou”s and always spoken in a thick, occasionally hard to understand dialect). It was little surprise to me when the end credits said it was based on actual journal accounts, and as suffocating and awful as it makes this family’s religious views look, it’s also no surprise that the movie got an endorsement from the Satanic church. This really is the kind of movie that makes the dark side look promising.
As a Christian myself, The Witch was terrifying to me in spiritual ways that may not carry over for other people, because it’s a reminder of how scary faith can be, what with evil having great physical power in the world and God remaining silent. It works as a morality tale about the necessity of strength in a partnership with God, rather than relying solely on human principles, but it also works from a totally non-religious viewpoint. Even taken just as a spooky folktale, it has some chilling tricks up its sleeve, assuming you’re in the mindset to let the movie work them over on you.
A-
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