The Witch
"Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?" -Black Phillip
The new independent horror film The Witch is directed by Robert Eggers (1st feature film) and stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin, Harvey Scrimshaw as Caleb, Ralph Ineson as William, Kate Dickie as Katherine, Ellie Grainer as Mercy, and Lucas Dawson as Jonas.
Yeah, this is the place. This is the place you choose to live at for the rest of your lives. C'mon guys! You can do better!
The Witch tells the folktale of a family, in early 1600s New England, banished from their village and trying to survive. They find a place next to a creepy forest and decide that this would be the place to live at without scoping the area. One horrifying and bloody event leads to another, thus making the family believe that one person in particular is a witch. Whether the person is or not, it's still a tale of family's struggle to help and fight each other.
The plot may or may not sound creepy from the way I explain it, but trust me...oh my god...
I would like to say this in the best way possible; by the end scene of the movie, I was begging it to end. The Witch made me very uncomfortable throughout most of the movie. As many of you readers may know by my previous reviews, I love films that find a way to get under your skin with such ease and make you feel so gut-wrenchingly uncomfortable that you had wished you hadn't seen that. So this may sound like a bad thing to some of you, but I find that if a film has done that, and it matches the message or point it's trying to make, then it has emotionally effected you. I want to feel during a movie and man, did I feel during this movie. The Witch has a good amount of grotesque imagery that totally works to show what the family is going through. From the first 20 minutes, I was already cringing at the brutal depiction of what the witch does. Even the end scene had me trembling in my seat hoping that it would just cut to credits. It's the kind of film that really isn't made often, which can be a good or bad thing. However, The Witch pulls it off with emotion and torture.
Sadistic? Yes. Beautifully done? Yes. Would I see it again? Probably not. It's just too much. Just look at what happens to Caleb!
Since The Witch is based on a folktale in early 1600s New England, the language used was more biblical and, at first, kind of hard to understand. However, I'm going to admit that I got used to it. It just became easier to comprehend into today's everyday vernacular. It added a sense of realism that in many films with such language, which is really hard to come by. In other films, you could tell that it was a script they were reading from rather than the believable innate language spoken in the day. A lot of this believability is due to the cast. Everyone did a fantastic job with the script. I felt as if the script came so naturally to them. Out of the whole cast (which was only about a handful of people), I would have to say that Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin had the standout performance. A close second would actually be the young Harvey Scrimshaw as Caleb. These child actors have a bright future as shown in The Witch. They portrayed hurt children. Damaged and weak by the end of each of their performances, they made me feel for their situation. Anya's character arc by the end really just took a turn for the worst, in terms of the situation she had to deal with. Also, that was the scene that made me beg for it to stop. Harvey had one scene that had me shaking my head and saying to myself, "No. I...I don't understand what I'm watching. It's just horrifying!". What I'm getting at is that both of their performances, along with the two twins (who I just wanted to punch each of them in the face), the father, and the mother, were seamless and fit the era well.
Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin
I can't say that this movie is perfect though. It lacks good pacing. There were slow long scenes with just talking. Honestly, it was boring during those scenes. Though what the characters were talking about was relevant to their situation, I still couldn't help but lean my head against my hand so that I wouldn't fall asleep. Thankfully, the scenes where there were more action salvaged the boring talk scenes and I quickly got back into the family peril.
Yup. Talking, praying, sitting, sleeping...Wait someone's possessed! I have to wake up!
The Witch may not resonate as well with others as it did with me, that's for sure. This independent film got a lot of buzz at the Sundance Film Festival. More often than not, this means that it is more of an artsy film. That's definitely true here. I feel like The Witch will work better with film lovers than regular film-goers. The cinematography, while beautiful and fitting the nature of the film, is pretty monochromatic. It's dull and can put you to sleep if you don't realize what the tone of the story is. Another way I'd like to put it is that The Witch is artsy-fartsy. I, personally, don't mind artsy-fartsy though. I can tell that many of the others in my theater, were not and therefore didn't like the movie. I guess you can say that it's a love-hate relationship with audiences overall.
Hey man, don't look at me like that! I said I liked it! I don't want to be possessed in any way whatsoever!
Call me weird or...really weird, but intense movies that make me cringe are the ones that I love the most. I feel that if you can connect to the movie in an uncomfortable way that isn't forced, but relates to what people in the movie are going through, then it has done it's job. The Witch completed that, but didn't do it with flying colors. It wasn't a true horror movie according to today's genre of horror: filled with clichés-a-plenty, cheap jump scares, an underwhelming plot, or a stupid twist ending . It was more of an intensifying experience that made you feel like closing your eyes for some parts (watch out for the first 15 to 20 minutes) and interested at what could top the last scene. The Witch is a fresh breath of air to see a film that goes back to the roots of horror and doesn't leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. Well, actually, it does. Just not in the way of seeing a bad film.
4.3/5
PRO
- Uncomfortable feeling that's true to the story it's telling
- Acting, specifically Anya Taylor-Joy's Thomasin and Harvey Scrimshaw's Caleb
- Different kind of horror movie that does not cling to modern horror
- Biblical language feels genuine
- Some may be disappointed by the artsy-fartsiness and intensity
- Some really boring scenes
The Witch is rated R for disturbing violent content and graphic nudity
Click here to watch the trailer
The Witch is in theaters everywhere now
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