The Witch (2015)
Directed by Robert Eggers
There are many different subgenres in horror, some are touched on more than others such as slasher movies and found footage movies. Over the years we have seen movies about monsters, vampires, werewolves, mummies, hell even killer dolls, but you rarely see horror movies about witches. When The Witch came out the trailer immediately caught my attention because it’s a period piece. Those types of movies are never used for horror. I could tell right from the beginning of the trailer that it was going to be a slow burn suspenseful movie, and that excited me. Rarely nowadays does a movie take the time to develop suspense. I was hooked right from the first glimpse, so why did it take me so long to watch this? It recently came on Amazon Prime included so now I had no excuse to not watch it.
The plot focuses on a 17th century New England family that was banished from their Puritan plantation because of their different interpretation of the New Testament. Puritans were nuts, oh…you think this means something else in the bible than we do? Get the fuck out and fend for yourself now bitch! Puritans didn’t give a shit! In one of the opening scenes the oldest daughter Thomasin is playing peek a boo with the baby Samuel. She does this, multiple times then suddenly Samuel is gone, and you hear a rustling in the woods. We then get a scene of a naked woman killing Samuel and covering herself with his blood. From then on, the family is in shambles and the mother is basically catatonic, for good reason really. Thomasin is blamed by her mother for Samuel being taken, the father William believes it was a wolf that took the baby, while the others believe it was a Witch. The other children are Caleb, a younger boy around the age of 10, and the twins Mercy and Jonas. The twins have a wild imagination and believe their goat Black Phillip can speak to them. From the beginning something isn’t quite right and you begin to wonder if there is something evil present, maybe Black Phillip isn’t what he seems.
The acting is very solid throughout, which is impressive since most of the cast is very young. The father (Ralph Ineson) has an awesome voice, very gravely and rough. The mother Katherine, played by Kate Dickie is convincing as the tortured mother. Thomasin is played by Anya Taylor-Joy quite well. The cast is rather unknown, no big names to be seen. I can’t see any breaks in their accents which also is impressive. You feel the pain of the mother with every mood swing she has, and you can truly feel her resentment towards Thomasin, it is unnerving and you feel sorry for her. The father is basically the glue of the family, he desperately attempts to ease the tension between Katherine and Thomasin. The twins are kind of annoying but that tends to happen with younger actors, Jonas barely has any lines whatsoever, mostly it is Mercy speaking.
There isn’t much in the way of special effects in this movie, but they aren’t really needed. This is all about atmosphere and suspense and it delivers on both of those greatly. The movie has a drab dingy look and it complements the family’s struggle to survive outside of the plantation. The story slowly builds to the uneasy/unsettling ending. Once Black Phillip reveals himself to Thomasin, I got goosebumps. The camera work, setting, character development, atmosphere and suspense are so prominent that you would almost think this is a Guillermo Del Toro movie. A few times during the movie I found myself saying “what the hell?!” not in a confusing way but more in an expression of disbelief. I was shocked when they showed a baby being killed, even though you never fully see Samuel die, you know he is dead.
The Witch should not be overlooked and I would love to see more horror movies take the approach this movie did. Take the time, develop the characters, create tension and suspense. You don’t need boatloads of gore and blood if the story is interesting. Why aren’t there more horror movies involving witches? We have enough movies focusing on demon possession, but rarely any on curses by witches, it seems to be an untapped wealth of content. I would recommend this to most horror fans, unless you don’t have the patience for a slow building movie. I really can’t give this movie anything less than an A-. I would rate it higher but I would have liked to see a little more of the witch and the coven.
