Review: THE WITCH

THE WITCH 
(HORROR/MYSTERY-THRILLER) 

3 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Robert Eggers
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson, Bathsheba Garnett, Sarah Stephens, Julian Richings
Rated R for disturbing violent content and graphic nudity.
93 minutes
Verdict: Thoughtful and low-key, THE WITCH is a smart, intimate, and deeply disturbing horror movie that makes you wait for the good stuff, but leaves you with a lot.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN THE WITCH IF YOU LIKED:
THE CONJURING  (2013)
BLACK DEATH  (2010)
IT FOLLOWS  (2014)
THE CRUCIBLE  (1996)
SLEEPY HOLLOW  (1999)

I've long held a morbid fascination with the history of "witches" and witch-hunting, especially in the context of 17th-century New England and the Puritans.  It's a chilling example of social phenomenons that we still occasionally see examples of today, but amplified to an extreme where lives are destroyed, and all with the pageantry of Biblical superstition at the edge of the wilderness.  Robert Eggers' 2015 Sundance hit THE WITCH, finally arriving in theaters nationwide this weekend, is accompanied by the subtitle, A New England Folktale.  Although it is an original story and not based on any one specific folktale, Eggers' script cobbles together accounts and dialogues from 17-century journals and transcripts, as noted in the end titles, and acts as a folktale itself, fully embracing the actuality of witches as part of the events from early on.  THE WITCH strives to take perceptions of witches back to the frightening reality that they were thought to be in that time and place.  The non-historical, fantastical elements amplify the sense of reality in the story by showing it as the Puritans themselves would have seen it, complimenting the well-researched detail in the portrayal of the Puritan culture and mindset.

As the film opens, a family led by the father, William (Ralph Ineson), with mother Katherine (Kate Dickie), their eldest teenage daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), a preteen son, Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), and young twin children Mercy (Ellie Grainger) and Jonas (Lucas Dawson), are cast out of their Puritan community in 17th-century New England for an unspecified religious conflict with the plantation's authorities.  Isolated at the edge of the ominous woodlands, they start a new life and welcome a new addition, Samuel, but one day as Thomasin is watching the infant, he mysteriously vanishes, taken by an unseen abductor.  Then, the crops on which they rely begin to fail, leaving them with no food for the winter.
The movie unfolds quietly, but not necessarily slowly, combining history and folklore in a story of a family torn apart from within and from without.  It's beautifully crafted, with intimate drama at the heart of its horror.  As part of their particular religious understanding, William, Katherine, Thomasin and Caleb live under the constant, looming threat of eternal damnation, with their only hope of escaping such a fate lying in fervent prayer, while their "corrupt" human natures in perpetual opposition.  The loss of an infant is compounded with the fear that the child's soul has not been saved, and every act of misfortune is accompanied by a connotation of God's disapproval.  And yet, as interesting as the religious and social commentaries are, the film's dour, low-key style sometimes keeps it at a distance, or at least prevents it from sinking in quite as deeply as it could.  When it all comes to a point in its final moments however, THE WITCH packs an impressive punch and suddenly exploded into being as everything I could have hoped for, dark and terrifying and even awe-inspiring in its portrayal of Biblical evil.  It isn't always the most entertaining fare, but it leaves you with a lot.

Images via A24