The Witch Review

The Witch Review

Director Robert Eggers has magnificently brought you a realistic and visually stunning horror/period drama masterpiece. The story is set in 1630 New England and focuses around a Puritan family. William (Ralf Inosen) is excommunicated from a Christian Plantation along with his family wife Katherine (Kate Dickie), daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor- Joy), son Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) and twins Mercy (Ellie Grainger) and Jonas (Lucas Dawson) and are forced to live outside the commune. Together they begin a new life in a remote part of wooded landscape building a small house and barn and growing crops and keeping live stock mainly goats. Soon things take a turn to the dark side when New Born Baby Samuel goes missing after a game of peak a boo with sister Thomasin. Fear of the cause of disappearance soon causes confusion and paranoia and the family start fear that supernatural causes could have happened in the form of Witchcraft. The film is full of suspense and paranoia yet the audience already has an idea of what has happened to poor Samuel and you can only worry for the family as things start to unfold. Eggers perfectly captures the authenticity of Puritan family around that time in history and the Religious context is spot on. The picture's cinematography is particularly haunting focusing on what is lurking in the woods, accompanied by some brilliantly 'out of tune' violin score to add to the tension. Even though I knew what was in the woods I was surprised by the dark turn and mysterious messages behind some of the chilling imagery and came out of the cinema thinking “what did I just witness”. Although Witches are nothing new when put in the right context and surroundings they can be very scary. Some of the Legend of Witches was correctly portrayed in this film; this was interesting and has not been Properly explored in full detail before. Witch antics such as baby snatching, flying, broomsticks, shape shifting and most importantly their anti Christ beliefs are dramatically displayed. The devil is the orchestrator for the witches in the woods and is presented brilliantly in the form of a goat named Black Phillip. Without spoiling the ending this film is defiantly worth a watch for both historians and horror lovers alike but if you like gory slasher horror this is not for you.

5 stars