THE WITCH (R)

Released by A24 Films
Reviewed by Adam Mast

THE WITCH isn’t the kind of horror picture that’s interested in jolting you by way of the old “cat-jumping-on the window-sill” scare tactic. No, this frightening period piece is more along the lines of something like  THE BABADOOK.  Don’t misconstrue that statement. Story wise, THE WITCH and THE BABADOOK couldn’t be any more different from one another. So where’s the connection? It’s in the style and the subtext. Both films have an outer horror shell, but at their essence, they are really stories about a family in crisis. Granted, THE WITCH appears to dwell more in the realm of the actual horror genre than THE BABADOOK does and when you see it, you’ll understand why.

THE WITCH opens in New England, 1630 and centers around a Christian family struggling to survive after relocating to a farm just outside a dense forest following banishment from their previous community. With very little money and very few possessions to call their own, all this family really has is each other and even their unity is put to the test after an infant goes missing while under the supervision of  Thomasin (played by Anya Taylor-Joy.) Katherine (played by Kate Dickie) harbors resentment towards her teenage daughter after the disappearance of her youngest child while patriarch William (played by Ralph Ineson), believes there has to be a rational explanation. Meanwhile, pre-teen Caleb (played by Harvey Scrimshaw) is eager to help provide for his family under harsh conditions while precocious–bordering on obnoxious–young twins Jonas (Lucas Dawson) and Mercy (Ellie Grainger) spend their time trying to convince the rest of the family that Thomasin is actually a witch.

This creepy, atmospheric folktale is methodically paced but appropriately so. THE WITCH truly gets under your skin and writer/director Robert Eggers does a tremendous job building an ominous sense of dread. The comparisons to THE SHINING and other works of the great Stanley Kubrick are completely warranted as Eggers proves to be quite a master of tone.

The attention to detail…The pitch perfect performances…The authentic dialects… The atmospheric score…The profoundly unsettling images…A strange goat called Black Phillip…The creepy as hell ending… THE WITCH is a movie that sticks with you. And again, this isn’t a surface level, jump scare kind of a film. This one cuts much deeper.

At the heart of  THE WITCH is a tale of a man desperately trying (and in many cases, failing) to provide for his family. On a whole other level though, there are clearly things of a very sinister nature going on in this picture. Eggers opts to take the ambiguous route with certain aspects of the THE WITCH and that only aids in making for a horror show of the highest caliber.

Eggers is certainly a storyteller to keep your eye on. With THE WITCH, he’s created an unnerving cinematic experience that refuses to sacrifice character (if you’ll pardon the pun) for the sake of a processed scare. THE WITCH represents the most effective kind of horror: The kind of horror where the cat mysteriously vanishes without a trace before it even has a chance to jump on the window sill.