Review of The Witch (2016) by Ginak — 22 Feb 2016

The Witch realistically recreates the paranoia that can come of living alone in a forest, separated from the support of a community, when things start to go wrong and spiral out of control. This dark film is both gripping and devastating because you know what is going to happen and can see no way out of its inevitable outcome.

You hope for a savior and yet you also know that none is coming. Is it a horror film? Definitely and perhaps more devastating than most because Robert Eggers, the writer and director, takes the type of story we have read and seen many times before and makes it utterly real.

It is also an indictment of the type of religious belief that makes people, who are proud, independent, afraid, and starving, show no compassion but think the worst of each other, even their own children.

This is a very powerful film that is in many ways an indictment of and explanation for the callous and rigid religious fanaticism that America was founded on. I have only one criticism – in his pursuit of mood and realism, Eggers let the actors slur their words, confusing the audience about what exactly is going on more than necessary.

The director only got away with this because we are probably as familiar with the tales of witchcraft in colonial New England as we are with Jack the Ripper.