Review of The Witch (2016) by Anthony K — 09 Feb 2017

A24 has become my favorite movie distributor. Not all of the properties they pick up have the same level of quality - although they are responsible for Oscar darling Moonlight and the delightfully idiosyncratic The Lobster - but they never want for creativity. Scrolling through their film catalogue is a similar experience to skimming a moody photographer's Instagram profile. It's curated for a certain sensibility, a box of independent movies for the streaming generation. I've never watched a movie of theirs that I didn't at least appreciate.

The Witch continues A24's tradition of hunting the odd and the quietly creative. Writer-director Robert Eggers starts with what is essentially the outline for The Blair Witch Project but gives it a unique flair. He sets it against the backdrop of colonial New England, complete with almost-impenetrable period dialects. Eggers uses his expertise as a production designer to great advantage here. Every visual tick is so steeped in a grim colonial aesthetic that you can practically feel the heat drain from your fingers and toes. Egger's director of photography Jarin Blaschke even went so far as to use as much natural light as possible and shoot at a 1.66:1 aspect ratio (as opposed to the typical 1.85:1 or 2.35:1) to give it a more "timeless" feel. On its visual presentation alone, The Witch creates a consuming unease that persists from the first to last frame.

The story itself almost becomes inconsequential to the aesthetic. A family cast out of a colony for religious differences find themselves battling starvation and striving to keep their faith while beset upon by an unknown (and possibly imaginary) evil in the nearby woods. It's a very, very slow burn, but worth it for effectively it will churn your stomach.

A lot of credit goes to newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy as the eldest daughter of this brood. Her slow breakdown and grapple with faith is the most tangible thing on screen. But as the shroud falls over her and her struggling family, we're never quite sure whether we can trust her or not. Notching this alongside her gripping performance in Split, Taylor-Joy has had quite the breakout year.

The Witch isn't a movie for horror fans who demand jump scares and buckets of gore. It is, however, a piece of intricately crafted Gothic art, as old fashioned as it gets and worth every minute. 7.8/10.