Review of The Witch (2016) by Andy B — 12 Aug 2016

The VVitch (Witch?) is another welcome addition to the new generation of postmodern horror, to be filed among other recent minimalist treasures like "It Follows". It could've been titled and marketed more appropriately to avoid attracting the wrong audience and set it apart as the deeply unsettling, very unconventional work of art that it is.

Many thousands of teens with limited patience or frame-of-reference & horror fan-dom types have been led into theaters expecting the usual scare traps n' tropes- but this will only be fully appreciated by viewers whose imaginations can fill in the perfectly timed long stares without dialogue, seeing a character's silent reaction to the thing too horrible to be rendered in CG.

.. If you're able to process such abstract things, you'll see one of the scariest films ever made. If not, I feel bad for any fan of horror who is unable to experience this level of sublime, intense creepiness.

Reading some critics' misguided interpretation of what they believe is some specific religious/ moral sentiment (or by many others, having anti-religious undertones) reveals the other side of "missing it" by viewing it through a self-imposed pinhole desperately scanning for some kind of familiar theme or formula that must be identified and filtered through before anything can be enjoyed.

This isn't for everyone. If you're not everyone, prepare for blighted, gritty, dirty, uncompromising horror show.