Review of The Witch (2016) by Jamie J — 08 Aug 2016

So...The Witch.

It really goes all in with the heavy puritan themes or religious fanaticism, to an impressively unsettling degree. You have a small family of religious outcasts (though I'm still not sure just why they are) trying to make a new home for themselves in the literal middle of nowhere, miles away from the nearest safe haven. And on a completely separate continent to their dear Britain.

Naturally a newborn child gets nabbed in front of their eldest daughter by what appears to be a relative of Red Riding Hood and shit hits the proverbial fan, with family members gradually losing the plot and turning on one another. Unsettling imagery aside, The Witch's main strength lies in the depiction of the family itself, absolutely unwavering in their religious devotion, when it is clearly being tested by a being that they cannot possibly conceive.

The Witch is certainly not a horror in the traditional sense, there are no jump scares to speak of, no creepy monsters, no pick axes flying through the screen in 3d. Just an underlying sense of dread and foreboding that's lasts near enough the whole run time. Being based off old puritan tales of witchcraft and devil worshipping gives it a massively old school feel, but never really feels scary.

That sense of dread you simply don't get in horror films these days, and for that it deserves praise. The Witch will divide audiences and opinions, and certainly won't scare the crap out of most people. But it sticks in the mind long afterward. That's more than can be said for a lot of films these days.