"A nightmarish fairytale"
Robert Eggers "The Witch" is as genuinely terrifying as it is beautifully shot, masterfully acted and well written. A prime example of what a good horror movie should look and feel like!
The story it set in 1930s New England where we meet the deeply religious farmer William (Ralph Ineson), his wife Katherine (Kate Dickie) and their five children as they are banished from the small puritan settlement they live in. William and his family move out to a small piece of land close to a vast dark forest. There they set up a small farm and begin a new life.
One day as they all are tending to their everyday chores around the farm, their newborn son Samuel suddenly disappears during strange circumstances, while being looked after by the eldest daughter Thomasin (Anna Taylor-Joy). This is the starting point of a series of events that gradually begin to set off a growing panic and fear within the family.
As the family they begin to turn on each other trying to find someone to blame for the misfortune that has befallen them – they fail to realize that there are darker forces at work who seek to harm them.
"The Witch" (2015) was director Robert Eggers feature film debut and the film that really set off his career. Since then, Eggers has delivered heavy hitters like “The Lighthouse” (2019) and “The Northman” (2022) – which I strongly recommend you to check out if you haven’t yet.
As a child I was always very intrigued by dark fairytales and I remember that I always begged my parents to tell me bedtime stories of scary witches in the dark woods or to read me the stories by the Grimm brothers over and over - so I knew that “The Witch” was something right up my alley when I first heard of it.
The film has a cold, nightmarish and a somewhat dark fairytale-like feel to it. It's a solid mix between horror, drama, fantasy and thriller. To me the most interesting thing about it was how effectively Eggers manages to draw you into the feeling of growing paranoia fear and hopelessness felt within the family as tragedy and misfortune befall them.
"The Witch" It's a slow burner with a heavy, dark and moody atmosphere looming over it that and gradually intensifies towards a finale that you won’t soon be forgetting about.
“The Witch '' is also one of those horror movies that leaves a lot of the actual horrors to the creative minds of its audience, and that is something I absolutely love. You will find that this combined with the chilling tunes of Mark Korven's haunting soundtrack for the film, will get your mind to cook up some really, really heavy nightmare material for many sleepless nights.
The visual style and the cinematography are stunning and filled with frightening symbolism that contributes strongly to the tense and dark atmosphere of the film. It's actually shot mostly using only natural light and It's clear that both Eggers and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, drew some inspiration from works of painter Francisco de Goya whose works I would greatly recommend you to look up if you liked the overall visual style of "The Witch".
Personally, I feel that "The Witch" sets an example of what a really good and effective horror movie should look and feel like. The acting is brilliant on all ends and the characters are interesting and portrayed in a way that gives the audience a strong emotional connection to them and to what happens to them throughout the film.
Robert Eggers is currently working on his next feature which I just can’t wait to see - a new adaptation of F.W. Murnau’s horror classic from 1922 – “Nosferatu” - starring Bill Skarsgård, Anna Taylor-Joy and Willem Dafoe among others.
I’ll wrap this up by saying that after seeing “The Witch”, the forest is probably not a place I will be visiting anytime soon.
Title: The VVitch: A New-England Folktale
Release date: January 23, 2015
Runtime: 1h 32 min
Genre: Horror, Drama, Thriller
Country: United States, Canada, United Kingdom
Director: Robert Eggers
Writers: Robert Eggers
Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson , Kate Dickie, Julian Richings
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