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The Witch

11/11/2016

19 Comments

 

B
​2.89

A Puritan family is banished to the woods.  A witch lived there first.

Directed by Robert Eggers
Starring Anna Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, and Kate Dickie
​Initial Review by Jon Kissel

Picture
​One of the worst scoring 2016 films on the exit-polling site CinemaScore, Robert Eggers' The Witch deserves far better than that ignominious footnote.  The usually-schlocky horror genre spits out a lot of duds, but there's always a handful each year that break out, shedding the tenuous compliment of being a good horror movie and simply being a great film.  The Witch joins compatriots like The Babadook, Goodnight, Mommy, and It Follows as another horror entry that is far more than jump scares and musical stings but gets at a primal fear in a dramatically compelling way.  Why that so agitated those who graded The Witch for CinemaScore is a complete mystery.

Taking place in 17th century colonial New England, Eggers goes the Mel Gibson route and strives to make the setting and language as true to the period as possible.  That means an Old English vernacular, detailed set design, and the use of natural light as much as possible.  The language ramps up the fire-and-brimstone aspect of every pronouncement, and the design and lighting make it easy to immerse oneself into the film.  As vital as these advantages are, Eggers clearly did  his homework on the most vital part of his film, which is recreating the Puritan worldview in his characters.  The harsh setting and environment match the harshness of the religion.  These people view the devil as a real entity, and one that is trying in every second to enter a body and bend it to his will.  To make the devil's job easier, man's natural state is viewed as not just vulnerable to the devil, but in concert with him, such that great effort must be made to keep him at bay.  That effort must always be maintained, because life is only a way station to an eternity where a person can finally exhale, provided they did everything right in their brief time on earth.  The resulting constant state of suspicion means that nothing is a coincidence, and if a cause cannot be divined, then it must be the devil.
​ 
The result of all this historical immersion is a transporting experience from frame one.  William's (Ralph Ineson) family is being expelled from a settlement for taking a position to the right of the already-stringent religious leaders.  Eggers films this sequence from the perspective of William's oldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), with her looking at the torsos of her leaders as they decide hers and her family's fates.  In a film laden with several shocking, resonant images, The Witch gets the most stress-inducing one out of the way early.  Barely five minutes into the film, the family has packed their wagon and venture out from the settlement into the vast, unknowable wilderness, with the wagon getting smaller as it leaves the previously-friendly gates into territory less hostile than utterly indifferent, to paraphrase Kubrcik.  The family of seven eventually find a plot to develop, but for all his piety, William is not the best farmer or hunter, and the family suffers.  Their most acute suffering awaits them, however, as it becomes clear very early in the film that all of the family's worst fears are real: there is a witch in the woods, and she knows they are there.

The external threat of the witch is personified quickly by Eggers, but the more unnerving aspects of his film is the way the family looks internally for corruption as well.  William is shown to be a good father to his children, but he lives in a world where the bonds of family are not as strong as the bonds the devil can put on anyone.  Eggers' script doesn't judge the characters, but he does judge the worldview, and he takes its worst excesses to their logical conclusion.  That means none of the children, including the infant, are safe from the devil's corrupting influence, as Eggers sheds movie conventions as far as who is fair game in a horror film and who is not.  It's as effective a method as any to put the viewer in a Puritan space.  The characters can be obsessed with spiritual harm while the viewer can just focus on the physical variety. 

The other side of this coin is a potential alternate film, where the family isn't threatened by an actual witch but their certainty that someone in their family has been corrupted.  That alternative is one that would have to take swipes at the characters and damage the audience's buy-in, and one of Eggers' main priorities seems to be to treat his characters with as much respect as possible.  The version of The Witch that is supernatural and validating Puritan fears walks the narrow path between shock that people lived like this, and empathy for them, too.

Whenever a director gives their actors, especially child actors, difficult language, it can be hit-or-miss, and The Witch adheres to that rule.  Ineson and Kate Dickie, who plays the mother, take to the verbiage with no issues, and Ineson seems born to play this role.  Taylor-Joy is also exceptional in the lead.  Eggers spends a lot of time on just her face, and she's unafraid and capable of carrying the film.  The younger actors all have a harder time, as expected, but it's never more than deserving of an eyebrow-raise.  The potential break-out star of the film is a large goat named Black Phillip, who should get an Uggie-level of publicity out of The Witch.  Large goats are already evocative of satanic imagery, and Eggers discovered one that matches anything found in a Hot Topic. 

In a film driven by religion, The Witch chooses the Old Testament over the New.  Eggers pulls no punches in his film, and a percentage of those angry CinemaScore respondents may have been driven away in the first 10 minutes, as The Witch toes a taboo line and then walks right over it.  While not conventionally scary, it is without a doubt a film that puts the viewer off their comfort zone.  Between the language, framing, score, and tone of the story, The Witch is a complete package designed to unnerve.  In his debut, Eggers has crafted a modern horror classic, or maybe just a modern classic.  A-
19 Comments
Lane
11/11/2016 11:35:53 pm

Great initial review by Jon.

This was my second viewing of “The Witch” and I couldn’t help but remember the opening paragraph of Dr. David Hall’s seminal work on New England religion in the 17th century:

“…religion was embedded in the fabric of everyday life. It colored how you thought about your children and your parents. It entered into perceptions of community, and of the world that lay beyond New England. Religion achieved system in the tight order of the catechism (think William drilling his son on doctrine while in a walk in the woods). Yet in the flow of experience it was partial, ambiguous, and even contradictory. Empowering with its gifts of spiritual renewal, it could also result in dark feelings of unworthiness. It added to the fearfulness of life, even as it reassured the faithful of God’s providence.” – David Hall, “Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgement,” 1989.

I loved “The Witch” because it captured what it must have felt like to live in this era—the joy and blessing of children coupled with the desperation of how to feed them; the promise of abundance on new land with the harshness of farming and hunting; and the fervent devotion to the ultimate good while, all the time, evil strips away dignity and sanity.

Most horror movies are meant to be fun—to be our millennial bread and circus (as noted in a previous review). But there is the occasional horror pic that asks us to think deeper and starts to mess with our metaphysical understanding of the world. Our last few horror picks have all floated at the entertainment level. But “The Witch” is brilliant in that it gets down into the weeds.

It’s a movie that teases our rational belief. When Samuel, the baby disappears, we’re given the hint that he was stolen by a witch, followed by a gruesome baby grinding body paint ritual (Ashli-try that face painting at a fair sometime), but even then we’re not sure if this is real or just some sick-o stealing babies in the woods. Or maybe just a dream or Puritan fantasy.

Then we get Caleb getting his first tongue kiss by a WILF (Witch I’d Like to Fuck) before showing up naked back at the homestead—could have been real, or could have been a bad trip after brewing some tea with the wrong weed from the garden. Who knows. We wonder, until he’s got a 104 fever and he spits a rotten apple up from his insides. Then things seem pretty real.

All of this is to say that what Eggers plays brilliantly with here is the tension between real and make-believe. This is the very tension that makes all horror stories and films work, whether told four hundred years ago or down the street in the multi-plex.

The latest and greatest theory on secularization comes from the philosopher Charles Taylor who argues that secularization shouldn’t be looked at in terms of whether people go to Church or not, but whether they believe in the enchantment of the world. As an example, Taylor asked his class at McGill University if they believe in God and a spiritual realm. ¾’s said they did not. He then passed around a paper and asked all student to stand up, raise their right hand, and say the pledge written on the paper. The pledge happened to be a statement where the proclaimer promised to worship, honor, and pledge their lives to Satan, Prince of the Dark Realm. Only 3% of the class agreed to say the pledge.

Taylor’s experiment proves that while we may not be an outwardly, organized religious society anymore, we are still, largely, an enchanted society. And the enchantment is what both motivates us and scares us. Eggers’ “The Witch” taps into that enchantment in a way that very few horror films do.

I’ll lay my cards on the table and say that I believe in spiritual realms other than our own. If you’re gonna take the Bible seriously, you’ve got to take demons and possession and shit like that seriously. I don’t necessarily believe in witches or talking goats, per se, but I do believe in the evil that causes a family to lose its collective mind on the frontier. I see people every week that lose their minds in ways just as terrible and I’ve no explanation for it. For me, what makes “The Witch” scary is that I see that type of evil happening just a few blocks from where I live.

Some real plusses for the film: I loved the brevity—it felt like a tight short story. And I was amazed in the second viewing of how much of the story was told in the first 2 minutes with very little dialogue. Amazing.

My initial viewing had me at a B, but after watching again I think I can safely move this in the A- category. Well deserved recognition for this film.

A-

Reply
Drew
11/12/2016 12:20:56 am

The Witch was, by and large, a lame attempt at profiling an aspect of colonial New England. Robert Eggers chronicled a family's exile from civilization to the countryside and the family's ability to thrive in a new environment. The family tried its best but crumbled not because of the father's failure to provide but due to its obsession with the supernatural.

The family's faith in God was its foundation and motivation for daily living and when it was rocked by the witch, the foundation shook, cracked, and fell apart.

Eggers lost points with the lackluster storytelling. The witch was a ghost haunting the family and the things "it was doing" was ridiculous. The goat's "fight" with the father was flat out stupid. Why? It was possessed and the father could not manage a way to fight it? Seriously? It was reminiscent of Chucky terrorizing his victims. It was a doll, kick it! Goats are vicious fighters, yes, but when one gather's his/her sense, especially when one lives around them, rationality wins out. It was a complete eye roll sequence.

Another thing, were the twins faking their story? What was their role in the film other than being jerks? Finally, did the "spirit" kill them?

What in the world was the point of the ending? No point? Well done.

While the historical dress and lexicon were correct, it deserved no praise. It was a story in the 17th century. Getting that right was expected and Eggers deserved no extra credit. Even if he did, it was minuscule with the looming problems he cared little to address.

All in all, this was a disappointment. It deserved no great praise because it did nothing great. It had some potential to be OK but could not achieve that status.

Grade: D+

Reply
Bryan
11/13/2016 10:00:41 am

I disagree with the sentiment that the family's faith in God was shaken. Their faith produced the fear of evil. Both their faith and fear rang true throughout.

Reply
Shane
11/14/2016 11:55:19 am

Hard to call it an obsession gone awry when there's actually a god damn witch terrorizing them. If anything, they didn't worry enough about a witch attack.

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Bobby
11/20/2016 05:18:10 pm

Black Phillip's first attack was a surprise.. and gutted him pretty good. While, he may have had the will to fight the goat after that, picking up the ax, his body wasn't as willing after the wound. It wasn't so much of a fight as Black Phillip simply killing him rather quickly... can't really fault the father on that one (beyond not just going out and chopping the goat's head off when the children first talked about him being the devil)

I think the ending was to show his true focus, on gaining another witch for the coven... and everything up to that point was essentially getting Thomasin to freely give herself to them

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Bryan
11/12/2016 05:31:42 pm

Phone review!

I've taken to the Lore podcast which in short is short stories like "The Witch." Some Lore podcasts are an A, some are a low C or high D. This podcast has helped me better appreciate and understand fables like The Witch.

Two good things, and one bad.
I appreciate the literal view of how the Puritans would have related to an actual witch. The scene of the boy getting sick was awesome - religion, parenthood, kids making shit up, and folklore all wrapped up in one.

A big downer for this and many of our recent movies is the score. Seemingly constant background screeching.

I'm at a shockingly high grade from what I would have guessed. B.

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Bryan
11/12/2016 06:26:18 pm

Also. If it hasn't already been done. I nominate that goat for The Dingo Award. He already has to be even odds.

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Sean
11/12/2016 06:20:25 pm

Brief initial here during high school football halftime to answer Jons question about the low cinema score. That is an exit poll which for a movie often relates to the audiences expectations. The Witch is not a traditional horror movie as expected and instead is a character study built on puritan values amid supernatural fears. Too intellectual for most horror fans.
To be continued

Reply
Phil
11/14/2016 08:39:32 am

I'm going to be brief as Jon & Lane already did an excellent job of going through the historical/cultural context here. Just personally, this was a bit of "in one eye/out the other" for me. I'm a bit in the same place here as I was with "The Revenant." It's beautifully made & the performances are mostly spot on (I agree that Ralph Ineson was born to play William). The score does an exquisite job of building the tension and overall dread that these people are doomed. I loved the cinematography as there were several beautiful shots. There was great use of imagery such as the black goat and the brown rabbit.

But ultimately... This actually felt like "Antichrist" to me, a personal, uh, "touchstone" I like to bring up. There's something deeper here about the nature of man, but it just doesn't click with me. It seems like the material was likely adapted from a very short folk-tale, but the fleshing out of that just wasn't there for me.

I'm glad I watched "The Witch," but beyond some technical aspects and some better understanding of the puritan beliefs, I don't think I got much out of it. It scores above "meh" for being well-made and featuring characters that are believable, but that's it.

Grade: C+

Reply
Shane
11/14/2016 11:53:01 am

The Witch is a horror movie for people that don’t like their horror movies full of mysticism and magic. It focuses on trying to be authentic to the era. The speech pattern and the dire nature of life in early America. Ultimately, the realism is the interesting part, but the actual mystic part of the movie renders the realism pointless. There is a way to walk the line between being authentic and fiction, but I don’t believe that line was walked here. The movie builds up the tension but never gives us a proper climax and ends with a whimper.
This movie was visually a pleasure to watch and I’m very happy that Jon had this on Blu-Ray. I’ll give it a little bump for this alone.
As good as the visuals were, the audio drove me nuts. The score was wayyyyy too loud compared to the dialogue. Good bye visuals bonus.
The casting was fantastic. Crazy mom and dad were frightening and the kids all gave very competent performances.
I wish this movie hadn’t ended like it did. The flying witch stuff was just too silly when compared to the seriousness and realism of the rest of the movie. I’d recommend it to most people I think.

B-

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Sean
11/14/2016 12:25:14 pm

And now for my short review.

+Kept my attention
+Great performances by parents
+Very Good performance by oldest daughter
+Son's deathbed possession/prayer was outstanding

-Despite keeping my attention it was kinda boring, I think the score/performances outweighed the story in doing that for me


Question to pose hopefully someone wants to answer- was the witch of the wood picking family members 1 by 1 as an effort to distance the daughter from the family to recruit her or did she have some of her own wickedness in her and the course of events only exposed those and brought her to the coven where she belonged?


B
Get's a bump through holding attention, performance, and making me ponder my question. Not entertaining enough for A land.

Reply
Shane
11/15/2016 11:55:39 am

The lack of understanding anything about the Witch and whatnot was bothersome to me. Like, wtf.

Reply
Bryan
11/15/2016 01:44:58 pm

Does religion really try to understand what they don't understand?

Bobby
11/20/2016 05:10:40 pm

I think so, but when they can't, it can be simply chalked up to their deity's will.

Bobby
11/20/2016 05:12:44 pm

To answer your question...

That's the conclusion I came to.. that Thomasin was the focus/target, and the family was simply the means to get her

Reply
Blair
11/16/2016 05:11:11 pm

I was skeptical of if I could handle this movie. I'm not into scary movies and anything with babies or children being hurt. But because of my curiosity of how Puritan religion was depicted, I watched.

...and I wasn't disappointed. The movie opens with a man speaking for his family presumably in front of the town religious leaders. They offer him grace to stay, but he refuses and takes his family into the harsh land on the cusp of the wood. We learn early on that there are actual witches and they are powerful.

What was so fascinating to me was this family's understanding of God and how that shaped they way the treated and judged one another. There is no grace, no love, and no forgiveness in their home or in their religion. God is punitive and seemingly silent.

I think that if the film is going to go all in on the supernatural- goats speaking, demons possessing little boys and filling their mouths with apples, etc then I would have liked to have seen some counterpart of good. The only power we see is that when the oldest son is possessed he mocks Scripture. While he is mocking it, I still think it gives the Bible some power because evil knows the words. Jon suggested that God is in the community and maybe that is where power/safety/grace is. I buy that. I just wish we'd seen some of it at all.

I thought it was really interesting how the family turned on one another and as we discussed in the podcast, there could/is another movie where the witch isn't actually real but the outcome is the same. That may be more interesting of a movie.

Grade: A-

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Bryan
11/18/2016 02:30:56 pm

Blair,

From listening to your podcast talk, I can't help but think you'd enjoy some of the Lore podcast.

I don't know much about the history of religion, but where was the good in early Christianity or Puritanism? The church and nowhere else?

Reply
Bobby
11/20/2016 02:36:02 pm

I somehow didn't have The VVitch on my radar, but was excited to watch... so, I drew a bath, tossed in a Pokemon bath bomb, turned off all the lights, and hit play... what other way to watch a good horror flick?

Eggers does an incredible job of bringing us into the time period... the look, sound, and feel of everything kept the environment real, which was a huge part of the film's success for me. The mood was vital, with such a confined space and story, and Eggers did a great job with each frame and direction.

I thought the acting was great, overall. Sure, child actors rarely shine... but nothing about them was bad enough to be distracting for me. Kate Dickie, Ralph Ineson, and Anya Taylor-Joy were all fantastic, and I expect to see their names around the nominations come Mediocrity time

Really though, this was all about the Folktale, as we see a devout family struggle with the evil of witchcraft among their family. It was really interesting to see how they lived and believed... and to see how they reacted to even the slightest hint of evil... especially when the children started blaming each other.

The scenes in the woods were tense, and those around the farm were intense. The deliberate creepy shots were well balanced and used just enough to keep us on edge. While it was interested to see where the power came from, I wish there was a little bit more of that... and Black Phillip's purpose beyond gathering followers for the Coven. I suppose that's all there needs to be, and the film wasn't about that... I just would have found it interesting to see or hear more about it throughout.

B+

Reply
Cooker
11/21/2016 11:28:37 am

So, this is a movie about a girl who weighs the same as a duck and is made of wood.

First, some initial comments…

I’m disappointed the villagers aren’t individually spitting on the family members as they’re being banished; see the original “Douche and Turd” episode of South Park.

Man, Gollum really gained some weight.

Is the brother checking out his sister? Are we going all Flowers in the Attic here?

This would’ve made for an interesting episode of Little House on the Prairie

Was there house already there? If not, who built it? Just the father and the son?

Evil rabbit. Run away! Run away!

Black goat for best pet award.

Most of the dialogue comes from the time period. You think so?

After scrolling through the reviews already posted, I feel like my reactions compare most with Riley’s. The Witch kept my attention, but it didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat. I liked that it had a story and characters.

Was the daughter’s story about being a witch to the twins the truth or to shut them up? Were the twins evil because they had conversations with the goat? Was the goat evil? Who made a deal with the devil? Someone’s evil, but who, and who’s going to frame them for being evil? It was one of those movies, and I was slightly disappointed with the conclusion. It worked, but after sticking with it I wanted more.

I had rented a copy from the library and the DVD included a Q&A session from an event with some of the cast and director. It praised the authenticity and historical elements of wardrobe and accents, etc. While good, I did have a little trouble understanding the older son with his accent. Better than the last movie watched. Going B on this one.

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