Review: 'The Witch' Is Scary Fun

John Allegretti ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

To most people New England is the creepiest part of America. Get away from the coastal areas and you’ll encounter miles of dark woods with the occasional small town. So it’s no surprise that a fair share of horror films have been set in New England. There’s Carrie, The Haunting in Connecticut, The Conjuring, and now The Witch.
Advertised as a New England Folktale, The Witch is a slow-burn horror movie about the nature of evil and illusions. Produced by Harry Potter director Chris Columbus, the film is anything but a light hearted fantasy adventure. The Witch follows a family who has been exiled from the local Puritan community. Settling on the edge of the creepiest forest you’ve ever seen, the family tries to get enough food for the winter while praying to God in their spare time. When the youngest son goes missing on the edge of the forest, suspicion is placed on the oldest daughter. The film eventually turns into a game of finger pointing but then becomes an examination of evil. I won’t give anything away, but what The Witch does with this theme is both frightening and thought-provoking.

The Witch will certainly be remembered for Anya Taylor-Joy‘s breakout role as the oldest daughter, Thomasin. Taylor-Joy is an actress who holds her own (and even steals scenes) with veteran actors like Ralph Ineson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and Kate Dickie (Game of Thrones). She’s able to ride the line between sympathetic and suspicious throughout the film (something very hard to do) and I’m excited to see what she does in upcoming films like Morgan and Split.
The Witch is also the directorial debut of Robert Eggers, a guy who understands that character, atmosphere, and music are what make a truly great horror film. The scariest scenes in the film come from family conversations that always feel one step away from turning violent. Jarin Blaschke uses natural light and the occasional candle-lit scene to amp up the tension, and the soundtrack by Mark Korven is just creepy on its own. One theme the film follows to a fault is the idea of illusions. Glance at the movie’s poster and you’ll see that the “W” in “Witch” is actually two “V”s. Throughout the film Eggers toys with the idea of reality as the characters encounter manifestations of their wishes and desires. These illusions force the viewer to question if some of the film’s scenes even happened. Then Eggers ends the movie with a sequence that punches us in the gut and thematically ties up the film in the most genius way possible.
On a closing note, it was incredibly nice to watch a film set in rural New England. The Witch did such an excellent job of capturing the forests and mountains of a place we rarely get to see in movies. When the credits started to roll, it was surprising to see that The Witch was actually filmed in Ontario, Canada. The beautiful locations of New England were just another illusion conjured by Eggers.
Grade: B+
Watch The Trailer: [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQXmlf3Sefg[/embedyt]