The Witch (2015)

The Witch is a deeply unsettling film. I just finished watching it, and I can already tell that it’s going to linger in my subconscious for a while… which is a good thing. (I love when “horror” flicks are able to get under my skin like that.) And I’m tempted to rate it very highly immediately — because it’s such a unique and terrifying look at witchcraft. But the movie movie is not without its flaws, so I’ll try not to get too carried away.

The film is about a family of Puritans in the New World (New England) roundabout 1630, who are banished from their town and forced to live by themselves in the wilderness. Almost immediately, the youngest member of the family — an infant boy — is stolen by a witch and killed. The family is torn apart by their own grief, suspicion, and distrust while the witch continues to assert her influence over them (via the farm animals, etc). The whole thing is done without any noticeable musical score, which is quite effective in my opinion, and the characters speak in authentic dialect (with a lot of “thy” and “thee” in their lingo). But there’s no denying that the plot, albeit extremely captivating, moves along at a drunken snail’s pace.

There are some profoundly creepy scenes and there is some very haunting imagery — and the stunning climax is haunting as hell. But you better have some serious patience to sit through this slow ride by writer/director Robert Eggers. He’s combined all the rich folklore regarding witches into one delicious hour and a half of horror, but it’s so stylized that I wouldn’t be surprised if he loses half of his viewers in the first 20 minutes. Personally, I’m really glad I stuck with it. I’ll probably have some pretty mind-warping nightmares tonight!

Three pot leafs out of five: