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THE WITCH

A COLONIAL FAMILY'S PARANOIA DESTROYS THEIR AMERICAN DREAM



★★★★★ (A Must-See)

Director: Robert Eggers

2015


Some time during the 1600s, a man argues with the religious council in charge of his town, and eventually chooses to take his young family away from the colony, into the far unknown. His arrogance and certainty that he knows God better than these men—and their insistence that they know God better than he does—sets us up for a horrifying American tale: The true story of our founding fathers, and how they lost touch with reality on behalf of their beliefs.


The Witch’s cinematography is as lush as a Flemish painting, but feels rustic ; we smell wood inside the newly built cabin, we feel wind drifting through conifer trees that hide creatures we know are watching. Due to excellence in everything from sound to acting to costume accuracy, The Witch is as close to a perfect film as I’ve ever seen. Many deride it, but these people want standard horror flicks, so the best advice I can give you is to go in thinking you’re about to see a historical drama—one that will disturb you long after the credits roll. I wasn't as gaga over Eggers’ other offering, The Lighthouse. I just didn’t connect to the story (you watch it for the stellar performances and technical aspects), but it’s the yin to The Witch’s yang. The Lighthouse is about the male experience under pressure—sexual frustration, father figures, and ego— while The Witch is the exact opposite; focusing instead on a girl coming of age, and her relationship within a family collapsing under great strain.



The movie guts you almost immediately. Not long after the family travels deep into the wilds of their new country and settle down at the edge of a vast woods, their infant son is murdered. It’s a wordless scene so shocking, you’ll gasp or look away. Few directors have the delicate touch to handle something so unthinkable, but Eggers presents it in clips, giving the viewer just enough to figure out what’s happening without actually seeing it. The death of this symbol of hope is the catalyst for all the events that follow.


Meanwhile, Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) is at a crossroads in her life. She’s a sweet girl who cares for her twin siblings and brother, but she’s also an easy target for her mother (Kate Dickie). Thomasin’s mother resents her presence and—now that the girl can bear children—irrationally believes the girl wants to take her place as matron of the family. Obviously insecure after losing her baby, the mother fixates on the way her husband (Ralph Ineson) dotes on the teen. This reminds me of a story my mother told me a long time ago about a friend, a woman, who had reached a certain age and confessed to having violent thoughts about teenage girls. There’s an unspoken mania that can come with being replaced in society or making way for younger versions, and Eggers’ script addresses this beautifully in the interactions between Thomasin and her mother.


Death soon returns to the isolated cabin in the woods, along with famine and misery. Paranoia is the focus of The Witch, not the witch herself. As something terrible stalks the farm, only God can be trusted, which makes everyone in the family a suspect; as they turn against one another, you can tell the story is building to something awful. Eggers scares you with quiet and what’s lurking just beyond the frame, but the most frightening aspect about this movie to me are the lengths humans go to justify their faith; how plainly obvious it is that religious hysteria can be genetic.


After the father’s pride proves destructive, The Witch explores what constitutes a woman’s worth. As food runs out, the parents consider selling Thomasin into servitude…but not the son, and in the end, Thomasin’s ultimate question to herself about her family’s divinity is the question most people have when considering their beliefs: What’s in it for me?






GENRES: Atmospheric, Feminist-Friendly, Psychological


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