This review comes rather late as was lucky to catch an early screening of The Witch at the excellent Mayhem Horror festival in Nottingham last year. It was a real coup for the festival and the crowd were excited to be getting an early preview of the most talked about horror film of the year. The Witch premiered at the Sundance Festival last year to rave reviews.
The Witch follows the lives of a puritan family banished from their village, forging a new life in the New England wilderness. Eldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) is looking after her baby brother and during a game of Peekaboo he is taken into the woods and something terrible happens. As a result Thomasin comes under the scrutiny of her family who are already feeling the pressure of their self-imposed isolation. Whisperings of Devil worship and Witchcraft start to tear the family apart as paranoia and fear take hold.
So is The Witch as scary as the early reviews made out? I was surprised I didn’t find it particularly scary. Ultimately it suffers from the similar scare- hype as It Follows and The Babadook. This is not a bad thing just a note to take the marketing with a pinch of salt. The Witch is still one of the best and most unnerving horror films you’ll see all year.
The cast are all excellent. Kate Dickie and Ralph Ineson make a formidable pair as parents Katherine and William. Their unquestioning dedication to their beliefs is completely believable. An early scene when they gaze at the awaiting woods with fixed grins on their faces is chilling. The Devil may be scary but Protestant extremists are even more terrifying. The score is excellent, eerie strings and vocals are striking and unnerving. The dialogue is authentic having been taken from diaries kept at the time (early 1600’s). As the family unravels the sense of claustrophobia is brilliant. The sense that something terrible is going to happen is twisted like a corkscrew and feels very intense. The film is written and directed by Robert Eggers
The Witch is my favourite horror of the last year so far. It may not be the scariest but I urge you to give this slow burn classic a chance. It’s refreshing to see a film like this getting made and getting so much publicity. It may not inspire a slew of creepy period drama copy-cats but The Witch is an atmospheric and disturbing fairy tale that will stay with you long after viewing and probably make you a little more suspicious of goats.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Unnerving and atmospheric period drama that chills.
