An evil presence casts a scary shadow over a family and their land through frightening happenings, in “The Witch”. Set in 1630 New England, Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer (Ralph Ineson) leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife (Kate Dickie) and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest, within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately. Animals turn malevolent, crops fail, and one child disappears as another becomes seemingly possessed by an evil spirit. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, family members accuse teenage daughter Thomasin of witchcraft, charges she adamantly denies. As circumstances grow more treacherous, each family member’s faith, loyalty and love become tested in shocking and unforgettable ways that will change them forever. “The Witch” won the Best Director prize to Robert Eggers at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and is rated R for disturbing violent content and graphic nudity.
There are some films that deliver when it comes to psychological horror. These are the ones that leave you searching in the darkness of your home for the kinds of tricks that you mind plays on you. Then there are the films that disappoint completely, and you can’t understand why those films are getting the positive reviews that they are garnering. “The Witch” lands somewhere in between this scheme. While nothing in the movie frightened me to the point of noteworthy praise, A lot of the film’s shrieking content deals with traumatizing cause-and-effect when it comes to death and how a family relates to it. Eggers breaks through with a directoral effort that shows a lot went into the essential details for this period piece. The paranoia of witches and their practices was very much fact with the kinds of fears that many men and women were dealing with. Eggers tugs at these strings effortlessly, and casts a dark spell creatively in terms of delivery that is unlike anything we have seen in years.
To say this is a horror movie is very misleading. There isn’t much blood or gore in the film, and the real terror comes from this family who have hit a lucky patch after breaking out on their own, and the ways they are quickly turning against each other when a tragic event curses them. The film’s first act starts out mind-numbingly slow, and for most of the movie the pacing stays at about this range. If you find it hard to dedicate yourself to a slow film, you will have trouble with this one. The film’s second and third acts pack more of a punch, but the film is laced in incoherrent dialogue due to the thick English accents of the main cast. There were several times in the film where I missed scenes of dialogue, so I feel that this movie would be better at home at a higher volume……and subtitles.
The film’s dark and haunting ominous tones set the tone musically for the kind of level emotionally that this film wants you at. Brilliantly composed by Matt Korven, the movie uses orchestral horns and violins to really jolt the audience and commands their attention for the forbidden secrets of such a forest. It’s really a one-two punch when presented with cinematographer Jarin Blaschke’s colorless cinematography. That’s not to insult Jarin’s look for the film, quite the opposite really. Blaschke is faithful in detail to the kinds of pale looks for the English countryside that were consistent for the time.
The very best part of this film that kept me from drifting out was the eye-opening performances from a fresh cast of relative new-comers. The child acting really surprised me with just how wide-range their emotional depth reached. Anna Taylor-Joy can change her emotional responses from one side of the coin to the other at the drop of a hat, and it never feels rushed or overdone to feel unbelieving. Ralph Ineson’s performance is also fantastic, as we see his transformation from the strong provider to frail shell of a man literally dying to hold on. Ineson’s last drip of sanity is slowly drying away, so it’s interesting (And albeit scary) to see how he reacts to his dream life slipping away. I mentioned earlier how this is a kids show, and that is quite the understatement. M Night Shyamalan himself would sell his soul to work with the likes of Lucas Dawson and Ellie Granger. Their grip on the audience as twins who seem to always say the wrong thing at the wrong time makes them an enjoyable duo to behold. They are asked on more than one occasion to keep up with the veteran adult actors around them, but Dawson and Granger never shudder. Whether in a cutesy, childish mockery or a terrified realization of their worst nightmares coming true, these two feel as honest as anything in the film, and that is quite an accomplishment during an age where child actors are anything but believable.
“The Witch” isn’t quite the film that moviegoers are expecting from its frightening imagery in the trailers. It’s a slowburn of a peeler that prefers one layer at a time. The ending left me wanting a little more from the direction that the third act was taking, and while I was a little disappointed with my very high expectations, the movie doesn’t feel like a failing effort when you think of all the imaginative ways it created goosebumps. While I thought the film was decent, this isn’t one that I can recommend. I see this being one of those films that more casual horror fans will walk away disappointed than honoring of what the movie did do right. The film isn’t promising jump scares, but the fog of dread in the air casts an eerie unstableness that will convey such a pending doom for these characters.
6/10