'The Witch' Movie Review
'The Witch' or 'The VVitch' was a film that I had been interested in seeing but kind of forgot about.
Following the witch mythos of early-American folklore, the story centers around a family that has recently left their village and lives alone on the edge of wilderness. When the family's newborn goes missing as oldest daughter, Thomasin is playing with him, suspicions of witchcraft begin to arise, as the mother is completely devastated.
Later on, oldest son, Caleb goes missing in the woods and happens upon a hovel, where he is entranced by a woman. Caleb would eventually return home, but would die after spouting religious exclamations.
The youngest set of children, a twin boy and girl, accuse Thomasin of being a witch, in which her parents believe them. The next morning, the father is impaled by a goat and crushed under a pile of fire wood, and Thomasin kills her mother after being attacked by her. Thomasin then talks to the goat, seemingly the Devil in disguise, where she signs his book and joins a host of other naked witches dancing and chanting around a night fire in the woods.
The film, although painfully slow and boring in large parts, was almost as equally unnerving and disturbing. The parts where we got to see the witch were truly creepy. We first get to see her as she is about to kill the stolen baby, then covered in its blood. The end where she is feeding off of a goat on the family farm before slaughtering the livestock (and twins?) was frightening.
The film, although a horror film, didn't hit you with jump scares and cheap thrills, it was more of a psychological scare more than anything. If you can get past the slow parts and tough accents, you might enjoy the film.
My rating: 5 out f 10
