The Witch Review

Hey just a housekeeping announcement, I am opening a Tumblr blog where I will be reposting posts from here. While blogger is much more my speed, I am concerned at the possibility of Google nuking blogger or merging it with Google+ at some point. So basically Tumblr will be my backup blog. I will be continuing to use blogger as my primary space but you may read them on whichever portal suits you. I haven't update it yet, but I will begin migrating existing posts there soon, and then putting up new posts there at the same time I put them here. Here's the link: http://indeepfocusblog.tumblr.com/

Second thing, I have quite a backlog of movies to review. I haven't decided on whether or not I will skip some of them, but regardless most will be out of theatres by the time I review them, so I am going to take a second to quickly update on what movies are in theatres right now that I've seen, in case you're looking for a night out at the cinema and can't decide what to see:

Ghostbusters is not bad, and is fairly likeable, but underutilizes the prodigious talents of its actresses in favor of trying to lean on funny writing, which is largely hit and miss and never hilarious. Fairly fun diversion, not any kind of classic.

Star Trek Beyond is an excellent fast past sci-fi blockbuster, with a little bit more Trek flavor than the previous two movies thanks to Simon Pegg's delightful screenplay, and Justin Lin's action chops show in spades. I had a blast watching this and it is far more fun and thoughtfully written than Into Darkness.

Lights Out is a pretty solid horror movie with some really solid scares and a fairly decent plot. Maybe not a Halloween mainstay, but definitely good for a night of fright and enough story to not be stupid.

Finding Dory is a very solid Pixar sequel that doesn't lean too hard on nostalgia, maintaining the spirit of Finding Nemo while freshening up in terms of story and characters.

Conjuring 2 is a worthy and terrifying successor to the first Conjuring. I was very impressed with this all around and enjoyed it even more than the first installment, which is still one my favorite horror movies of the 21st century so far. If you are a horror fan and liked the first film, I highly recommend.

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The Witch is an American-Canadian independent Horror film, picked up by A24, a company that has  rapidly established itself (it was founded in 2013) as a go-to independent film distributor, putting out such films as Under the Skin, Ex Machina, Room, and The Lobster. The film is the directorial debut of Robert Eggers and stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, and Kate Dickie.

The Witch is set in New England in the 1600s. It concerns a family banished from a Puritan plantation and forced to live, isolated, in a small cottage bordering the vast New England wilderness. The family consists of the father, William (Ineson), the mother, Katherine (Dickie), the eldest daughter, Thomasin (Taylor-Joy), the eldest son, Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), two younger children, Mercy and Jonas (Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson), and the infant son, Samuel. One morning, on Thomasin's watch, Samuel disappears, and is suspected to have been taken by a "witch of the woods." The family must wrestle with this and more dark events, paranoia, and the foreboding presence of a malicious supernatural force.

Every actor in this film deserves credit for helping sell this unusual horror piece, believably and naturally delivering lines ripped straight from the pages of diaries, sermons, and other sources from fifteenth century New England settlements. Newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy leads the film adroitly as Thomasin, her nuanced performance conveying the pressure of navigating a harsh and contradictory worldview that strangles femininity. Ineson and Dickie, both of Game of Thrones fame, each chew the scenery as Thomasin's relentlessly proud father, William, and increasingly paranoid mother, Katherine. Harvey Scrimshaw delivers a solid performance as the inwardly conflicted Caleb, but has one scene stealing moment as the film reaches the climax. The youngest actors, Grainger and Dawson, brilliantly toe the line between childish innocence and childish mischief. Possibly the best performance is by that of Charlie the goat, who played Black Phillip, the family's billy goat. Alas, Charlie's star is destined to fade, as the animal has already retired from filmmaking at a farm near The Witch's outdoor set.

Joking aside, though, that goat is terrifying.



















The driving force of this film, however, is clearly writer/director Robert Eggers. His script, drawing largely off of primary sources from early colonial New England, not just in terms of the film's setting and feel but also much of the film's dialogue. Egger's directing is focused and astute, and is extremely impressive for a first-time gig. The film is extremely well shot, with some excellent staging and framing, with nary a wasted shot.

One of the strongest aspects of the film is its atmosphere. Everything in the film is built to inspire a severe sense of unease and tension. It was filmed in the remote Canadian wilderness, and relied mostly on natural light and candlelight, both providing an eerie tone for the indoor and outdoor sets. The color palette is full of washed out greys, cold blues, and off-whites--as if drained of blood. Most of the film utilizes a 1.66 aspect ratio which lends a sense of claustrophobia and tightness to the film, only underscoring the already tense atmosphere. Finally, Mark Korven's eerie score, full of blood-curdling strings and other unnerving tones, drives the tension forward and is sure to induce many a goose bump.

While my review may be rather glowing, the film is not necessarily for everyone. Those who strictly prefer their horror films to be akin to the sort of roller coaster rides of jump scares and frights most associate with the genre might be disappointed. However, those who are happy with more variety in their horror might be pleased to find a disturbing and tension-filled work that has much to be mined for its meditation on the idea of original sin, the hypocrisies and impossibilities of strict and dogmatic religious adherence, and some dashes of gender allegory.

The Witch premiered in theatres on February 19, 2016, and is now out on Blu-Ray/DVD and applicable streaming services.