The Witch (A) Movie Review
The Witch stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin, a Puritan living with her family in 1630s New England. They have been cast out of their settlement for disagreement in religious beliefs. Forced to make their own living in the woods, strange witchcraft befalls their family and blame is assigned to Thomasin.
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2015, The Witch received critical acclaim. I, for one, have been anticipating The Witch's arrival since this time. I can vividly remember sitting at my computer, reading the recently published Sundance reviews, and coming across an article on The Witch. It piqued my interest and I've been looking forward to this release since.
As could be imagined, unreasonably high expectations grew in the months awaiting the film's release. Moments before The Witch began, my expectations had been raised to near impossible standards. The Witch is a brilliant film; the kind of film I had hoped for.
Robert Eggers, first time director, shows a mastery of his craft. It's truly unbelievable that The Witch comes to us from a first time director. He knows exactly how to orchestrate a horror film: letting the silences simmer and bringing tensions to a boil. His slow build approach is meticulous and marvelous. The truly frightening sequences of this film arrive, and they arrive unflinchingly, with control. Eggers earns the scares, while acknowledging that scares are not the only important elements to a horror film; he has a knack for building strong characters and establishing atmosphere.
If there's one thing that The Witch hits perfectly, it is tone and atmosphere. The tone remains coherent throughout, never giving way to boredom, sharply holding the audience captive to its deliciously eerie atmosphere. Even when the actions of the characters can feel a bit inconsequential, Eggers takes the time to build mood. There is something deeply unsettling and unnerving about this film. Adding to this feeling of gut-wrenching mood is the uncompromising cinematography by Jarin Blaschke and a haunting score by Mark Korven. True, it's early in the year, but the cinematography and score have the potential to rank as some of the best of 2016.
Another thing The Witch does impeccably is capturing its time period. Dialogue is ripped from primary source journals and diaries, tuned up for the screen, and presented in a way that establishes the film as an authentic experience. Production design and costume design contribute to make the film as convincing as possible. The authentic dialogue never detracted from my experience but I can see how it might annoy some viewers.
And while dialogue is authentic, the story in which this is presented feels weighty. The film is decidedly not all style, no substance. The Witch can feel deceptively straightforward, as it is brimming with complex ideas about the primal struggle of man vs nature, faith, and even feminism. An old-timey fear of women is presented here, but the film is hypercritical of this fear rather than perpetrating it. This is smart filmmaking.
Filmmaking such as this must be celebrated. Rarely do films come along with this sharpness of vision. The Witch is a perfect example of bold, intelligent, visceral filmmaking. Not to mention, this is entirely successful as a genre film; The Witch is intensely creepy and often scary. It's not for everyone. Some may be disappointed with the lack of scare after scare. It's true that there is no scare after scare but Eggers frames a world in which seemingly anything can happen at any moment. And when the scares do come, they are quite effective. And I should mention, as to the divisive end of the film, I loved it.
FINAL GRADE: A
MPAA RATING: R for disturbing violent content and graphic nudity
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2015, The Witch received critical acclaim. I, for one, have been anticipating The Witch's arrival since this time. I can vividly remember sitting at my computer, reading the recently published Sundance reviews, and coming across an article on The Witch. It piqued my interest and I've been looking forward to this release since.
As could be imagined, unreasonably high expectations grew in the months awaiting the film's release. Moments before The Witch began, my expectations had been raised to near impossible standards. The Witch is a brilliant film; the kind of film I had hoped for.
Robert Eggers, first time director, shows a mastery of his craft. It's truly unbelievable that The Witch comes to us from a first time director. He knows exactly how to orchestrate a horror film: letting the silences simmer and bringing tensions to a boil. His slow build approach is meticulous and marvelous. The truly frightening sequences of this film arrive, and they arrive unflinchingly, with control. Eggers earns the scares, while acknowledging that scares are not the only important elements to a horror film; he has a knack for building strong characters and establishing atmosphere.
If there's one thing that The Witch hits perfectly, it is tone and atmosphere. The tone remains coherent throughout, never giving way to boredom, sharply holding the audience captive to its deliciously eerie atmosphere. Even when the actions of the characters can feel a bit inconsequential, Eggers takes the time to build mood. There is something deeply unsettling and unnerving about this film. Adding to this feeling of gut-wrenching mood is the uncompromising cinematography by Jarin Blaschke and a haunting score by Mark Korven. True, it's early in the year, but the cinematography and score have the potential to rank as some of the best of 2016.
Another thing The Witch does impeccably is capturing its time period. Dialogue is ripped from primary source journals and diaries, tuned up for the screen, and presented in a way that establishes the film as an authentic experience. Production design and costume design contribute to make the film as convincing as possible. The authentic dialogue never detracted from my experience but I can see how it might annoy some viewers.
And while dialogue is authentic, the story in which this is presented feels weighty. The film is decidedly not all style, no substance. The Witch can feel deceptively straightforward, as it is brimming with complex ideas about the primal struggle of man vs nature, faith, and even feminism. An old-timey fear of women is presented here, but the film is hypercritical of this fear rather than perpetrating it. This is smart filmmaking.
Filmmaking such as this must be celebrated. Rarely do films come along with this sharpness of vision. The Witch is a perfect example of bold, intelligent, visceral filmmaking. Not to mention, this is entirely successful as a genre film; The Witch is intensely creepy and often scary. It's not for everyone. Some may be disappointed with the lack of scare after scare. It's true that there is no scare after scare but Eggers frames a world in which seemingly anything can happen at any moment. And when the scares do come, they are quite effective. And I should mention, as to the divisive end of the film, I loved it.
FINAL GRADE: A
MPAA RATING: R for disturbing violent content and graphic nudity