The Witch Review

Horror has been on a pretty good run recently, films such as It Follows, The Babadook, and to a lesser extent, the output from Blumhouse Productions. Following on from them comes the latest horror film Robert Eggers The Witch.

Set in 17^th century New England, Eggers film sees a family of puritans banished from their community seeing them set up their own homestead on the edges of a forest, the likes of which only ever seems to be featured in horror films. Something evil lurks in those woods, when the families youngest child is taken into the woods the family believe it  to have been taken by a wolf, but has events unfold darker forces seem to be playing a hand in matters. Eggers talent shines best in the tone he manages to capture in the film. The historical verisimilitude lent by its period setting is grey and harsh and draws all the necessary connotations of the witch trials and other creations such as The Crucible. More so than the visual aesthetic of the film is the impressiveness of the atmosphere it creates, the sense in every shot that something is lurking outside of the frame borders on oppressive viewing, its a tone that prevents the film, for the most part, from straying into tedium.

The performances are brilliant, Ralph Ineson is impressive as the stoic puritan head of the family, and Kate Dickies is also brilliant as the mother whose performance draws to mind the hysterical mother from Carrie. The children provide able performances; with the films lead Anna Taylor-Joy really shining in a very difficult role. The performances are even more impressive when you take into account that Eggers script calls on them to speak in 17^th century parlance, which though it starts out as a little alienating it settles into a neat rhythm and becomes completely unnoticeable.

There are those who have spoken of this film as a high watermark for recent horror cinema, but that very much depends on what you want from a horror film. Personally what I want from a horror film is to be scared; I want not only to jump but to still be scared weeks later at the thought of what made me jump in the first place. The Witch is many things but it’s not really that scary. Eggers film conjures some interesting images but nothing that’s particularly horrifying or anything that invokes terror. It is perhaps best viewed as an exceptional family drama where the witch herself is merely just providing the atmosphere.

For a debut film, Eggers has gone about creating something technically very impressive. His eye for detail and ability to create an accurate family dynamic is something to aspire to, but ultimately I just want him to scare me more. (High 3 Stars)