The Witch (2015)

Horror, Mystery

Director: Robert Eggers
Writer: Robert Eggers
Starring: Ralph Ineson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw

"Evil takes many forms"

A beautiful and bleak period horror that will haunt you for days.

Set in mid-17th-century New England, it centers around a devout Puritan family of English settlers that takes up a farm in an isolated region at the edge of a forest, after being exiled by their community. With crops failing and life stock dying, and after their youngest child goes missing in mysterious circumstances, hysteria and desperation take hold, and the family systematically tears itself apart, as they find themselves being preyed upon by a nearby witch.

Based on first-time director Robert Eggers childhood fascination for witches and inspired by actual written accounts of witchcraft from the period, with most of the dialogue taken verbatim from 17th-century documents, the film tells about what fears and paranoia, mostly rooted in a strong belief in God (and the Devil) and superstition, can do to people. And the cast used are all excellent at expressing these fears, each of them acting out their own beliefs and actions with the utmost conviction.

The Witch is the kind of scary movie that favors creeping dread over cheap jump scares. As the tension escalates, you somehow feel the presence of an unnatural evil in every scene. Although not for everyone – it is pretty slow and most of the evils that occur remain unexplained – it is one of the most genuinely unnerving horror films in recent memory, the kind that will get under your skin and stay for a while.

Plot summary from IMDb: A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession.

Awards: 6 wins & 2 nominations.
Runtime: 92 min
R