The Witch
Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy
Grade: A-
In 1630 a family of highly religious settlers try to make a go of it on the edge of some very lovely looking woods. It’s not going to badly until baby Samuel disappears without a trace and the crops begin to fail. Then everything definitely takes a turn for the worse.
I had been wanting to watch this for a while but since I’m a big chicken I told myself put it off until Halloween. Yeah, do that.
I have to say I liked this movie. It was really beautifully shot. Despite the fact there’s only the farm and the woods I thought the details and such were really lovely. There was a very mesmerizing feel to it. Except for two particular scenes involving a baby and a dog. Looked away from those. Wish I had never seen them.
Amazingly, while it was creepy and disturbing I didn’t find it very scary at least not in a horror movie kind of way. It’s interesting the way it unravels there is definitely something in the woods- they don’t try to hide it from the audience or make you wonder. But the family falling apart under the pressure and massively turning on each other those were the parts that I found just as disturbing as anything else.
The performances were all on point. I really wanted to slap the young twins. Katie Dickie is excellent as Katherine. (The only other thing I know her from is Lysa on Game of Thrones and she did kill it there so I expected her to be good.) Anya Taylor-Joy was a good cast to- she just looks so sweet and innocent as Thomasin. Her character kind of gets lost under the sea of everything happening but she has presence and can hold the screen.
The ending is one of those things where I can totally understand how some people would love it and some people will hate it. I liked it in terms of looking at the movie like a movie. It tied it all together. I can get where they were going with it. But emotionally? It was kind of like what a raw deal for the cost of it.
Recommend: Yes. Really the only thing that put me off where the dog and the baby