A chance to increase my indie and horror film cred in one go!

What’s It About? When a Puritan family is exiled from their colony and forced to start a farm in the wildnerness, they become the target of a lurking witch, as well as their own secret fears and doubts.

STRAIGHT UP: Atypical horror that’s very hit-or-miss. 2.5/5

What I Liked

Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin – The entire cast turns in strong acting performances here, but it’s Taylor-Joy who deserves the most accolades for her role as Thomasin, at once the audience’s surrogate and the most interesting character in the film.

The entire production detail – From a production standpoint, this film is pretty much bulletproof. The costumes and sets are authentic to the time period; the camera work, making use of natural light throughout, is gorgeous; and the creepy score hits all the right notes.

Meaningful use of setting – While The Witch explores many of the classic anxieties commonly found at the heart of other horror films – such as the uncertainties of social acceptance and independence, puberty and sexuality, and tension in the home – these elements take more interesting shapes in the context of Puritan New England society, where even the slightest of sins could be considered fatal.

“Do you want to live deliciously?” – A scene in the dark near the end of the film delivers a chilling, cathartic payoff I won’t soon forget.

What I Disliked

Why a witch? – Within minutes of the beginning of the film, an actual, terrifying witch appears, ready to do all sorts of harm to Thomasin and her family – but she’s hardly seen again for the rest of the movie, as the family itself becomes responsible for most of its own misfortune. I don’t understand this approach. If the plan is for a creature feature with an inhuman witch, why hide her? And if the plan is to prove that ordinary people were the monsters all along, why introduce a witch at all? The film seems at cross purposes with itself in this way.

Not for me – Here’s where things get a little personal. I’m easily spooked by just about everything, and even small moments of onscreen tension quickly become almost unbearable for me. So I’m more than a little disappointed to say that I didn’t find The Witch very scary, although many moments were gripping and dramatic. Even, so, this isn’t to say, as some have claimed, that The Witch isn’t a proper horror movie – just that its brand of scares isn’t for me.

CLOSING THOUGHT: It’s taken me a few days to write this review, because I’m so shocked that a movie so well-received by critics fell so flat for me – especially after I had such a good time with It Follows. The hell of it is, I even feel like I understand what the film was trying to do, and I can appreciate so many of the elements that others have praised about it – but I just can’t connect with it on a visceral level, and I’ve got to reflect that in my impressions here. If you decide to see it, I hope your experience is better than mine.