The Witch Review

<p>The new horror renaissance is one of the best things to happen to cinema in quite some time&period; Films like <i>It Follows&comma; The Babadook&comma; Oculus<&sol;i>&comma; among others have revived the genre from its mid 2000&&num;8217&semi;s death after its acceptance of direct to DVD outings for series like <i>Hellraiser<&sol;i> and <i>Halloween<&sol;i>&period; What the new generation of horror seems to understand is to use it in a way that services the story&period; Away from the torture porn of <b><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0744834&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Eli Roth<&sol;a><&sol;b> and <i>Saw<&sol;i>&comma; the genre has accepted stories of people experiencing various forms of terror that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t even necessarily need the actual villain of the movie to create the problem within the lives of these people&comma; but escalate it&period; And <i>The Witch<&sol;i> &lpar;or The VVitch&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;re so inclined to use like the marketing does&rpar; is no exception to that set of films&period; Everything serves a purpose and the terror comes from not just a witch&comma; but the family that it centers around&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm5896355&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Anya Taylor-Joy<&sol;a><&sol;b> stars as Thomasin&comma; the oldest child to her parents&comma; William and Katherine &lpar;<b><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0408591&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Ralph Ineson<&sol;a><&sol;b> and <b><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0225483&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Kate Dickie<&sol;a><&sol;b>&comma; both of <i>Game of Thrones<&sol;i> fame&rpar;&period; After their banishment from their previous town&comma; the family moves to a far part of land away from the town and beside a menacing forest&period; With the family all by themselves far away from civilization&comma; Thomasin and her siblings including&comma; Caleb&comma; a preteen with burgeoning sexuality and her twin brother and sister&comma; Jonas and Mercy&comma; must find out how to navigate the problems with their family as well as the disappearance of the baby Samuel&comma; who was taken under the watch of Thomasin&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;99808" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-99808" style&equals;"width&colon; 2048px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-99808" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;the-witch-Sc33&lowbar;Dinner-finished&lowbar;rgb&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;The Witch&comma; A24&comma; Elevation Pictures&rpar;" width&equals;"2048" height&equals;"1234" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-99808" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Witch<&sol;em>&comma; A24&comma; Elevation Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Now if you weren&&num;8217&semi;t to know the title of the movie and I was just to describe the plot to you&comma; it wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t exactly sound like a horror film&period; In fact&comma; it would sound like a family drama filled with existential dread and themes about guilt and blame&period; And you wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be wrong with saying that&&num;8217&semi;s what this movie is about&comma; because it is&period; <i>The Witch<&sol;i> is a bold&comma; shocking film that happens to use a horror staple as its inciting incident and physically manifests itself as the devastation of this family&period; Now it may seem like I have just spelled the movie out for you&comma; but I don&&num;8217&semi;t think I have&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A horror film can expand on a story and use these horrific moments as a way to set a mood&period; This movie has mood and dread in spades&period; Any portion with the witch is filled with darkness and threat to the family in the small portions that you see her in&period; From the ominous string heavy score from <b><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0466805&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Mark Korven<&sol;a><&sol;b> to the brilliant cinematography by <b><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm1144916&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Jarin Blaschke<&sol;a><&sol;b> &lpar;using the mostly disposed of 1&colon;66&colon;1 aspect ratio&rpar;&comma; <i>The Witch<&sol;i> uses the basic tropes of that titled villain and makes it into something more terrifying than we would originally think&period; If there is any doubt in your mind that this movie would be filled with jump scares&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;d be dead wrong&period; All this film needs is the environment it brings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;99809" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-99809" style&equals;"width&colon; 2880px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-99809" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;the-witch-TheWitch&lowbar;R3&lowbar;1-70-1&lowbar;rgb&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;The Witch&comma; A24&comma; Elevation Pictures&rpar;" width&equals;"2880" height&equals;"2160" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-99809" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Witch<&sol;em>&comma; A24&comma; Elevation Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Regular audiences may find the slow-burn of <i>The Witch<&sol;i> to kill whatever hopes of being scared out the window&period; <i>The Witch<&sol;i> doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feature incredibly graphic murders or cheesy character motivations that would make you roll your eyes&period; Writer&sol;Director <b><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm3211470&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Robert Eggers<&sol;a><&sol;b> never wants to treat the audience like idiots and expects that same audience to pick up on cues within the dialogue to understand where it&&num;8217&semi;s headed and why the movie is doing what it is doing&period; Like an old folk-tale&comma; every moment has a purpose and at a tight 93 minutes&comma; it almost feels like you&&num;8217&semi;ve been ripped off when the film comes to its climax&period; The ending is incredibly abrupt and is mildly unsatisfying&comma; but it ends at the perfect moment for the story it wants to tell&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for the atmospheric horror that was present in <em>Rosemary&&num;8217&semi;s Baby<&sol;em> or <em>The Wicker Man <&sol;em>&lpar;The original version with Christopher Lee from 1973&comma; not the abysmal Nicolas Cage edition&rpar;&comma; than <em>The Witch<&sol;em> will be the new horror movie for you&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also a poetic look at family dissolution that wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be too far-fetched in an Ingmar Bergman film&period; <strong>Robert Eggers<&sol;strong> is a director to look out for&period; <em>The Witch<&sol;em> is not to be missed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;