The Witch (2016) | 31 Days of Horror: Oct 8

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The witch, oh the witch is back. Stone cold sober as a matter of fact.

The Witch turns out to be a slow building film about the horrors within us all. It may even leave you questioning what you have seen, after getting caught up in the hysteria.

Before Viewing

The preview for this is certainly creepy. In what appears to be 17th Century America, a family either leaves the safety of the town, or is perhaps cast out. They find a spot of land to build their new house and send prayers for the location. A weird ominous tone begins, starting with the teenage daughter playing peekaboo with the baby and it suddenly disappearing. The mother is found snuggling in a grave, and the goat gives blood instead of milk. Certainly something supernatural this way comes. And guessing by the title, it’s a Witch.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

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After Viewing

In early 17th Century New England, a family is cast out of a settlement for their differing religious views. They set off until they find a small patch of land outside a forest and make their new home. The eldest teenage daughter, Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) takes her new infant brother Samuel from mother Katherine (Kate Dickie) and plays peek-a-boo with him. In the few seconds that her eyes are covered, Sam disappears from his blanket. Thomasin is distraught. Elsewhere, an old woman is seen with the infant in a dark hut. She sacrifices him and rubs his blood all over her body transforming into a crow.

The eldest pre-teen son, Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) goes off into the forbidden woods with his father, William (Ralph Ineson), to check the animal traps. Caleb is concerned that since he is born with sin, as the family teaches him, then if he dies today he will be cursed to damnation. William tells him not to worry. They spot a strange, eerie looking rabbit, but William’s gun backfires when he goes to shoot it. Back at the farm, the young twins, Jonas (Lucas Dawson) and Mercy (Ellie Grainger) sing a song about their goat Black Phillip, that irritates Thomasin while she does chores.

At the creek, as Thomasin does some washing, Caleb notices her cleavage. Mercy pretends to be the Witch of the Woods, and claims to have seen such a person. Thomasin teases Mercy by saying that she is the Witch, and she needs to be more careful. This scares Mercy who runs home. At dinner that night, Katherine chastises Thomasin for misplacing a silver cup, not knowing that William has sold it to pay for traps. He does not correct his wife’s error. After a poor harvest comes in, Kate believes that the family is cursed, but William believes it is so God can show His grace.

After overhearing that the parents plan to ship Thomasin to another family to serve them, Caleb leaves the house early. Thomasin blackmails him to follow along. Caleb shows her the traps he and William had set. He too sees the eerie rabbit and sets after it. Thomasin follows but is soon thrown from the horse. She manages to make it home, but without Caleb. He has found a small hut in the woods where a young, voluptuous woman attacks him.

William, consumed with grief and guilt admits his lies and transgressions to Katherine. She wants to go home to England. During a rainstorm the next night, Thomasin finds Caleb, naked and in shock outside the cabin. They nurse him, and tend to a number of wounds on his body, but he is comatose. When he finally awakens he coughs up an apple, before writhing about, and calling to Jesus. The family prays for him, but the twins claim Thomasin is a witch and are struck with convulsions similar to Caleb. She counters that the twins talk to the goat as they would a man. Caleb dies, and William–not knowing who to believe, locks Thomasin and the twins in the barn with the goats.

William prays to God to save his children. In the night, Katherine is visited by Caleb holding Samuel, whom she tries to nurse. The baby is revealed to be a crow pecking at her bosom. In the morning William finds the goats dead and the twins missing with blood on Thomasin’s hands. He is abruptly gored by Black Phillip and dies. When Katherine finds him, she attacks Thomasin who defends herself with a knife, killing her mother in the process. She speaks to the goat, who replies to her as would a man, and offers her what she always wanted. Thomasin walks naked into the woods and finds a group of naked women dancing around a fire. She joins the circle and they all begin to levitate

“We will conquer this wilderness. It will not consume us.” – William

The Witch, subtitled a New England folktale, is a horror film about a witch, isn’t it? That’s what the characters in the film believe, and that’s what audiences are led to believe from the title of the film and several scenes. But is that actually the case? Is there actually anything in the film that indicates supernatural abilities, or can everything that happens be attributed to the characters state of mind? Is the audience buying into the hysteria seen by the family or is the film an objective look at the horrors of the countryside. That’s the intimacy and beauty of this film. It can be interpreted in both ways.

The Witch is Robert Eggers first feature film, after making a couple of shorts. His follow ups include the equally creepy The Lighthouse and an upcoming remake of the 100+ year old vampire film, Nosferatu. In this film, Eggers creates a very realistic story unlike many modern horror films. The events unfold without flourish or overt jumpscares, and really takes the audience into the life and hardships of a family in the 1600s. He evokes horror in two ways. The visual aspects of the horror include showing something that causes the audience to cringe. The old woman holding the knife over the baby, followed by a shot of her rubbing its blood on her body is a good example. The other aspect of horror is the devolution of the families trust in one another as a result of lies and superstition. And here is where the ambiguity of the film arises.

Since this is a horror film called The Witch, let’s look at the common reading of the film with an antagonist that uses magic. Thomasin takes Samuel outside where he is captured in the blink of an eye by a malevolent witch. Being that he is unbaptized the witch is able to use him as a sacrifice for her magic potion transforming herself into a crow. She also is able to appear as a hare, causing William’s gun to misfire and spooking Thomasin’s horse. She kidnaps Caleb, performs some ritual on him, allowing him to return to the farm and sow more discord, passing the blame onto Thomasin. This witch is working in conjunction with a demon (the devil himself?) disguised and Black Philip, who bewitches the young twins, kills William, and finally offers Thomasin a place in his coven in the woods. This is the actual path of the film, and is probably the standard interpretation of the events.

But there’s another interpretation that can be used on the film, that eschews the supernatural aspects in favor of more rational reasons. Eggers claimed in his interviews about the film that he based much of the dialogue on writings from the famous witch trials that were held later in the century. The hysteria that surrounded the accusations that young women were witches has been widely documented. They were put in a position to prove that they were not witches, a difficult premise. The majority of events in the film have a non-magical way that they can be seen. The witch sacrificing the baby: just a crazy woman that decides to kill a baby and rub its entrails on her body. The dogma of the family’s religion leads to many assumptions of witchcraft or devilry when there are other, mundane answers. Talk is made of their blighted crop, with a closeup of a damaged corn stalk. Perhaps the family was infected by some disease which caused them to hallucinate any number of things. This ends up casting doubt on Thomasin and turning the family against her, which ultimately leads to their deaths.

However you interpret the film, the one thing that is obvious is the fantastic performances by the cast. Taylor-Joy is obviously the breakout star in the piece. She becomes the instigator of issues with the family though audiences never actually see her do anything wrong. She takes the abuse from her mother and siblings as part of being in her family, and in the end–when all has been taken from her, she submits to an entity that has been hunting for her the entire time. Harvey Scrimshaw is also amazing to watch as young Caleb. This was only his second film with his most recent being The School for Good and Evil. His performance is so thoroughly engaging, from his questioning of his faith with William in the woods, to the feverous epiphany he has before his untimely death.

The Witch explores the breaking point for a family and their faith. Each individual incident creates a crack in the facade, which even the strength and faith of William cannot reverse. It’s a film that completely benefits from setting it in a non-contemporary time, as it makes use of superstition and older schools of thought to create an engrossing and moody piece that creates an ongoing dread, rather than momentary frights. This film is the first in a week of reviews of A24 films. I have already looked at Hereditary and Midsommar in previous years and will be bringing light to some other, possibly lesser known films all week.

Assorted Musings

• The film was photographed almost exclusively with natural lighting, which gives a muted and spooky quality to the story.
• This was Anya Taylor-Joy’s first film and first leading role. She would gain notoriety for her work on The Queen’s Gambit, and return to the horror genre with Last Night in Soho and The Menu.