Nordling here.
Oh, the joys of cinematic dread. The pleasures in the tightening of the vise, and the knowledge of the blasphemies in store. That has always been my favorite kind of horror cinema. I can't deny the orchestrating of a thrilling jump-scare, or an especially effective piece of gore, but the sinister sense of foreboding, as destinies align in malevolent fashion, is what I most love about this genre. The sustaining of a dark and evil mood for 90 minutes or so is a skillset that I deeply admire in a filmmaker, and Robert Eggers slowly, but oh so inevitably, plunges the knife deep into our dark hearts. In that aspect, THE WITCH is terrifying, because it means it. You will go down into the dark, and we will delight in your terrors.
It is this commitment to the world that Eggers has created, the verisimilitude that Eggers brings, that makes THE WITCH so effective. We utterly believe in the world. The production design, the sound, the remarkable performances all come together to make a convincing argument that evil is real, and it is coming, and your prayers are for nothing. But it is also very fragile, and it asks a commitment from the audience to embrace it. For me, that's not difficult - the weight of disbelief, especially when the filmmakers are doing their jobs perfectly, is easy to lift, but for people skeptical or reluctant to commit, THE WITCH might not be as effective. If there's anything that audiences should understand going in, it's that THE WITCH is building a mood. If you let it in, you might find yourself very shaken, as I did.
One could also find themes and ideas parallel to modern times if they want - as William (Ralph Ineson) and Katherine (Kate Dickie) leave a New England community that they deem wicked, with their newborn son, along with Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), and the twins Jonas (Lucas Dawson) and Mercy (Ellie Grainger) in tow, there is also an equivalence to the current state of religion and community in modern day. In their refusal to find common ground for mutual benefit, William takes his family away, into the vast, indifferent woods. For these people, evil isn't a theory, but living, breathing, waiting to seduce, corrupt, and ultimately destroy. Because evil is real to this family, it becomes real for us too, and soon, the anger and the paranoia reveal themselves, and the steadfast, unchanging principles that William and Katherine believe in are used against them.
And that's really all anyone should know of the plot going in, because the sustaining of mood and dread can be a fragile thing, and audiences thinking themselves superior, or armoring themselves up from the movie, may miss the forest for the trees. Robert Eggers, using vast amounts of research from colonial times, wants the audience to make the leap that every story told to them in history - the witches burned at the stake, the stories of children meeting horrible ends, and the palpable fear of the community - is based on some truth. Because of that, the scares, when they do come, feel real. There are moments in THE WITCH full of dreadful awe, of blasphemy, of capering, evil joy. The sound design of THE WITCH is to be especially commended - theaters playing this one need to turn those volumes up to 666.
The actors are terrific across the board - the children playing the twins are both ingratiating and creepy, and Harvey Scrimshaw as Caleb gives an earnest performance. Kate Dickie as Katherine makes her suffering credible and true, and Ralph Ineson's guttural voice strikes a tone of portent, but William is also a man who loves his family very much, and wants to do good by them. His faith and his love war within him, and when superstition takes hold of William, Ineson is convincing in both his fear and his sorrow. The anchor of THE WITCH is Anya Taylor-Joy's Thomasin - for much of the film she is our surrogate, our navigator in dark waters, and Taylor-Joy is more than up to the challenge. It's the commitment to the world that makes THE WITCH work as well as it does.
This is Robert Egger's first film. I've seen a few first films this year at Fantastic Fest that are stunning in the skills of these directors - a confidence and a mastery of tone that is enviable. I hope Eggers plays around in the horror genre for quite some time, because he's incredibly good at it. THE WITCH will haunt your dreams if you let it in. You will take joy in its wickedness. God is not here, and you will find no comfort. You will offer prayers to dark, cold stars, and delight in the devil. THE WITCH is scary as hell, beautiful in its bleakness, and an instant horror classic.
Nordling, out.
