“A New-England Folktale” reads the subtitle for the much-hyped (all of it earned) The Witch, the feature film debut from writer-director Robert Eggers.
One would be forgiven for interpreting this as a mark of revisionist horror, but there is nothing revisionist about Eggers’ film. In fact, there’s much that is revolutionary.
The Witch follows a tight-knit family in 17th-century New England who are banished from their plantation for the unrelenting Calvinist fundamentalism of patriarch William (Ralph Ineson). While living in exile, on their own farm surrounded by an impenetrable forest, strange occurrences with no obvious causes begin to plague their quiet life, testing their devotion to God and each other.
Eggers’ commitment to historic fidelity is crucial to the voice and tone of the film, going further than most movies to be fair to the beliefs and lifestyle of its characters. They speak in early modern English with accents that are unfamiliar to moviegoers and dialogue pulled directly from primary sources.
The film’s view of witches and the supernatural is not imposed onto the past, but is very much rooted in the belief in their existence. Eggers introduces the fact that there is something in the woods with possible sinister intent early in the film, so gone are any tricks of ambiguity. All of this makes the film much more unsettling and terrifying than if it had relied on conventional horror tropes.
There are two ways to view The Witch, both equally valid and not mutually exclusive. The first is as the story of Thomasin (soon-to-be superstar Anya Taylor-Joy), a young girl on the cusp of adulthood, and her family: loving yet devout father William, stoic mother Katherine (Kate Dickie), sexually conflicted brother Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) and terror twins Jonas and Mercy (Lucas Dawson and Ellie Grainger). All eyes are on Thomasin as she nears womanhood: Caleb cannot help but sneak peeks at her developing body, and Katherine wants to bring her back to the plantation to “serve another family” while immediately suspecting her of causing every mysterious event that befalls them. Thomasin loves her family yet finds herself at odds with them.
The second approach is to interpret The Witch as a reminder of America’s puritanical roots, which were often atrocious and self-destructive about matters of women’s agency and personal liberty. Most societies attribute human emotions, animal urges and natural phenomena to supernatural entities —gods, spirits, demons, etc.—and The Witch is dedicated to showing both sides of this perspective. The Protestant worldview looks at someone who feels no shame for her inner nature and shuns her as a possessed creature of Satan who seeks to lure good Christians away from the righteous path. This society didn’t need to create mythical beings to be afraid of, it just looked to someone it didn’t approve of—normally a sexually unashamed woman—and projected its fears and superstitions onto her. This is not altogether different from the public shaming we still subject women to, we just stopped pretending we’re being pious while doing it.
Yet the world of The Witch is not one without a sense of justice, and the daring way Eggers resolves the story must be seen to be believed. The film has all the trappings of a horror film, yet is so much deeper and more observant than the label implies. The first viewing will likely unsettle you rather than scare you. The second viewing will make you reflect on your own views toward women and the way they are subjected to society’s unceasing gaze. The Witch would be a masterstroke from an established director, but as a debut it is a revelation.
The Witch
R, 92 minutes
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