Official Synopsis
A Puritan family banished to the edge of the known wilderness suspects an unseen, unspeakable evil is at work after the disappearance of one of their five children.
Things I can guarantee with this film. It doesn’t start well and it just goes downhill from there. I’m not talking about my opinion of the film or its quality, rather I’m referring to what happens to the poor Puritan family in the movie. No stone is left unturned when it comes to suspense and horror. Also, anytime you use children to create that horror, it quickly becomes ‘horror inception’ where the audience falls deeper and deeper into darkness.
So, on that happy note, let’s get on with this review, shall we?
First and foremost, prepare your subtitle option. This film pushes the old language of the time period, which makes understanding what the hell the characters are saying rather difficult. So, prepare your subtitle reading talent, as you will need it to keep up with the events and characters of the story. Just wanted to give you a heads up on that, if you weren’t expecting such a thing. I will add, the lingo does give some credibility and authenticity to the experience.
{media load=media,id=4104,width=720,align=center,display=inline}
That out of the way, the first act of the film really just throws the story setup out there without apology or regard for your emotional preparedness. The story surrounds the Puritan family who is shunned from a village after being accused of being the devil’s go-to fam (crazy at first, but…). Cast out and searching for a new life/living/land, they happen upon an open field of grass that is perfect for farming and raising a family…or so they think. Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), the oldest child, and the key/catalyst to the story, takes her youngest sibling out to play while her father William (Ralph Ineson) is harvesting and mother Katherine (Kate Dickie) is tending to her semi-youngest children. At the end of the forest surrounding their house, Thomasin decides it’s a wise idea to play peek-a-boo with the baby, which isn’t unheard of with young kids. While playing peek-a-boo with the baby and upon the last face unveiling, the child disappears. Panicked, the family goes searching in the woods, but never retrieves said child — and that becomes the first of many issues the family experiences.
Also, that’s how the first act ends.
If you can find a more brutal way for a first act to end, I commend you. Director/writer Robert Eggers’ choice to take the most innocent character, who can’t even fend for themselves, or talk, and use them as the first ‘victim’ of the ‘witch’ is bold, brilliant and truly sets a tone for the rest of the movie to ‘do better’. As a parent, it’s horrifying to see such a thing, and the additional scenes that follow truly won’t make any parent feel better about the story. This first act truly just sets the rest up and opens up an unimaginable world of horror possibilities where no one is safe.
Kind of like every episode of Game of Thrones.
First act established, the second act is designed to solely brew up the suspicion that is starting to bubble in the family’s cauldron of living. Thomasin’s role in the disappearance of the baby holds fast amongst Katherine and William, though the second act treats such a notion lightly. The family begins to unravel a bit in the second act, as strange occurrences start cropping up. The most brutal of the bunch is the disappearance of Thomasin’s brother, Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), who goes out in the woods to hunt the ‘witch’ only to find himself face-to-face with something he never imagined. The second act finds the brother finding his way back and…well…he finds his way back in a most horrifying way. By the end of the second act the family is broken. It’s in shambles and the ones who survive are really starting to question whether the village at the beginning was right about the devil.
The second act drags a bit, but the payoff is worth the wait, though not pleasantly worth it. It takes a while for the story to get/develop to the point where Caleb is attacked (not as simple as it reads). When it happens, when the story gets to this point, then you understand the development of the act and why it took its time. It’s a methodical way of doing things, though the trip is a bit long in the tooth (just a bit). It’s not pretty, it’s not what you expect and it certainly reinforces the moniker of ‘horror’ in the genre description of this film. In this day and age where horror films live off the jump scare, it’s nice to see something truly horrible happen without someone jumping and yelling ‘boo’.
Having built the story up to this point, the third act doesn’t quite payoff the way I would imagine it should. I won’t go into the details (no one likes to ruin third acts — well, some reviewers will because they’re a-holes), but the ending is a bit goofy, especially with the big reveal right before it. The big reveal of the story is quite awesome and smoothly put into place without much expectation from the audience. My wife, who doesn’t scare easily, did not expect what is revealed. Hell, I didn’t expect it and I’m pretty good at predicting these things. Anyway, my biggest issue with act three is how Eggers treats that big reveal and what it means to the main character. It seems a bit of a copout for the character, one that isn’t worthy of the build up to that point. It’s too easy and doesn’t truly fit in with the rest. It’s one of those moments where the development of the story just rolls over on its belly for a rub without much resistance. For a brutal movie like this, it deserves better than that for an ending.
Overall, Robert Eggers does a phenomenal job with story and building out this very isolated and brutalized Puritan family through nearly the entire length of The Witch. He creates good, strong individual characters and a develops a beautiful horror wrapper to keep them locked up in. Sadly, The Witch simply can’t sustain itself by the very end of act three. It can’t explain how the story got to the ending it did and just seems to end when it feels like it instead of properly putting a strong exit or explanation of what all happened to this Puritan family.
In short, while I wanted more out of the ending, there is enough here for a horror/suspense fan to appreciate, especially with the efforts given by cast and crew.
Movie aside, the special features are decent. Check out what you get:
· Audio Commentary with Director Robert Eggers
· “The Witch: A Primal Folklore” Featurette
· Salem Panel Q&A
· Design Gallery
The audio commentary is darn good, so don’t miss out on that, if you can. The featurette about the folklore is solid and interesting, as well as the Q/A and design gallery. There is also a gag reel somewhere (I saw it online), which I highly recommend locating once you watch the movie. It seems a bit more warped after viewing of the film. Just a bit.
Anyway, solid added value to a good, creepy experience.
Onto the summary.
