Gone are the days of old horror, when Alfred Hitchcock in Rear Window could create fear simply by building a scene up, no guts or knife wounds required. Horror has become a bloodbath and a jump-scare fest in the modern age. When the trailers for The VVitch started playing, however, it seemed a familiar setting, and yet, it played a slightly different tune, one that hearkened back to the days of not showing too much, but letting the audience create their own fear.
Atmospheric and boasting little gore, The VVitch promised to be a return for horror fans to true terror, rather than cheap scares and bloody copouts. I went to view it this past week hoping that it would be a new style of horror film, different than what we've been seeing as of late. For fans of horror, it was an opportunity for something new, and it kind of missed the mark, at least for what it promised. I just didn't get it. It had all the right ingredients. So where did it go wrong? Let's take a look at how it should have worked, and why it didn't, shall we?
The VVitch started off with a good setting, keeping it close to home horror-wise in a Salem-style Puritan town, a theme horror movie audiences would be familiar with and attracted to. It presented us with a simple enough story of a typical Puritan family being banished from their town and sent to live on the outskirts of the nearby woods. This formula was a perfect set-up because, as has been proven time and time again, "cabin in the woods" style movies do very well horror-wise. This is probably because, even in our modern day and age, we find that forest-influenced isolation terrifying, a nod back to German fairytales that used to scare children into avoiding the woods with similar themes of witches and monsters.
Another aspect The VVitch had going for it was the fact that its cast was primarily unknown. The only two big names were Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie, who are only really primarily known for television series, and limited movies. Using relatively unrecognizable actors usually allows for a suspension of disbelief that is crucial in horror films.
Finally, The VVitch had atmosphere on its side. Scenes really played to its minimal lighting and use of darkness and shadow to amp up the suspense. I think that's where the failure of The VVitch as a horror movie really lies, though. The rub is that it's not a bad film. It's a great film that can't decide what it wants to be. It focuses so much on the suspense that it simmers and never really reaches its potential as the horror film it was promised to be. Ultimately, it is a good attempt at bringing back old style horror but just misses the mark. With that being said, I still highly recommend that you view it for yourself and enjoy it for what it is as a truly great suspense film, but perhaps not quite a horror one.
