It’s difficult to make a good movie in any genre, but it’s especially difficult to make a good horror movie. Why? Because it’s tough to predict what will scare people, and because horror movies today are running out of plots. You don’t see classics like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, or Carrie being made anymore. However, there are still some filmmakers that bring a refreshingly spooky new twist to the horror genre. Robert Eggers, director of the supernatural horror film The Witch, is one of those filmmakers.
Set in 1630s New England, The Witch follows a Puritan family who has immigrated to the New World to seek a better life: deeply religious father William, homesick mother Katherine, troubled teenage daughter Thomasin, rambunctious twins Jonas and Mercy, astute brother Caleb, and their newborn son Samuel. Banished from their New England settlement over a disagreement in religious beliefs, the family heads out on their own, building a home and farm for themselves at the edge of the wilderness. All seems well…for a time.
Strange things start happening. Baby Samuel is taken from right under Thomasin’s nose. The crops fail. The family goat gives blood instead of milk. Jonas and Mercy swear the goat speaks to them in human language. And of course, there’s a mysterious woman in the woods who seems to be around whenever something creepy happens.
Unlike a lot of horror movies, The Witch isn’t particularly gory, and it rarely resorts to jump-scares. What makes The Witch scary is how it gets in your head and messes with your mind, just like it does with the characters’ minds. The hysteria gradually builds throughout the movie, until all hell breaks loose and the family can no longer tell what’s real and what’s not. Psychologically shaken by their isolation and the events tearing apart their family, the family members turn on each other, suspecting that witchcraft is responsible for the family’s misfortune. Seeing the action unfold through the characters’ eyes, viewers are also caught up in the hysteria: is one of the family members a witch? Or is something (or someone) else responsible for the strange incidents? We never find out until the very end. And even then, we’re left with more questions than answers.
As a horror fan, and a huge history nerd, I was glad to see a horror film that not only scared me, but was faithful to the time period in which it took place. The language, the costumes, the religion, the beliefs, and the architecture all are faithful to the seventeenth century. Eggers used actual court records, journal entries, and folktales from the time period to write the dialogue, and seventeenth century technology to build the houses and stitch the costumes. Viewers feel like they’re actually in 1630s New England as they watch the movie.
I recommend The Witch for anyone who loves horror, or anyone who wants to see a spooky twist on a traditional New England folktale.
