The Witch

Tonight's horror flick was an excursion into colonial witchcraft with, name on point, The Witch. A (very) Puritan family is kicked out of small colonial plantation and strikes out on their own in the New England wilderness. However, things aren't all peachy keen in the backwoods; there's a witch (witches?) that begin tearing the family apart. Some family members begin blaming the daughter, Thomasin, saying that she is the witch; their arguments are mostly based on a badly-timed practical joke by Thomasin. Yeah, maybe jokes about being a witch after your baby brother has disappeared is ill advised. Just sayin'.

The film is shot beautifully and creates an atmosphere that feels true to what colonial New England must have been like, right down to the old-timey English. The writer/director, Robert Eggers, went to extensive lengths to incorporate real folktales of the time as well as the paranoia and religious fanaticism that were present at the time. Eggers uses this rigidity and fear of the supernatural to create an incredibly unique coming of age film. Witches, satan, creepy goats, crows that like nipples, and gaggingly-gross naked hags aside, the film is really about Thomasin's growing up and leaving her rigid parents/family behind. It's unique and I can't stop thinking about it, trying to unravel it more. If a horror flick can do that it's won me over. 

All the excellence of this film considered, the only thing keeping it from true greatness is more of a connective, explanatory thread to tie the well-done moments together. The movie in pieces is excellent, but as a whole it feels like it's missing something to connect everything. This is really a minor peeve, because this is really the most beautiful and well-shot movie I've seen about wrinkly, saggy-breasted witches in the middle of the (eerie) New England woods--and that's saying something. 

9/10