Tuesday, March 8, 2016
As most of my friends can probably tell you, horror is one of my favorite genres (second only to dark comedy, if I’m being honest.) But, like any real horror fan, I have been disappointed with where the genre has gone in the last decade or so. Horror has moved away from scaring you with ambiance and themes to being all about gore and straight up torture porn. But in the last few years we have seen a couple of real horror gems that remind me of the classics that I fell in love with as a kid. And The Witch is definitely one of those gems.
The Witch follows the story of a deeply religious family who is banished from their plantation and forced to live right on the edge of the woods in, what I can only assume is, Massachusetts. With that information, I’m sure you can put two and two together (with the title) as to what happens throughout the film. But trust me when I say: it is not a generic haunting film like you’ve seen so many times in the past.
The thing that The Witch excels most at is the environment. It so perfectly sets up every single member of this family (and even the farm animals they have) as real characters. Where most modern horror films would rely on jump scares and gore, this one relies purely on atmosphere.
Robert Eggers’ directorial debut is an absolute slam dunk in every sense of the word. The film is so deftly shot as to not give the audience a single moment of relaxation. This film pulls no punches. It lingers when you want it so badly to turn away. It shows you exactly what you don’t want to see. It gives extreme closeups when the only thing you desire is to see the whole vignette. And I know that this all sounds bad...but that would be for a normal film. All of these key visual features add to the tension of the film. This film expertly builds up the tension and makes the audience so uncomfortable that when the phenomenal third act comes to an end, everyone will be left awestruck.
Overall, the most impressive thing about The Witch is how well it captures the audience’s attention and how it so easily drops modern day viewers into the thought process of a 1630’s family. It was really fascinating seeing how seriously this family took the idea of a witch terrorizing their household. I felt so immersed in the ambiance of the film that it never occurred to me that the eponymous witch was barely ever on screen. And even more so, none of the characters in the film actually encounter her until more than halfway through the runtime. Many current “monster movies” heavily rely on the presence of their monster to keep the audience scared, but this movie relies on the lack of appearance. This movie only needs to plant the idea of the witch into the family’s mind to put fear into ours. It’s really quite masterfully done.
Honestly, The Witch is one of the best horror movies I have seen released in my lifetime. It’s up there with the likes of It Follows, The Babadook, Kill List, and Cabin in the Woods.
And if you're interested in hearing more about The Witch and modern horror, check out this week's No Refunds podcast!
