The Witch

DogsLoveMe 1/10/2026 4:35:46PM 8.4

One of the best movies I've ever seen. The acting, the lighting, the writing were all divine. Also, even though this is a horror movie, I liked it because I'm a bit of a scaredy cat. I don't like horrors that have a bunch of gore or jump scares.

FolknHell 8/25/2026 9:59:48PM 8.4

Robert Eggers’ *The Witch* does something rather nastier than simply putting a witch in the woods. It builds a family perfectly capable of destroying itself, then puts the Devil close enough to offer assistance. William takes his family out of their settlement in pursuit of religious purity and promptly creates a tiny kingdom governed by his own pride. The crops fail, money disappears, truths are withheld and Thomasin occupies the particularly unenviable position of being old enough to work, old enough to blame, but not old enough to possess any meaningful authority. By the time anyone seriously accuses her of witchcraft, the family has already constructed the machinery required to believe it. Eggers makes that machinery horribly convincing. Samuel vanishes during a game of peekaboo with an impossibility that the film barely underlines. There is open ground everywhere except towards the forest, so Thomasin walks towards the forest. What else can she do? That refusal to overplay the impossible becomes one of the film’s great strengths. Even the supernatural arrives with unnerving discretion, right down to the almost subliminal progression from Black Phillip’s hoof to the boot of something considerably less goat-shaped. Meanwhile, the human details hurt more. Katherine climbing into Caleb’s grave beside him is seen at a distance, a tiny action inside a huge landscape, and says more about her grief than another page of Puritan anguish could manage. Caleb’s extraordinary death scene and the shrieking twins around him make faith itself feel contagious. There is an interesting argument that *The Witch* need not even be supernatural: bad crops, religious mania and a story subsequently told as New England folklore could explain plenty. The film rather spoils that tidy escape route by showing us the witch when nobody is there to hallucinate her. Quite right too. The richer idea is that the witches are real **and** this family has made itself exquisitely vulnerable to them. That is why Thomasin’s ending works. She has not secretly been the witch all along. She becomes one. Her approach to the coven is hesitant, almost appalled, until she rises with the others and something finally changes in her face. After ninety minutes of obedience, accusation and misery, living deliciously does have quite the sales pitch. --- Reviewed by FolknHell, the folk horror film podcast · folknhell com Hear the full FolknHell podcast discussion of The Witch: folknhell com/the-witch-review along with our other reviews, transcripts and episodes.

Reno 5/16/2024 3:18:29PM 8.4

> While an evil force slowly possessing them, the family bond is put on a test. The film was based on the collection of a series of the real events that takes place in the 17th century New England. The story of a farmer family who came across the ocean, but now lives on the edge of the forest after denied permission to build a house in a village. When the newborn baby disappears in a thin air, the family begins to experience the mysterious events. Without a clue about the happenings, the evil force begins to possess them while the unity of the family is tested. Wow, finally a wonderful horror-psychological-thriller. Usually horror films are the worst kind compared with other genres, because most of them overly rely on the sudden sound/noise and gore. But there are many awesome horror films I had liked which were better story than the graphical presentation, like this one. So I love good narration than those try to scare me with make-ups, stunts and sound mixings. It was a limited cast film, sets in a beautiful remote place and the language was awesome that perfectly suits for the horror theme like this. Everyone's performance was brilliant. It is just a one million dollar film and the entire film was shot within a month. The records are not matter when the writing and the direction were top notch. Especially for a first timer it was a remarkable achievement. A simple plot, developed greatly and the suspense was the highlight. Yet viewers expect more explanation, but I'm happy for what it is and it should not go deeper than that which might spoil its unique flavour. Not just horror film fans, everyone should try it if they're capable to handle the slow narration. Finally, like usual, here I won't ask for a sequel, because it'll make an amazing one off film than the dozens of crappy follow ups. 8/10