The Witch

In 1630, a farmer relocates his family to a remote plot of land on the edge of a forest where strange, unsettling things happen. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, each family member's faith, loyalty and love are tested in shocking ways.

  • Released: 2015-01-27
  • Runtime: 92 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
  • Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson, Bathsheba Garnett , Sarah Stephens, Julian Richings, Daniel Malik, Axtun Henry Dube, Athan Conrad Dube, Vivien Moore, Karen Kaeja, Brandy Leary, R. Hope Terry, Carrie Eklund, Madlen Sopadzhiyan, Paul Kenworthy, Mark Millmna, Andy Volpe, Phillip Wynne, Annawon Weeden, Michael O’Hare, Chris Messier, Ron Young, Nora Messier, Bill Rudder, Grace Duffy, Sophie Bermudez, Corrine Manning, Heather Fisher
  • Director: Robert Eggers
 Comments
  • gssssym - 14 December 2022
    If you gave the Crucible a vvicked budget, a pretentious director and take away the writing you get this
    At a loss with this one. The director clearly knows how to make a period piece look stunning. Costumes, cinematography and all that is top notch. But who are these people and why should I care? When you don't have an engaging story to tell, all that stuff is just fancy window dressing.

    Watching the movie just felt like a long version of the trailer. After 10 minutes I didn't know any more about the characters, setting or story than I lesrned feom the trailer. The movie crawls ahead with nothing happening besides an hours long commercial for itself and how "authentic" a film the director can make.

    Toss in some sudden "shocking" gross footage cribbed right out of a 1990s Tool music video and by that point I've been thoroughly put off this pompous sham of a series of moving images. Nothing in the film served much purpose besides showing off cinematography. Pretty good as a trailer and would have made a fine MTV music video. As an hour plus meandering with no story or characters I am interested in, yet with wannabe high literary pretensions, why the hell should I stick around for that?
  • W_L_Campbell - 19 October 2022
    Childish and Laughable
    As with most modern horror films, the premise of "The Witch" is tired, the visuals bleak for "effect," and the writing is terrible. What irked me most was that it began with promise and tapered off into a wandering, laughable tale that rang of cautionary tales told to young children to scare them into behaving, which, according to the disclaimer in the credits, is where the source material was derived. Clearly, however, there is a market for this drivel, as evidenced by the glowing critical reviews here.

    Another reviewer stated that "'The Witch' lives...as a horror movie for cinephiles, not for audiences who love the thrill of a good scare." As a cinephile, I can state with certainty that a true cinephile would do well to steer clear of "The Witch" and choose to watch "Dumb and Dumber" to cleanse their mental palate and to again appreciate clarity of purpose in film.