La bruja

The Witch is just a great horror film. I loved so much about it. It has a great creepy feel to it, a dark evil vibe mixed in, and a touch of urban legend sprinkled on top.

The film takes place in such a secluded location that it instantly gives you a feeling of loneliness and dread before it even unfolds its beautifully constructed storyline. I loved the plot, the timing, the acting... basically everything about the film. It's also a brilliant display of female empowerment, which is common among horror films, but in a whole new way that's different from the standard last surviving girl motif.

Whether you're a fan of horror, or just great films in general... I highly suggest The Witch to everyone.

A very strong and deserving 8 out of 10!

This is a story set in the early colonial period of New England. It has the authenticity of a well-researched historical drama, up to and including dialogue delivered in a period accent and vocabulary (softened a bit so that it's easy to understand). Instead of drawing on historical events, though, it draws on historical folklore -- it's the story of witchcraft afflicting a family, such as might have been told at the time.

The characters are a very believable, ordinary family, with the sorts of tensions and problems you'd expect from people living a hard and substantially isolated life after being exiled from the local colonial town. They also have period Calvinist attitudes, and the storytelling doesn't present an outsider's view of this or offer a modern commentary, but instead it just displays these attitudes and tells a story from the characters' standpoint.

Their reliance on period folklore means that it doesn't strictly follow modern horror movie tropes, either. It has the slow build of a modern psychological horror/thriller as well as the standard formula where tragedies start from tragic flaws, but the traditions it's drawing on depend on a Calvinist's conception of flaws, and treat witchcraft as a horrible, well-understood occurrence rather than a shocking supernatural surprise. This story applies these perspectives.

It's very well done in terms of writing, acting, and other aspects of execution, so it might have cross-over appeal to fans of horror, folklore, or straight period drama from colonial America.

This is more of a historical psychological thriller than a Hollywood blood and guts horror film.

The film is a loving and accurate recreation of Puritan New England in the 1600s with everything from the language to the sets being authentic to the period. That in and of itself makes it fascinating to watch. Having lived in Virginia, where the Jamestown Settlement and the 1600s sometimes can seem like they happened the day before yesterday, I especially enjoyed the film. The location, in Ontario, reminded me of rural Virginia in winter, which made me quite homesick. So the film might have affected me more than some other audience members.

The Witch is a fascinating glimpse into Christianity as practiced by 17th century Puritans. Satan and Evil are almost tangible presences in the woods and wilderness of the New World, while God is a distant, cold, and demanding being who must be constantly begged for forgiveness and mercy, since all human thoughts, words, and deeds seem to be gravely sinful and offensive to his eyes.

A family of seven (parents, four children, and an infant) are exiled from their plantation community for not adhering to the accepted interpretation of scripture. They build a farm at a distance from the plantation near a frightening wood. The farm is failing (the family won't have food to last the winter). Meanwhile, the infant has been snatched from the oldest daughter while in her care at the edge of the wood. From this point on the family either descends into madness or is destroyed by Satan in the form of a witch who lives nearby in the woods. How the family's disintegration is interpreted will depend on which century's point of view you choose to use.

When you leave the theater in stunned silence, I think the film did its job. The Witch is the next low budget horror film to reach the theaters this year, and it's easily the best. The film rarely ever relies on jump scares to get your head spinning as the core of this film's brilliance lies with its haunting imagery and eerie score.

It's hard for an audience of this day and age to get into a period piece set in the 17th century without any big name actors or action elements. And I have to admit that I wasn't sure I wanted to see a film like this, especially with its horror elements. But my eyes were pealed from beginning to end. I wouldn't say anything about the story shocked me or had me confused, but the imagery, score, and uncompromising nature to Robert Egger's direction left me breathless. Within 10 minutes I was looking at the screen and whispering to myself "why would you go there?", "Don't do that!", or "come on, really?". Not because I thought it was poor story- telling, but because I was so invested as to what these characters were doing.

With that said, I don't think this film is for everyone. It's brutal, harshly relentless, and utterly disturbing. The characters use all 17th century dialogue and the cinematography sets this grey and ominous tone. The imagery from beginning to end will stick in your head as it has done with me. But that's the way horror films should be. I wouldn't say it's more a psychological thriller because there are plenty of terrifying moments, but it is more for the 'Under the Skin' crowd than it is for people who love 'The Conjuring'. Even in its harsh moments, I was always invested and I can't deny the quality of the writing, directing, and acting all around. This is how you make a horror film.

+Terrifying imagery

+Egger's direction

+Invested from beginning to end

-Sometimes the dialogue is difficult to follow

7.6/10

To say I didn't get what I was expecting is a huge understatement, I was expecting a run of the mill horror, with all the usual cliches, obvious and blatant scares, etc, but instead I got to watch ninety minutes of rather subtle, intelligent and subtle horror. The film is hugely atmospheric, moody and tense, it is visually fantastic, with great scenery and costumes. The story unfolds cleverly, when I think of witches, this is what comes to mind, as opposed to the more conventional. As you watch you never quite know what's coming next, or who the malign force truly is. Some truly unsettling and disturbing scenes, it's not a horror in the conventional sense, the scares are not cheap, but very poignant. Very good performance from the cast, Ralph Inseson and Kate Dickie in particular. On occasion the dialogue sounded a little flat, but it was in keeping with the setting of the movie.

Very watchable.