Robert Egger’s directorial debut follows a 17th century Puritan family after they are forced to leave their small New England community for an unspecified crime.
‘We will conquer this wilderness; it will not consume us,’ says the family’s patriarch (Ralph Ineson) as he surveys the ancient woodland he and his family choose to make their new home near.
A few months pass and then a terrible event occurs when youngest child Samuel is abducted whilst under the care of his sister Thomasin (Anya-Taylor Joy). The uncertainty of his fate tests the faith of the family and begins to push them towards greater behavioural extremes.
Although The Witch can be classed as a horror, it is more interested in atmosphere and the psychology of its characters than it is jumpscares or overt blood and gore. This means the film takes its time to gets under your skin.
Some excellent cinematography from Jarin Blaschke also lends the forest surrounding the family’s home real immensity and menace, to the extent where it almost becomes a character itself.
Also worth noting are the cast with Ralph Ineson effectively, and disturbingly, portraying a man whose convictions and control of his family are broken down by forces he doesn’t understand. Anya-Taylor Joy also gives a promising and multifaceted turn as the family’s eldest daughter Thomasine.
If there’s one thing that plays against the film, it's its lack of ambiguity. Any mystery as to whether there is or isn’t a real supernatural force in the woods is quickly dispelled in the first twenty minutes. Such explicitness only serves to weaken the film's more psychological aspects.
The ending, whilst interesting on a number of levels, is also not completely unexpected and fails to deliver the knockout punch essential to a masterful horror film.
Star Rating: 3/5
No comments:
Post a Comment