Matinee: The Witch

Okay, so, and I should make this abundantly clear, I am a huge chicken when it comes to horror movies. Like, I can only watch them during the day with my boyfriend and then only if I can sleep with the lights on. I really don't do horror. Which is why I surprised myself (and my brother who was brought along for the ride) when I went to go see The Witch: A New England Folk-Tale (2015) in theaters. I'm really excited about this movie, so we're going to launch right in.

This glorious gem debuted at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and was widely loved and praised. So much so that it was released for the plebs (ie, us) in February of 2016. Critics loved the shit out of this movie. General audiences did not. Even in the theater I went to, the end of the film had a lot of head shaking and loud complaints. Not me, mind you; I walked out very happy. 

How can this be? Re: Does not do horror films well. The Witch was the victim of a bad marketing campaign. Every single ad I saw hailed it as "THE MOST TERRIFYING FILM OF THE YEAR!!!1!!1!" Now, to be fair, literally every horror movie markets itself this way, and we know they can't all be TEH MOST TERRIFRYING FILM OF THE YEER, but the ads really did work against this movie. The Witch is set in colonial America, around the time the puritans reigned supreme, and follows a family outcast by their village and forced to live on the edge of a terrifying woods. The film tackles religion, inflexible doctrine, man vs. nature, puberty and manages to wrap it all into one disturbing package. 

But it isn't a horror movie in the sense of the genre. For one thing, there are very few jump scares, which in a way the film almost plays with. We are lead through holding our breath, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. While there is a supernatural presence, it in no way dominates the film, and the focus is always and forever on man's struggle against evil. It is extremely psychological, with a good dose of religion thrown in just for the fun of it. After all, how man faces evil is the basis of every fictional story to date. 

The Witch was dark, It was suspenseful. It was deeply religious. It tracked six people's fall from grace and how they deal with the evil within themselves. It was amazing. I went in with no expectations, and I was blown away by how powerful and masterful this film was. The only strike against it is that the actors all have extremely thick accents which makes understanding them difficult at times. 

Part of the movie's strength comes from its roots in puritan lore and history. The witch hysteria that gripped that time period, while a decidedly black mark on our history, is a good source of cinematic inspiration. Reportedly most of the film's dialogue came from period sources documenting such events, which lends an air of authenticity to the whole thing. 

Plus I think the goat they got was actually Satan, so bonus points for accuracy.

For me, this movie echoed the short story "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, an american writer who spent much time focused on the people of Salem and their dark history. In both instances, it's a terrifying, deeply disturbing picture of doubt and fear. Because The Witch was scary; not in a jump scare cheap thrills kind of way, but in a way that bothers you and nags at the back of your mind. And I absolutely love it.

Next up we'll be launching into Nazi Germany for what I thought was a historical film but turns out why would I ever believe that even for a second it's directed by Quentin Tarantino. 

Cheers!

Sassa