I just watched this superb movie. It is not a horror movie (which was a relief since I'm not a fan of the genre). In fact, except for a few horrifying moments, it's not that scary. What it is, it seemed to me, is a brilliant dissection of the paranoid in American culture -- a movie every bit as contemporary to our current political season as "The Crucible" was to McCarthyism. It's become a cliche to discuss the paranoid streak in American politics in the context of the Tea Party, and how this formerly marginal tendency in our politics has now been mainstreamed by the GOP under Trump. But this movie goes way beyond cliche to examine how we got this way: the original link between religious fanaticism that landed at Plymouth Rock and, in the dark, scary wilderness took root and transmogrified into a paranoia instantly recognizable in this movie as something very modern, despite the antique dress and period speech. Yes, the demons are real in this movie. They walk amongst us and the outcome -- whether evil or good will triumph -- is in doubt. Just as in our own time. A brilliant move, brilliantly rendered.
19
At about the halfway point -- at which it seemed like a realistic treatment of life, farming, early colonists, Puritan religion -- I was enjoying this film (except the dialog is VERY hard to make out, all mumble-mouthed and the volume going up and down unpredictably) -- and then it started reminding me, as it got crazier & crazier, of a TV commercial I loved.
I can't remember the product, but it showed a medieval pub, and one guy stands up and says "what if we abandoned superstition? and witch craft? and folk tales? and instead used logic and reason? and science?" The pub is quiet for a few seconds, then a rousing call arises... "WITCH! burn him at the stake!" and they carry the guy off.
It's funny because it's kinda true. If you went back in time, with what most average people now know about science and technology and history and math .... they'd burn you at the stake.
However, it's strange to see a movie made that takes that position, and sees no irony or illogic in it, that says it's all real, and I guess our uneducated, illiterate superstitious ancestors had it right all along.
"WITTTCH!"
I can't remember the product, but it showed a medieval pub, and one guy stands up and says "what if we abandoned superstition? and witch craft? and folk tales? and instead used logic and reason? and science?" The pub is quiet for a few seconds, then a rousing call arises... "WITCH! burn him at the stake!" and they carry the guy off.
It's funny because it's kinda true. If you went back in time, with what most average people now know about science and technology and history and math .... they'd burn you at the stake.
However, it's strange to see a movie made that takes that position, and sees no irony or illogic in it, that says it's all real, and I guess our uneducated, illiterate superstitious ancestors had it right all along.
"WITTTCH!"
3
Er, did you notice the bit at the start where a baby vanished in seconds, and then is butchered by a woman who smears something red over her body?
it was always real.
it was always real.
4
This was the most boring movie ever, not only did I want my money back but also my time.
2
I will say the goat (Black Phillip) was very good.
3
This is not a horror movie, it's a twisted attempt to advertise Christianism. It is to "The Crucible" what Spongebob is to Moby DIck.
Everybody's starving except those chubby twins, so why aren't they the first suspects — or Thanksgiving dinner?
Everybody's starving except those chubby twins, so why aren't they the first suspects — or Thanksgiving dinner?
3
I didn't take it as an advertisement of Christianity just because the devil exists. As the father points out, according to his Calvinist faith, there's no way to know whether any one of them will make it to heaven. In his faith, it's not about good acts or being free of sin, it's about being predetermined by god.
So if you're born in sin and there's no guarantee that you're going to make it to heaven, why not make a deal with the devil? You're still likely to end up damned, but at least you'll live deliciously.
So if you're born in sin and there's no guarantee that you're going to make it to heaven, why not make a deal with the devil? You're still likely to end up damned, but at least you'll live deliciously.
8
"Twisted attempt to advertise Christianism" seems to miss the point of the movie entirely. If anything, it's the exact opposite-- the perils of religious fanaticism.
19
This was not a horror flick. Many people attended this film expecting to scared, as if looking for some emotion that needs to be expressed in themselves. This was a folk story of early America. As such, it has historical value, because it depicts the horrific thinking of people of that age. Modern Americans are ignorant of that cultural base that still exists in today's society, but is less pronounced. It is badly in need of subtitles. The traditional language of that era is actually a foreign language today. Let's hope the producers of this cultural folk tale get this message and make the change.
1
"it has historical value, because it depicts the horrific thinking of people of that age. Modern Americans are ignorant of that cultural base that still exists in today's society, but is less pronounced."
No, this movie endorses the ignorance of that cultural base. It tells us witches and demonic talking goats are real, so hurry off to the nearest (Christian) church before it's too late!
No, this movie endorses the ignorance of that cultural base. It tells us witches and demonic talking goats are real, so hurry off to the nearest (Christian) church before it's too late!
4
just watched this movie 2 days ago. spur of the moment whim b/c I'd read the NYT review & the NYT's article about its "authenticity," and it hasn't opened in Germany yet (as far as I know).
my review: it bit. Not scary, totally absurd and [SPOILER ALERT] I have just a little something against seeing a baby killed for its blood. but i did feel that the actor who played Caleb (who gets no mention in this review) turned in a quality performance.
my review: it bit. Not scary, totally absurd and [SPOILER ALERT] I have just a little something against seeing a baby killed for its blood. but i did feel that the actor who played Caleb (who gets no mention in this review) turned in a quality performance.
2
Better than scary - plausible. I'll bet plenty of people lost their minds in those conditions and I'll it darn sure looked alot like the movie depicts.
Grant Wood prototypes? No relationship to Iowa in 1930 to be found in this particular masterpiece. Cripes. At least draw your analogy from the right century.
Grant Wood prototypes? No relationship to Iowa in 1930 to be found in this particular masterpiece. Cripes. At least draw your analogy from the right century.
4
"Better than scary - plausible."
You believe in witches and talking demonic goats?
You believe in witches and talking demonic goats?
2
@Neal: LOL
I kinda thought as a society, even among pretty darn religious people (at least, the mainstream religions), nobody believes in witchcraft anymore.
Witchcraft is for hippies, who think they are Wiccan. And it's "white witchcraft".
I mean, seriously, folks....not even Pentecostal religions believe in this stuff. Talking demonic goats?
I can see this as a kind of horror story, like "The Babbadook", where it turns out not to be typical horror at all, but the tragic and sad mental breakdown of a stressed out single mother....terrifying in its own way, but not supernatural at all. Surely a 1630s family, isolated and starving, could have fallen apart in this terrible way.
But the director decided to take it in the direction of a horror film -- it's all real! not in their heads! not psychological! the goat did it!
I kinda thought as a society, even among pretty darn religious people (at least, the mainstream religions), nobody believes in witchcraft anymore.
Witchcraft is for hippies, who think they are Wiccan. And it's "white witchcraft".
I mean, seriously, folks....not even Pentecostal religions believe in this stuff. Talking demonic goats?
I can see this as a kind of horror story, like "The Babbadook", where it turns out not to be typical horror at all, but the tragic and sad mental breakdown of a stressed out single mother....terrifying in its own way, but not supernatural at all. Surely a 1630s family, isolated and starving, could have fallen apart in this terrible way.
But the director decided to take it in the direction of a horror film -- it's all real! not in their heads! not psychological! the goat did it!
1
Sadly, "The Witch" got little respect from the audience when I saw it -- perhaps because its marketers pitched it as a horror flick. I found it scary, but by implication -- because it takes a more literary than literal approach to horror.
Rather than gore us, "The Witch" portrays social dynamics that suggest our fear should focus on the demons inside us. The historical backdrop takes us into the pre-scientific world to expose the primitive conflicts embedded in our baser impulses -- as acted out in the nuclear family.
The escalation of deceptions, unspoken tensions and shifting suspicions feels modern -- having been renewed by pseudo-reality carnage on Survivor, Bachelor, and Apprentice -- which use claustrophobic artifice to stimulate symbolic cannibalism. Fear of eternal damnation and present starvation drives these conflicts (instead of celebrity, sexuality, or greed), reminding us how anachronistically we can or have slipped into these base behaviors.
"The Witch" joins "Aferim" in warning us that cruelty and mutual destruction await those who would revert to the pre-scientific era. Both suggest that we should encourage STEM education to provide all our neighbors with foundations that help us avoid behaving like throwbacks.
Rather than gore us, "The Witch" portrays social dynamics that suggest our fear should focus on the demons inside us. The historical backdrop takes us into the pre-scientific world to expose the primitive conflicts embedded in our baser impulses -- as acted out in the nuclear family.
The escalation of deceptions, unspoken tensions and shifting suspicions feels modern -- having been renewed by pseudo-reality carnage on Survivor, Bachelor, and Apprentice -- which use claustrophobic artifice to stimulate symbolic cannibalism. Fear of eternal damnation and present starvation drives these conflicts (instead of celebrity, sexuality, or greed), reminding us how anachronistically we can or have slipped into these base behaviors.
"The Witch" joins "Aferim" in warning us that cruelty and mutual destruction await those who would revert to the pre-scientific era. Both suggest that we should encourage STEM education to provide all our neighbors with foundations that help us avoid behaving like throwbacks.
18
""The Witch" portrays social dynamics that suggest our fear should focus on the demons inside us."
Absolutely not. The film says witches are real, so there's no point in thought or introspection — haul your sinning hide to the nearest church!
Absolutely not. The film says witches are real, so there's no point in thought or introspection — haul your sinning hide to the nearest church!
2
WARNING: There are some insightful comments here, but if you haven't seen the movie and want to enjoy the full flavor, don't read them beforehand because several thoughtless people spilled the beans plot-wise!
If you love the spooky and puritanical aspects of American history, you won't be disappointed. Loved, loved this film.
If you love the spooky and puritanical aspects of American history, you won't be disappointed. Loved, loved this film.
15
One problem: it wasn't scary.
3
Excellent review, Manohla. And a psychologically scary film. I loved the look and language of the characters, and the story is just off the chains. Superb old world horror.
12
I really liked this movie. I wondered about the prevalence of rotting ears of corn around the family's farm, and if that was a gesture to the theory that ergot fungus poisoning caused much of the 'demonic' behavior during the time of the Salem Witch trials. Regardless, a beautifully shot and acted film, with much to contemplate and discuss after.
17
I wondered the same thing about the ergot fungus poisoning. Nothing was made of it, but I was still left wondering if what we were watching was an isolated family going mad.
10
To me The Witch was like a scary fairy tale with archetypal characters. And yes, it got bloody sometimes. I have seen o†her horror movies that left me feeling empty, with nothing to learn. This movie is different. I don't know how to say this but sense of horror here comes from the inside of the characters and then it gets externalized into the events. The film is done with exquisite attention to details. It's an art film. The only thing I have to mention is that I could not understand most of the dialogues because they were spoken in 17th century English. Maybe because English is not my first language. However, I don't see it as a negative thing. Just the opposite, it made the story telling more organic. Bravo to this filmmakers!
12
A remarkable film which puts the viewer into the world of these people, the natural world virtually made from their supernatural world view. To live, most of your days, hour to hour, mainly with anxiety about your moral and spiritual condition, fear of God's punishment, and know the world is inhabited by evil makes this an extraordinary film.
12
The first thing I noticed when watching the Times video review was the firewood was cut with a chainsaw. They apparently spent their prop budget on the clothes and forgot that one tiny detail. I think they were about 200 years early with the chain saw.
Pretty funny to see those beautiful flat cuts in a cord of wood that should have looked like beavers chopped it up. That was it for me. Just like the cheap Westerns of my youth with finished 2x4s and modern nails... UnWilling suspension of disbelief strikes again.
Pretty funny to see those beautiful flat cuts in a cord of wood that should have looked like beavers chopped it up. That was it for me. Just like the cheap Westerns of my youth with finished 2x4s and modern nails... UnWilling suspension of disbelief strikes again.
4
There is another Times article about how much effort they put into authenticity, including using the right saws and nothing modern from Home Depot, so it seems they wouldn't have used a chainsaw. But what I was wondering, in looking at the photo of the farm in the article (I saw the film and thought everything was just as bleak as they were intending it to look, but didn't have this thought until reading the article), the buildings look very weather-beaten, as if they were built from the kind of old, gray reclaimed barn wood you see all over the Midwest. Yet, these buildings were just built. I would assume they would be built from newly chopped wood. Would they look that old and weathered? Doesn't seem quite right.
1
They would have used a crosscut saw, which makes very clean cuts.
6
Yes, they would begin to look that weather beaten very soon, especially after a season or two without any sealer or finish, more so if they used fallen timbers. It would just not be uniform, affected by overhang, natural light that hits the walls etc.
3
The film depicted the chilling events that eventually allowed for a horrific
choice to be made by the most appealing child - Thomasin. Siblings
stolen, seducted, murdered. Was darkness truly present, and was a
witch about? After the father is murdered by Black Phillip, the great
horned goat, and Thomasin must kill her own mother to survive, the
opening for a choice is provided. She has been shattered, poor child,
and a proposition is made to her. Devasted by trauma, she accepts.
Ah, discernment would have been helpful gift at this time...
choice to be made by the most appealing child - Thomasin. Siblings
stolen, seducted, murdered. Was darkness truly present, and was a
witch about? After the father is murdered by Black Phillip, the great
horned goat, and Thomasin must kill her own mother to survive, the
opening for a choice is provided. She has been shattered, poor child,
and a proposition is made to her. Devasted by trauma, she accepts.
Ah, discernment would have been helpful gift at this time...
2
you may want to consider a review that doesn't give away basically the entire ending of the film.
8
Uh, except that is ridiculous. If a matador is killed in the bull ring, do you say the bull murdered him? Is Black Phillip a BILLY GOAT.....or is he Satan? Any angry animal with horns can kill you, if you are stupid enough to let them charge you.
Although full of atmosphere and authentic looking sets, the plot creaked more than the trees in the forest. I agree with the goat, baah. I kept thinking of Ingmar Bergmann and wished we could cut to a scene of Woody Allen and Diane Keaton walking out of a movie theater and discussing the film.
5
Authentic sets? They didn't even get the firewood right, it was cut with a chainsaw. And I just watched thirty seconds of the trailer. If they didn't get that right I'll bet dollars to donuts I could find fifty other errors.
I'm reminded of the line in Monty Python about how to tell who the king is.
I'm reminded of the line in Monty Python about how to tell who the king is.
1
Dude, seriously, you should leave your microscope and critical theory doctorate at home and just chill at the movies. It was a fun hour and a half. There's no need to nitpick. I don't think they're trying to win Oscars here.
12
I think this director saw Bergman's "Virgin Spring". Unlike the Salem Witch Trial, these witches are real. This isolated family comes face to chilling face with evil in the form of rabbits, goats, and perhaps most horrifying themselves. Eeggers has a lot to say here about religion and also a real palpable evil that exists in the world. People would be wrong to interpret this film as anti religion. The most effecting scene is the death scene of the young son, the best and purest of the family. I don't think anyone was breathing during the scene in the movie theater, it was so mesmerizing.
1
Ouch! Spoiler alert?
4
"People would be wrong to interpret this film as anti religion."
Quite the opposite, in fact. The movie is almost a commercial for a certain kind of fanatical Christianity.
Quite the opposite, in fact. The movie is almost a commercial for a certain kind of fanatical Christianity.
1
I'm intrigued. There are so few good horror films. A truly innovative and original horror film is a rare, rare bird. It's easy to take the horror genre for granted, as it's inclined to slum - there are tons of them clogging up Netflix, mostly of the straight-to-video ilk, all coming in a rather narrow assortment of flavors - but when a good one comes along, that's news. I suspect a truly good and original horror film is one of the toughest kinds of films to make.
6
I thought it was quite atmospheric and captured the time and era. Or at least that's my perception. These people were no fun--austere and humorless.
But the movie is suspenseful in the way that it is filmed and with no real background music, just the wind in the trees.
The witches are pretty good, too.
But the movie is suspenseful in the way that it is filmed and with no real background music, just the wind in the trees.
The witches are pretty good, too.
4
We just saw it and most of the reviews are far more eloquent than the movie... its too dark (visually) and too obtuse and the story is more like a case study than an actual fim. Fantasy, reality...lots of loose ends. Ready to really enjoy a good scary movie... very dissapointed. They tried but didn't succeed... in making us understand how hysteria happens. Maybe the white ribbon, but they should have watched The Village by M. Night Shyamala or The Blair Witch project. Just desolate from one end to the other... I would have preferred a good documentary.
8
Seriously? The Village? Blair Witch? I cannot relate. Up there with the babadook or whatever it was as an overwrought, annoying film.
2
Blair was an amateurish vertiginous mess compared to this. The horror of The Witch is in the mind. The beauty of this film also kills.
11
I agree with KLS. I also think reviewers are doing it a disservice to categorize it as a horror film. If you go in looking to be frightened you will surely be disappointed. As an art-house psychological study... maybe, but even then I'd be hard pressed to recommend it. Anya Taylor-Joy is very good, however, and that's the only thing I'll remember about it.
I feel like you missed the opportunity to say "Something Wiccan This Way Comes". I guess that's Daily News territory.
21
Before the normal complainer-posters ask, let me tell you: she liked the movie. Go see it.
8
Haven't seen the movie, but this review should win an Oscar.
14
"These are people who fervently believe both in the Devil and in God, and for whom witches are as real as trees;" This is why I skip these films.
7
Your loss.
9
When in comes to religion, the more things change, the more it stays the same.
This movie is actually timely and should remind us when we demonize others, we condemn ourselves to live our lives full of fear.
This movie is actually timely and should remind us when we demonize others, we condemn ourselves to live our lives full of fear.
50
More proof to Freud's observation, "religion is a mental illness".
22
Meh, did you stay for the ending? It actually turns out no one was "demonizing" anyone except an actual demon. No deep thinking to be had here.
1
You could certainly have told this same approximate story from the POV of modern secular history without any religiosity and say that the family was breaking down under pressure -- failure, hunger, doubt -- and so they devolved to the worst sort of superstitions, and eventually turned on one another.
However, that is NOT this film. This film posits it is all real -- demons, witches, black magic -- and that Satan exists in the form of a black billy goat.
I want my money back.
However, that is NOT this film. This film posits it is all real -- demons, witches, black magic -- and that Satan exists in the form of a black billy goat.
I want my money back.
Does anyone know why this is rated R? Most horror/thrillers are PG-13 for the spooky-creepy-make-you-jump scenes, so I'm curious. The reviewer concludes that the rating is "for toil and trouble," which doesn't tell me much. If my teenager asks me to take her, I just want to know what we're in for. I don't care if there's profanity or nudity, although that seems doubtful inside of a movie about New England Puritans. Thanks in advance for your feedback.
5
From what I have read in other reviews the ending gets quite bloody and violent. I have not seen it yet, so I cannot confirm that.
2
There are websites that gives families more information about content when deciding if appropriate for their children. One is called Kids In Mind and gives a very detailed synopsis of actual scenes for its ratings of Sex & Nudity 5, Violence & Gore 7, and Profanity 3.
4
The ending is violent and bloody. In fact quite a bit of the movie violent and bloody including baby sacrifice. Only for older teenagers and above.