The Witch
The Witch
R | 19 February 2016 (USA)
The Witch Trailers

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.

Reviews
annaily

Acting, dialogue, sets, cinematography, and editing were all great. One star given for each of those, so 5/10, but the entire plot is awful, and i cant go any higher than that.I was not expecting or hoping for a super scary horror movie, so thats not why I dont like it. It is very intense, but its really stupid and by the end, just became goofy.So as we all know, witches arent real, and the religious persecution of women believed to be witches is a result of cult-like think and fear and possibly mental illness of those who chose to claim they were witches. This movie, however, asserts that witches are 100% real. Okay.. so lets suspend our disbelief. It is no longer the real world but a world where actual satanic witches who act through satan with magical evil powers exist. Even once you accept that, the behavior of Thomassin is still completely illogical. It turns out she was right that the goat was satan. She sees her whole family possessed and killed and kills her own mother in self defense. So she then decides to join the witches. What??? She wasn't a witch the whole movie. We saw that. We see it through Thomassin's own eyes. We saw that she didn't harm the baby - an actual witch did. She didn't harm Caleb - an actual witch did. She was an innocent party, not possessed, and instead was trying to help her family. Then suddenly at the recognition that her whole family was dead, she decides to join them and they all float in the air naked around a fire.I dont think that this young girl who was very plainly asserted to us to be a loving, faithful daughter who was wrongly blamed for someone else's wrongdoings would suddenly join the witches at the end.So if she actually was a witch throughout the whole movie, as it sometimes is suggested, then they shouldve made it more clear to Thomassin herself. If she noticed herself becoming evil, tried to fight it, but eventually embraced it, then thatd explain her actions. But that didnt happen. She felt innocent, she was innocent and knew it of herself, but she still became evil. Dumb.Also i would've liked more backstory on the witches themselves and a deeper insight into who they are, where they came from, and why they followed this path. Personally I think a movie with a similar tone but instead set in the real world wouldve been better. Instead of actual real witches, the family descends into madness and accuses each other of evil until they are all dead from paranoia and anger. Not some floating naked women and a goat. Or at LEAST if theyre going to choose the supernatural path, make it where Thomassin's actions fit within normal human behavior and not just random. It seemed like they didnt know how to end it any other way.It just felt silly to me.

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cashcow-68599

The witch is a excellent horror film built on mainly terrifying music and a constant feeling of dread. If you like slow burn well made and well acted horror movies this is for you. There aren't many scares but if you're patient with this one you won't be disappointed. A couple Of moments in this film terrified me.

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bhirsch33

This movie sucked. It had so much potential and then wasted it. I hate movies that ruin it with the ending. I hate loose ends and this movie had quite a few. Yuck.

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proud_luddite

During New England 's Puritan era, a family of six (including a pregnant mother) is banished from a community and forced to fend for themselves in the countryside. Once there, supernatural forces intensify their paranoia of witchcraft.The story is sparse but compact. While its ending is too mysterious and leaves many holes, it is still fascinating in its own special way.The greatest flaw in the film is that much of the dialogue is incomprehensible. It has the right intention in using old English and an older dialect. However, as some important lines are muddled, much gets lost.Despite this flaw, the acting is quite good as are the production values. There is a suitably bleak mood that rightly surrounds a family falling apart in facing great difficulty. Their dour, paranoid views of God, Satan, and witchcraft don't help matters. One wonders if their belief systems are at least as horrific as the outside forces.Overall, the pluses outweigh the minuses.

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