The Witch
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie
Directed By: Robert Eggers
Written By: Robert Eggers
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi
[rating: 3/5]

The Witch (Or ‘The VVitch: A New-England Folktale’ if you wanna get all fancy) is a strange beast. It’s an inide-circuit darling that has won a bundle of awards for relative new-comer writer-director Robert Eggers (who, I’d like to note, is sporting a colonial New England beard that makes him look like a Mumford & Son) and has a lot of buzz-words surrounding it, making it sound like the next horror cinematic masterpiece. Unfortunately, if you pay any attention to the hullabaloo surrounding this film you will probably walk away disappointed.

The main word being thrown around with The Witch is ‘Atmospheric’, and it’s a hard one to argue with. Set in colonial America with an abundance of bonnets, dense woods and thick New-England period-accurate dialect, the film really goes out of its way to transport the Audience back in time and it works wonderfully. The story becomes more believable as you watch these poor, grimy, god-fearing people toil away at their fields and fear for their children’s safety as an ominous wood threatens to unleash a plentiful of horrors on this unfortunate little family. The thing is, this threat starts to grow a bit tired after a while. Because that’s all there ever seems to be; a looming threat with very little payout. I understand that a low-budget horror that’s as well made as this can’t afford to blow its load too early, but all of the waiting around gets a little dull. Then, when the film finally climaxes, I personally was left feeling a little underwhelmed. Was that really it? Is this actually all I’ve been waiting for? The atmosphere is great, yes, but the horror elements are severely lacking. There are very few actual scares here. You can’t build a film out of atmosphere alone.

While its horror elements were less than impressive, the use of lesser-known actors really paid off here. Ralph Ineson as William, the religiously fanatic and somewhat inept father, was an imposing presence, and the soothing baritones of his voice really helped sell the whole ‘period-accurate dialect’ gimmick. Kate Dickie as Katherine, the faith wife yet stern mother, somehow found a way to look wearier and wearier the more the film went on, truly depicting a woman on the brink of sanity. Then we have the children. Not only did they deliver this weird dialect perfectly, but they displayed an impressive amount of emotional complexity in their characters. Absolutely huge props go to them all, especially the two eldest; Anya Taylor-Joy and Harvey Scrimshaw.

I’ve mentioned a couple of times the period-accurate dialect of this film. It is impressive the amount of effort that has gone into this film to make it period-accurate and in some ways the dialect does add to this. But I do have to wonder, is it actually worth it? At times it can be downright distracting as your mind sluggishly pieces together what they are saying and I often found myself wondering, “Would anything have been lost if they just used modern English?” and I honestly think ‘No’. I honestly believe this film would have been just as good, maybe even better paced, if they had just stuck with regular old layman’s English. The use of the dialect is more of a gimmick than anything, and I honestly think it’s one more likely to deter people from seeing this film than to draw them to it.

The Witch is a splendidly accurate (sometimes to a fault) period horror that unfortunately skimps a little too much on the horror. It does, however, have a wonderfully aesthetic atmosphere and a handful of harrowing performances that should keep you on the edge of your seat for the majority of the film. It might not have you jumping out of your skin on a regular basis, but at the very least it should give you a couple of eerie chills down the back of your spine.