Thursday, October 06, 2016

The Witch


(2016)**1/2

The father of a New England family in the early 1600s has some disagreements with the village’s leaders about what God really wants or something, so he, his wife, and their five children move farther out into the country.  Once there, life is tough of course as they are threatened by bad crops, lack of money, etc.  Things quickly take a turn for the worse as the baby of the family suddenly vanishes.  They assume that a wolf is the culprit, but the audience soon learns there is something more sinister lurking in the forest. 

The Witch received a lot of critical praise, and deservedly so.  The atmosphere is intense, the characters are believable, and even though none of the characters are written definitively good or bad, there are still certain ones that you sympathize with at different times.  The witch stuff is sufficiently creepy, though rather sparse. 


Despite all this though, I wouldn’t recommend this movie.  Maybe if you’re into the slow burn films this will work for you, but I was ultimately bored, unafraid, and annoyed at the story’s inconsistencies.  The filmmakers definitely try to use the “less is more” style of filmmaking, but I’m afraid I just found the less to be tedious.  The non-climactic conclusion was also a bit frustrating.    

4 comments:

Catfreeek said...

I'd say this film was more of a historic dramatization rather than a horror film. There are certain aspects about the Puritan beliefs that are more horrifying than the witch in the woods. I enjoyed the film but I'm also a bit of a history buff so it appealed to me. Yes it's slow and complex so it would not appeal to everyone.

JPX said...

I completely agree with your take on this film. This is yet another story that would have worked better in 30 minutes. The cinematography is great and I liked the cast.

AC said...

I find when it comes to horror I cannot rely on the critics at all. Fortunately I have my blog mates! Sorry to hear this didn't totally live up to the hype.

DKC said...

Yea, you made is sound good there for a bit! Still, I might be in the Cat side of the fence...

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