Storyline
New England, 1630: William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life, homesteading on the edge of an impassible wilderness, with five children. When their newborn son mysteriously vanishes and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another. 'The Witch' is a chilling portrait of a family unraveling within their own fears and anxieties, leaving them prey for an inescapable evil.
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy -
Thomasin
Ralph Ineson -
William
Kate Dickie -
Katherine
Harvey Scrimshaw -
Caleb
Ellie Grainger -
Mercy
Lucas Dawson -
Jonas
Bathsheba Garnett -
The Witch
Sarah Stephens -
Witch, Young
Julian Richings -
Governor
Wahab Chaudhry -
Black Phillip
Trivia:
The premise is based on America's first witch hysteria in colonial New England, set 62 years before the infamous "Salem Witch Trials" which occurred in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. See more »
User Review
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Rating:
Period pieces don't often serve as the backdrops for horror, which is
actually a real shame. Consider The Witch, a story about a banished
Puritan family trying to sustain itself on the edge of an ominous
forest inhabited by a gruesome witch. The faithful representation of
one of the most creepy time periods in American history makes all the
difference here. The family's dealings with the supernatural terror in
the woods push their spiritual and physical endurance to the breaking
point. Robert Eggers pulls no punches and makes no apologies in this
film. The Witch's scenes are steeped in primal dread, and each actor
makes the audience feel the seams come apart as paranoia and mistrust
begin to take their toll. While Game of Thrones alumni Ralph Ineson and
Kate Dickie offer brilliantly raw performances as the family's mother
and father, it's the film's younger actors—Harvey Scrimshaw and Anya
Taylor-Joy—who really shine. Scrimshaw captures the nuanced turmoil of
being an adolescent male in a strictly religious family. As the oldest
daughter who is blamed for the witch's malevolent deeds against the
family, Anya Taylor-Joy shows a surprising amount of risk and range in
her performance. The film swings for the fences on all fronts. The
performances are explosive, the tension is gut-wrenching, and the
settings are nightmarish. To the horror films of 2015, the gauntlet has
officially been thrown down. –Alex Springer
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