The Witch

It took me a long time to write but here I go.  I watched the premier of “The Witch,” and I have to say when I first watched it, it did not get my horror going.  However, there has been controversy in some realm of this movie among horror fans.  I think I have an idea of why but not to sure.

 

The movie was a slow burning horror, much like shining and other types of movies that in the beginning are long a drawn out and the action occurs in the end.  This movie was about a Puritan family who left there village with their family and a newborn.  Thomasin is the eldest of the family and in a corrupt way that is more disturbing then interesting this movie seems like a coming of age film.  The movie starts with the family leaving a village and Thomasin was to watch the baby until her mother was done with the chores.  While playing peek-a-boo the baby was kidnapped by a witch who lived in the forest.  The scene cuts to a nude old lady prepping the baby for sacrifice for it was an unbaptized baby.  Well after the witch kills the baby she churns its body and bones into a mash that she covers her body with and then it flashes back to the family.  Well Thomasin’s brother and father search for the baby for a week.  Thomasin has now become the scorn of all the family particularly the mother.  Thomasin gets blamed for everything.  Well as the movie progresses you find her younger brother is kind of a perv trying to look down her shirt multiple times and well becoming horny.  He gets seduced by another witch in the forest and gets cursed.  Once again Thomasin gets blamed for it.  I do not want to spoil the movie but their is more disturbing images throughout the movie as well as family crises.  However, I will be willing to disclose that information if you want me too.

I was not sure how to approach this blog because unfortunately anything I say about this movie will spoil it so I am biting my tongue.  However, I do want to discuss the controversy of this movie among horror fans to what I believe the issue is and why there is a separation of likes and non-likes with this particular story.  First, I believe is the scares.  This movie was not meant to have jump scares and I think that is what a modern horror fan looks for in movies.  This does not exist it is a build up and then watch what the fuck is happening at the end.  Second, nudity that some horror fans love is not very pretty or exactly  proper in this movie.  There is a bunch of old ladies who are nude in this film and that turns some people away from a movie.  At the other extreme Thomasin for example is played by AnyaTaylor-Joy.  She plays a girl who is just about to enter adulthood set in the past.  So Thomasin is probably supposed to be 15-16 years old I am guessing.  She walks around naked not full frontal but you see her backside quite well this is a turn off for others because of that appearance of being young and nude.  That is not good.  However, I think I read that Anya is 19 so she is of proper age to make that decision.  Third, you find out kind of at the end and this is not really a spoiler but this movie was based off of information acquired during the time period it was set in about how to find a witch and the heinous acts they commit.  This was entertaining for me because I happen to have read much of the “Malleus Maleficarum,” written in that time period to judge and condemn witches.  This book tells of the acts that were seen in the movie and that actually intrigued me.  However, people must understand the difference between Witches of that time or what they were compared to a practitioner of Wicca today because there is a huge difference so you religious fanatics if you watch this movie please do not assume modern Wiccan’s are like that and condemn them before you meet them.  That was just my aside.  However, this movie once reflecting though I did not find it particularly good as a horror movie I do like how it is more of a historical representation of evil from the past.  That did entertain me and made me enjoy it more than first expected.  I say to you do not go into this movie thinking it is a horror movie that you are used to today but look at it from a different perspective a historic perspective and you will enjoy it more than you may think.