The Witch

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Adam Gilmour

If the central mystery is whether or not there are witches, it's not an interesting one, so I don't think that resolution really costs it anything.

I agree.

Quote

A few narrative shifts would have made the outer and inner threats to the family richer and less traditional. The potential was all there on screen, so I didn't get why it stifled itself in being so explicit so early on.

Perhaps. But, given the subtitle "A New England Folk Tale", the traditionalism of the natures of the conflicts is at least justified by what Eggers was going for: a cinematic folk tale and love letter to New English history and lore.

Regardless the baby mushing scene that may or may not have dampened the film's subtlety ####ed me up badly. In the theater my jaw hung open the whole scene.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

After you know there's witches, there's the question of who's a witch or who's under their influence (including possibly demons), if the goat is just a goat, what kind of powers do the witches and the goat possess? A lot of this is still a bit hazy by the end.

I'm just so used to stories teasing about what's real or what the nature of the threats are or reality in complete turmoil that the main mysteries that concern the characters rarely really interests me so much as what is being focused on. All these weird fiction approaches are relatively commonplace, and that's fine, but I don't care that much about the supposed big questions.

[marioneta]

Christopher Slatsky, author of Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales, which I highly recommend (It is really a mind virus in the guise of a book.), has an excellent assessment on The Witch at his website. look in Archives, May 2016. Check it out.

[singing flame]

Love the titles of Slatsky's short stories:

"The Ocean is Eating Our Graves"
"A Plague of Naked Movie Stars"
"Loveliness Like a Shadow" ...

Nice!

[cannibal cop]

Fans of The Witch might enjoy this obscure, brooding '80s chiller:

YouTube

A few technical and story-related issues aside, I think it's as good a horror movie in its own way.

[bendk]

The Witch won the Rondo Hatton Award for best film of 2016.
That would be a nice bust to have on your shelf.

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards - Honoring the best in classic horror research, creativity and film preservation

[Kevin]

They need to redesign that award..........

Kidding. Well-deserved kudos!!

[Insentient Traveler]

Quote Originally Posted by Kevin

They need to redesign that award!!

Yes why is there another award of a white male who turned a genetic abnormality into a livelihood when the award could be modled after someone who has brought true HORROR into the world like Amy Schumer or Molly from Mike&Molly?

But seriously, after taking a quick look at the article, they really tried to cover alot from Stranger Things to Phantasm to The Thing.....