The Witch - Movie Review 

They're Protestants.

Hi Cecil, I wanted to add a few points to your review. The family wasn't Catholic, they were actually Calvinists. The community they were living in at the beginning of the film were Puritans. The film isn't just a horror film, it's actually a perfect representation of a 16th century style religious allegory - like Pilgrims Progress. Nathaniel Hawthorne also wrote in this style, though he wrote in the 1800s. The film's premise is the allegory of The Sin of Pride. Staunchly anti-Calvinist, the film shows the father rejecting the teachings of the towns elders, and instead chooses to follow the heretical view of the Calvinists. This sin of pride, leads to the downfall and death of his entire family - an allegory for the Calvinist movement as it fell away from the teachings of the Puritans. The ending is a slap in the face to Calvinists, as it shows them descending into the "total depravity" of their false doctrine.

Best line of the film “do you want to live deliciously?”. This is one of my favorite films.

In the theater 8 people left during the film ( I counted). And I couldn't help but wonder why. Then I realized that people these days have extremely short attention spans. Heck people even brought young children to the movie. Anyway, it was a fantastic movie! I love period pieces and I love original screenplays which have become increasingly rare.

Loved how the evil from the woods brought out the worst in each of the characters rather then hunting them down like in the Evil Dead.

The crowd at my showing was also hating on the film a lot. I feel this was too smart for the general audience which is pretty sad. This was an amazing film.

Need to check out "Ravenous" for a decent "frontier" horror flick

What you we're saying about the audience interference Laughing, Talking, Playing with Cellphones etc. is why i don't go to the theatre anymore. It is really bad for that shit where i live and it ruins the whole experience. But if i must see something on the big screen (which is not much anymore) i usually go to a matinee on a Monday afternoon to get the least amount of audience members.

It's a Hare. Not a Rabbit. An animal connected with folklore, which is why it was used in the film I suppose.

I really loved the ending, it remind me of the dark Goya paintings, he has one about witches that drinks from the same source as this movie, and it's beautiful and horrifying. I really think this movie will be in all schools as an example of how the old witch stories were.

Great review! Totally agree with everything you're saying, loved this film! I have no idea what are people complaining about with the ending either, thought the ending was exactly what it needed to be. Also, loved the soundtrack - perfect for the tone and the story.

I love your reviews, you give just enough information to get me hyped about seeing a movie without giving anything away. Excellent

great review as always. i hope you realise you have fans in england. i am subscribed to many movie reviewers but your reviews always make my day. keep up the good work mate

Dear GoodBadFlicks, Im only 11 but still when I first started watching RU-vid you were the person I used to binge watch the most and when I got a account you were the first person I subscribed to and love your videos. You deserve so many more subscribers than you do and I still love watching your work to this day keep it up. From, NoHackDay

The ending was fantastic. I love it when the "evil" in a horror film is sort of.. Hidden or faceless. It leaves the audience to imagine the very worst thing possible for their personality, so it is equally scary for everyone. Dialog was a bit hard to understand personally but I always caught the jist of what they were saying. Good movie.

have to tell you I found your channel lastnite, and I haven't left it since, great channel great content, well done Sir.

The Witch is a masterpiece. I'll be amazed if something tops it as my favorite film of 2016.

One of my fave flicks of this year, effortlessly. So many images seared themselves into my brain, I will never forget them and I am glad I never will. The last 15 minutes was a barbed-wire laced sucker punch.

awww, man. I heard it scared the hell out of Stephen King, so I had to see it. I didn't like it, super slow isn't a bad thing, but this just felt like a christian horror film. Not for me, really well made, but I wish it was more of the ending and less of the build up.

I went into this having heard it actually had some substance, so my hopes were high. I wasn't disappointed. I loved the cinematography, those shots that lingered a little too long really helped with the tension and atmosphere. I was also BLOWN AWAY by the music, it's just perfect! The acting is also fantastic, though some might have difficulty following the dialogue due to the way the characters speak. I honestly expected a run of the mill witchcraft story, but got a well written, creepy, character study of an isolated family, steeped in puritanical repression, set upon by tragedy and primal evil. Totally agree with you on the ending as well Cecil, that imagery!

House of the Devil was fucking amazeballs. The scene with the gun shocked the shit out of me.

Just watched it. Man. This is a hell of a movie. A horror in a classic sense for sure, and in the same vein as The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, and even The Exorcist. All the elements of film were on point with this one. Thanks for the recommendation, Cecil. Probably wouldn't have watched it as soon as I did, otherwise.

Yessss, I knew you would love this and I agree with all of your points. And House of the Devil was really fantastic, props for including it in this.

The closing frame with the witch coven was pretty much like watching an animated baroque painting.

A very creep slow burn atmospheric Horror film with really disturbing moments and an absolutely haunting conclusion. Well worth the price of admission, in fact it's my favorite film of the year(so far), I even snatched the poster after it's theater run(I work there). The audience disappointed me but the movie lived up to all my expectations, and I was really hyped for it.

I bought this movie from word of mouth..... Felt like I invited the devil into my house. Lol creepy amazing movie and great review!

My experience wasn't has good as yours because like you said the audience. I had teenagers a few rows back laughing and talking the entire time and a guy RIGHT behind me make eating popcorn sound like a freight train. I did enjoy the film but I would of enjoyed it WAY more if it was eerily quiet the whole time. So it was upsetting but I do plan on watching it again. Great review as always.

The thing I loved most about this movie was that at heart it was still a horror film, all social commentary aside there was still an actual witch to be afraid of. I was really worried they were gonna go with some "the witch is inside us all" or "the witch represents our judgement on female sexuality". It was defiantly a slow burn but it had a great atmosphere and many genuinely scary scenes along the way.

Inspired by this movie, could you make a video about "Eyes of Fire", an 1983 horror movie that looks like a reference to this because there are so many similarity between them and is such a wonderful movie?

I find it some times people are too busy bad mouthing various form of media to the point they actually forget to have a good time and enjoy themselves. ( The recent reactions of a live action trailer is a good proof of this.) Nice review as well. :)

I completely agree. I saw this in an empty theater with one friend. We were enthralled!!!!! The sound design alone begs for undivided attention! Amazing and smart film!

I saw the movie 2 days ago via on-demand and after 10 Minutes it felt like I had a 20 pound boulder on my chest that got heavier with each coming minute. I absolutely adored this movie, Robert Eggers wrote a fantastic script and made this movie exactly the right way how the material should be treated as. Fantastic actors, outstanding atmosphere and a nerve tingling soundtrack. For me personally it is my movie-of-the-year 2016. Right after I saw it I bought the Blu-Ray and recommended the movie to couple of my friends. I can't stress this enough, how brilliant this movie is. I heard that the director is in the works of a Nosferatu Remake/Reimagining. Werner Herzog already made a fantastic remake back in the 70s, but I am more than thrilled to see what Eggers will bring to the source material. Another amazing review Cecil!

Have you seen The Babadook? It seems like you would really like it.

They weren't Catholics, they were Puritans, a sect of Anglicanism. Puritans HATED Catholics. The filmmakers did a ton of research about the period before making this film and it shows. The costuming and dialogue were all amazing. There was more laughter than I would have expected in the theater I went to, but it was a quiet, nervous, very uncomfortable laughter, as if the audience wasn't sure how to react to the horrible things that were happening on the screen. I love The Witch, It succeeds marvelously as both a period film and a horror movie.

I'm convinced to check this out. Does the film ever indicate why the W in witch is written V V? or is that just an artistic choice to draw attention?

In general there are three types of horror fans. Fans that love thought evoking atmospheric horror (like the VVitch) and fans that love face value jump scares. Most of us lie in the middle somewhere. The VVitch was such an amazing movie imo. Black Phillip will haunt my nightmares.

This is a great movie, I highly, _highly_ recommend it -- and yeah, it's not a popcorn flick, it's a cerebral and genuinely creepy period piece. More than once I had to rewind because I'd been mesmerized by the wardrobe, or the set design, or the use of dialogue, or the acting performances. But I was a little let down by the ending. "Uncomfortable" is definitely a good word for it and I get why many like it, but for me, I think I was expecting something less definitive. Wouldn't mind watching it again though because it's been a while, then see if I still feel the same or not.

When an audience are making fun of a genuine scary scene, it usually is a form of defense mechanism. When people get scared or uncomfortable, they tend to look for the ridiculous so they can offset their fear.

1:43 A very good 'frontier supernatural horror thriller' is Eyes of Fire from 1984

Definitely not Catholics, they're Puritans.

The trailers always interested me but I shall have to check it out when its available to buy/rent.

thanks for the review :) Tho I can't wait for your best/worst of 2015. u told me some weeks ago that you'd release it soon :). still waiting xD

This is one of my favorite horror films. It reminds me of a gem from the 80s, Eyes of Fire. I hope that gets a remaster.

I thought it was phenomenal! The Ending was unexpected and perfect. 👍🏼.

The movie is a classic. Poor Thomasin especially when her mad mother tries to kill and unfairly blames her for everything.

This really is an amazing movie!! His follow up The Lighthouse was good too. And for the same reason. The movie just sits with the characters and let's you get in the world with them. Robert Eggers is an amazing talent. Up there with Paul Thomas Anderson.

For what it was, I enjoyed it and thought it was definitely creepy, but it never really shocked me or actually made me scared at any point. The baby scene and the ending in my opinion were the closest at doing this. Maybe I'm someone who just enjoys faster films or something, I'm not sure. Sinister (2012) is still my favorite horror film of this decade so far.

Seriously! I felt that was the ONLY way to end it! It felt like a treat... a really really creepy treat. But a massive pay-off nonetheless. Great review! I'm so glad I waited to watch this until after I had seen it. I went in totally blind- and I loved it.

Awesome movie. Incredibly interesting, and absolutely frightening. Maybe it's because I have a thing with Witches, but this movie was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. I was left in shock after what I had just watched. My heart was racing in the last 10 or so minutes, from the scene near the end with the goat to the very end.

Available to stream with Amazon Prime now :) best slowburn horror since The Innkeepers

I saw The Witch a couple weeks ago and it has still stuck with me. The imagery, the distinct features of the cast. I will admit that even though I really enjoyed the film, my modern day horror mind kept expecting stuff to happen. I would shrink down in my seat which I guess made the film scarier. A great film. I thought the kid who played the older brother was especially great. Cecil, you should see Take Shelter.

"Have you seen the Babadook???" Lol I feel like you get asked this question multiple times on each of your uploads. But really, an exploring video of the Dook, wouldn't be so bad..

I also had a weird movie crowd, these two middle aged women behind me commented on anything strange. Like when there is that close up on the rabbit, there was this beat of silence then, then from behind me, ..."BUNNY!" hahah, it's strange how so many people say they got bad audiences on this one, I think A LOT of people didn't know what they were walking into. I loved The Witch, so so so much. Never thought I would see a perfectly made, New England witch folk tale...bravo. Btw, this is how i want my horror AND my fairy tale movies made.

1:52 Where is it? Behind the rabbit?

I need to see this movie now, I do value your opinion and this sounds like a good one.

The best theater experience I ever had was for the Evil Dead 2013. It was a small, cramped theater that was packed from end to end. The sound was a little too high for the size of the theater, so we really, REALLY felt everything that happened in that movie. Everybody was reacting with "OH FUCK", "JESUS", etc when horribly painful things happened. The movie wasn't altogether that scary, per se, but it's one of my favorite visceral experiences.

The Sound engineers on this movie were perfect. I watched it last night and Black Phillip was on my mind

The ending will really stick with me for a long time. It left me cold, but afterwards, the film is what I want, a modern slow burn folklore horror masterpiece.

You're the best channel on RU-vid, keep it up my man.

This was what I wanted M. Night Shamalayan's The Village to be. Also, get on your Batman v Superman review!

I saw it twice opening weekend, loved everything about it.

I always recommend watching a dvd release of these types of movies with a group of like minded friends, mostly because it makes the experience more pleasant.

good stuff, the shots from the animals remind me of the fox scene from antichrist

I like to watch my movies alone, and I loved this movie. I also love slow cookers :-)

Excellent film, Excellent review keep up the good work man!

This totally described the audience that I saw it with. My friend and I still managed to enjoy the film, but they were awful. People kept talking, and responding very loudly to the smallest amount of blood or gore. It was clear they weren't looking to see this kind of film

I love this movie. You really need to remember that the title is "The Witch: an American Folktale" ... that should tell you right away that these events may not have happened this way but the family did end up dead/missing after they were banished from their village and upon finding their bodies and the carnage left behind, the gaps in the story must have been filled in and changed over the years just like the folktales we grew up hearing and retelling today. This is the story of a family who died suddenly an in a gruesome way, in mysterious circumstances. Of course the village members who found their bodies immediately blamed witchcraft! The 1600s were full of paranoid religious people who believed in witchcraft and were terrified of it. This movie is freaking genius:)

Sounds like a pretty good horror movie. Anya Taylor-Joy, the actress who played Thomasin, is also going to appear in an upcoming sci-fi film called Morgan, which I might go and see.

Cecil I want to know your opinion on world war z, you usually bring it up from time to time and I want to know what didn't work for you. If you read this thanks

lol at the ending all the witches twerking around the fire

Not Catholics.

I finally seen this and loved it. Superb movie with a high rewatchablity.

I really liked this. The music made it all the more engrossing. It's slow, but i found it really interesting and was horrifying to an extent. The four other people in the theater with me did not like it. My friend hated it and i just kind of walked while she trashed it and thought about how creeped out out i was.

Didn't see this film in theaters, but watched at home with my wife. Problem was, the dialogue was quiet, which coupled with the period-themed dialects and verbage, forced us to put in closed captions and rewind constantly to have any idea what people were saying, particularly the father character. Due to that, we never got invested in the movie. Some parts were interesting, but straining to even hear dialogue makes it difficult to get immersed in a film. I wanted to like it, but in the end it just felt dull, like it was trying to hard to be a horror version of 'The Crucible' or 'The Scarlet Letter.'

A modern horror movie without jumpscares? Fucking finally!

OK, I have to say I also like slow creepy good horror movies who do things different (like "It follows" or "Let the right one in") but this one just, I don't know, didn't get me. It didn't build up suspension for me, it didn't make me uncomfortable or scared. It just was a movie about a family in the woods. The ending was OK, but the rest? Nah, I didn't feel it. There are so many slow creepy movies with no jumpscares and a good story behind that are just better for me. I also watched it at home only with my wife..

Haven't seen this yet, but judging by the trailer it has a similar look and feel to a 2008 horror movie from Finland called Sauna. If psychological, slow burn horror is your thing you can't go wrong with Sauna... Great movie. www.imdb.com/title/tt1124394/?ref_=nv_sr_1

One terrible prejudice against the genre showed itself in that I've seen several people defending this movie by saying it's NOT a horror film, but rather a psychological drama of how isolation and fanaticism can affect people's minds in situations of isolation and deprivation. While this IS a valid analysis of the movie, I feel that the reason for it is that many people who consider themselves intellectuals or more informed viewers look down on horror as something inferior and not whorthy serious attention. Which is, of course, not only sad, but very stupid. No genre is trully inferior. It all depends on what you do along the lines you've chosen for your movie. Same with the prevalent idiocy of saying all cartoons (even things as erotic and violent as many anime) are for kids.

Do Turkish Star Wars man. I saw that movie completely wasted a week or so ago and it was AWESOME!

I really enjoyed this movie. I think part of what made it so disturbing to me was that I didn't think of it as a story that was actually happening. I thought of it as the kind of story the Puritans would invent, and so we were seeing it through their religious, hysterical filter. This is literally what they believed witches and Satan did, and it was almost like a horror movie made by and for those Puritans as the audience. As soon as I saw there was a teenage girl, I started to anticipate she'd be accused of witchcraft, and it made the tension of all these events adding up just unbearable. And in the back of my mind I also imagined that this is the story the Puritans would someday use to hang an innocent woman...that maybe none of this was really happening at all, but this is the kind of hysterical account they'd drum up to condemn a girl like Tommesina. I also went into the movie thinking it might be like The Crucible, where there's no real supernatural elements. So seeing that was NOT the case was terrifying.

Can't say it really scared me in the slightest but definitely an excellent film

I don't think they were catholics, I'm pretty sure they were supposed to be Puritans.... I loved this movie . . . The casting was awesome... the kids in their little home made suits, especially the youngest boy, really creeped me out.... also "Black Phillip" that was sooooo great!!! That goat was one hell of an actor!!!

The trailer is already scary...isn't the goat a disguise of the demon Lamia?

3:15 exactly why I avoid seeing the more nuanced horror films in theaters. Or not just horror- any film that's not superhero or zombie-based I tend to avoid and the few exceptions I've made, like The Hateful Eight and The Revenant, have been miserable experiences where I've been forced to endure all sorts of obnoxious stupidity. Normally I'll stand up for myself, but like with The Revenant, the chatty patties were... let's just say they didn't help the cause against racial stereotypes and I felt like if I had said anything, it would have been turned into a race issue when really it's just a plain courtesy issue.

i already thought goats are fairly evil-looking.. (although most are cute to me). but this film was the first to make a rabbit look super evil to me

I'm surprised you haven't reviewed "Mama". Now that was a movie with one boo scare after another, and not much else.

Creepy damn rabbit...haunting me in my dreams.

Is it based on a true story?

They are Puritans not Catholics🙃

It's a shame, tho no shocker, that audiences now just don't 'get' a film like this...but the vast majority of audience members are, admittedly, not as bright as they picture themselves. Today's dumbed down populace has no patience, no understanding, no ability to conceive of anything other than 'The Fast & the Furious' and the like as entertainment, and a slow burn bit of brilliance like this sails over the heads at mach 3. Just scroll down through any comments section right here on RU-vid for hard evidence of this. Many thanks for your insightful (as always) review here...it's appreciated, and good to know there are others out there who adore a thought provoking movie that can creep the shit out of you like this one does...

The ending was my favourite. It was so creepy!!

I saw it 3 times in theatres, me and my sister joked it was a prequel to the Blair Witch :)

great movie review man and i agree this movie is so creepy

I actually watch a lot of period films and I had a very hard time understanding the characters. The dad's voice is SO DEEP that in combination with the accent I was almost completely lost on his words. I really don't understand why people think this is such a great movie. Again--I'm used to boring period films and this one was VERY boring. The music and cinematography did make it creepy but I was still bored because not that much was happening and the conversations weren't that intriguing. The "evil" was a combination of the Witch and their devoutness. It was never a mystery to me and the ending was just kind of whatever. I don't see how it could have ended any differently but I wasn't freaked out at all after the movie was over. Can someone please tell me why it was so good?

We call that crowd reaction the "idiocricy effect" everyone trying to 1up each other in an idiotic way

A friend talked me into a horror movie night and this was one of the movies we watched. I thought the movie looked good and was well shot and acted, but just wasn't much of a movie. I didn't find it at all creepy until the literal last 5 minutes. I guess it wasn't my cup of tea

Just saw it recently with about 8 other people in the cinema. Definitely one of the better horror movies I've seen in recent times, alongside with It Follows.

Agreed with everything! :)

the crow scene.

good review.