The Witch

Holy FUCK this is so good. I'm gonna go super in depth without spoiling anything if I can manage it.  First let's talk about all of the technical aspects. As I mentioned in my first review of this film, the cinematography is top notch. Every shot, every framing, every movement, every image is at once beautiful and haunting, showing a message in every moment of the film. It is shot in a very slow and deliberate way, such that a lesser movie could tell the story in about half of the time, but in doing so would lose all of the spirit and heart of the film. The sets and costumes are all perfect and prove themselves to be the perfect conduit for all of the performances to be pitch perfect. Every character is perfectly cast, with every performance being better than the last, with the only exception of a scene or two of Caleb (the oldest son), but even he was fantastic for most of his time on screen. One of the unsung gems of the film has to be it's writing. It is exactly as close to perfect as any script taking place in this period and place can ever be, coming from an exhaustive list of sources from the time, making all of the events on screen feel so much more tangible and believable than if the characters had spoken in modern dialects. The score of course is also haunting in all the best ways, constantly reminding us of the potential danger our protagonists face, and only occasionally capitalizing on it with a jumpscare. In fact, I think that, if I'm being generous, there's a grand total of maybe 5 jumpscares throughout the whole movie, and definitely not more than 10, which at once surprises me, as for basically the whole runtime I was RIVETED, and also pleasantly surprises me, as I can rest a little easier that this movie isn't at all cheap in its horror elements.  Now, as far as thematic elements go, this film can be dug into like few others can. The main theme is of the loss of faith, but you can also go on to take it to be about family, trust, pride, insecurity, desire, and perhaps about a dozen more that I haven't teased out of it yet. It's a movie that, since I saw it about a month ago, I haven't stopped thinking of it and I doubt that I'll forget it any time soon. I think that this is definitely deserving of a 10/10 rating from me, and I cannot recommend it highly enough for those who can enjoy a slower, more patient horror film. TL;DR - Hereditary, but better in every way.